This week’s photograph is a magnificent study of a signalman from the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry, a militia regiment that dated back to 1798. This portrait however dates to the last years of the nineteenth or early years of the twentieth century and was taken in front of a public house, almost certainly somewhere in Lancashire:

The Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry were dressed and equipped as dragoons. The tunic was scarlet with the blue facings appropriate to a ‘Royal’ regiment and a white metal dragoon helmet of 1844 pattern was worn with a white plume. Unusually the officers’ lace was gold, whereas most auxiliary units wore silver. The blue riding pantaloons carried yellow stripes. Other ranks wore a white shoulder belt over the left shoulder; in marching order a white leather bandolier was also slung over the right shoulder. Black sheepskin saddle covers were provided for troop horses from ca 1844 to 1896. The soldier in our portrait conforms very closely to these dress regulations:

He is armed with a Martini-Henry carbine in a leather bucket on the saddle, with a set of signalling flags rolled up and secured behind:

The horse tackle includes the badge of the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry:

The DoLOY were to be a long lived regiment, from their formation in 1798 they were not amalgamated until 1992 when they became part of the Queen’s Own Yeomanry and the regimental name is retained by B Squadron, Queen’s Own Yeomanry.