Band boys, 1895 (c)

Glass negative, W Gregory and Company, 51 Strand, London, 1895 (c).

This image comes from a collection of glass plate negatives associated with William Gregory and Company. The negatives depict the British Army, including some members of the colonial forces, 'at home' in Britain during the 1890s.

Boys had long been employed by the army as drummer boys, pipers, and horn players. This image shows two children posing with a clarinet, and one with a french horn.

The children wear a mix of uniforms. The child on the left hand side of the photograph wears an undress frock and white leather belt. The child in the centre of the image wears a tunic with gold lace across the chest, as well as on the collar and outside seams. The child on the far right of the photograph wears a variation of a Lancer's full dress tunic, with a white plastron and cap lines attached to the chest. All of the children wear undress pillbox caps.

One of a collection of 278 glass negatives associated with Gregory and Company, London, and F G O Stuart, 1895-1900 (c).