Shoulder belt plate, officer, 2nd Regiment, Royal East India Volunteers, 1800 (c)

A shoulder belt plate was an ornamental badge worn on a leather belt which hung from the wearer's shoulder to support a sword or bayonet. The Royal East India Volunteers were formed by the East India Company in London during the French Revolutionary Wars to protect East India House and the Company warehouses 'against hazard from insurrections and tumults' and to assist the City government in times of disorder.

The Royal East India Volunteers were embodied at two separate periods, from 1796 to 1814 and then from 1820 to 1834. The field officers were elected from Company directors, and commissioned officers were recruited from clerks and officials at East India House and the warehouses. The supervisory grades in the warehouses became non-commissioned officers who led labourers serving as privates. By 1799 there were three regiments with about 1,500 men in each.