'East Middlesex', East Middlesex Militia, 1780 (c)

Engraving from a bound volume of 69 hand-coloured plates depicting uniforms of British Militia Regiments, 1780 (c). The volume is inscribed on the flyleaf, 'John Osborn Lt. Col. of the Bedfordshire Regt. 1st Jany 1780'.

Uniform study of a soldier of the East Middlesex Militia, with blue facings, 1780 (c).

The Militia Act of 1757 transformed part-time militia into a better-trained and better-equipped national force, organised by county.

Sir John Osborn (1743-1814) was commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel of the Bedfordshire Militia on 29 November 1779, and apparently acquired this work soon after. This was at a time when the ongoing war with America, in which his brother George fought, reinforced the importance of the Militia as an institution in Britain.