Bandsman, 93rd Princess Louise's (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), 1895 (c)

Glass negative (damaged), 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.

As well as being intimate portraits of soldiers from this era, the images provide detailed illustrations of uniforms worn during the high point of military tailoring.

The photograph is captioned 93rd Regiment, which had become the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1881, but the battalion still preferred the use of their old foot number. The bandsman is pictured wearing a black feather bonnet with a regimental badge on one side. His jacket is a doublet, with distinctive piped shoulder shells and double inverness flaps at the front and rear. The inverness flaps hang down below a white leather belt with a regimental buckle. The cuffs, collar and seams of the doublet, as well as the inverness flaps, are piped white.

The bandsman also wears a kilt in regimental tartan, and a fly plaid of the same pattern is cast over his shoulder and fastened with a plaid brooch. His sporran is of white and black horse hair, and his socks are diced green and red.

One of a collection of 280 glass negatives, associated with Gregory and Company, London, and F G O Stuart, 1892 (c)-1900.