Staff and Colour Sergeants, 1st Battalion Scots Guards, full dress, 1895 (c)

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

Staff Sergeants are the highest rank of non-commissioned officer in the army. Staff sergeants play a senior role combining man and resource management, or commanding a platoon. They can also hold other appointments, such as company quartermaster sergeant.

An infantry staff sergeant is always known as a colour sergeant. 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.

The staff and colour sergeants in this picture are wearing 1856 pattern single breasted tunics. The collars, 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 sergeants appear wearing bearskin caps.