Trooper, 16th (The Queen's) Lancers, 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.

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 trooper is pictured in review order dress. He wears the full dress Lancer cap, the design of which was based on the Polish four-cornered cap known as the czapka. The head dress had a black leather skull and black leather peak. The upper part of the cap was made with ribbed cloth of regimental colour (dark blue) on four sides, and was topped with leather. The drooping plume is made of horse hair of regimental colour (white), with a yellow and red woollen boss where the plume attaches. The regimental plate was fixed on the lower part of the cap, with lion's head bosses on each side, to which the chin chains were attached.

The tunic is scarlet with dark blue facings: collar and pointed cuffs, piping around the edge of the tunic, and the plastron on the front. A gold girdle is worn around the waist with two crimson stripes. This has a white leather expense pouch attached to it with extra ammunition for his Martini-Henry carbine. He also wears a white leather pouch belt and gauntlets.

His pantaloons are dark blue with double yellow stripes down the side. He holds a lance, with the red over white swallow-tailed pennon on top. A leather carbine bucket is attached to the horse's saddle. The horse has standard leather military tack, and a mess tin and black lambskin saddle cover are visible.

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