Colour Sergeant, 1st Battalion Scots Guards, full dress, 1895 (c)

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

Colour Sergeants are senior non-commissioned officers. Historically, colour sergeants of British line regiments protected ensigns, the most junior officers who were responsible for carrying their battalions' colours to rally troops in battles. As a result, reaching the rank of colour sergeant was a prestigious attainment, granted normally to those sergeants who had displayed courage on the battlefield.

This colour sergeant is wearing a 1856 pattern single breasted tunic. The collar, cuffs, and shoulder straps are in facing colour, piped white. The buttons of the tunic, grouped in threes, denote the Scottish origin of the regiment. The cuffs are round with a three buttoned slash. The blue cloth trousers have scarlet side-stripes two inches wide. The colour sergeant is wearing a bearskin cap.