Shoulder belt plate, possibly other ranks, South American Rangers. 1797 (c)

Oval, die-struck white metal plate with the royal cypher, 'GR', and the title, 'South American Rangers' around the edge. The reverse bears a hook at the top and two studs at the base.

Demerara is a region in the Guianas, on the north eastern coast of South America. It was captured by the British from the Dutch in 1796. The colony had become an important centre for sugar production and, as a result, a destination for the legal and illegal trading of slaves. There were major slave revolts in the region in 1795 and 1823. The South American Rangers was a unit of black soldiers formed to bolster the British garrison tasked with defending the colony and maintaining security.

George Pinckard, Deputy Inspector of Hospitals to His Majesties Forces, refers to the Rangers in letters from 1796 and 1797 in his book, 'Notes on the West Indies', published in 1806. Pinckard records that the officers of the new unit were drawn from regular units newly arrived or from colonists.

In a letter of 20 December 1796, inconvenienced by the proximity of their barracks, Pinckard is rather disparaging about the 'new corps of Rangers', likening them to oxen, 'bred up in ignorance and constant toil'. He dubs the worst of them the 'awkward squad' and relates how amused local inhabitants appeared from the surrounding woods to observe the unit being put through repeated drill exercises. Despite his prejudices Pinckard acknowledges that 'Compared to slavery the restrictions of military discipline are as exquisite freedom'. He also relates how British soldiers, guilty of 'irregular conduct', reacted in shock to being put under armed guard by black soldiers. In a later letter of 21 January 1797, Pinckard refers to the unit at a military review as a 'fine battalion of South American rangers, in white'.

The South American Rangers was absorbed into the 11th West India Regiment in 1798.