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UniformInfo - Military Modelling magazine, 1977
Volunteer Units. 1779-82
Dear Sir,
In reply to Mr. Bennett’s plea for help (echoed by your ʺUniforminfoʺ panel!) in the ʺUniforminfoʺ section of Military Modelling, January 1977; as your writers presume, I can indeed elucidate the problem, to a degree!
The Westminster Associations mentioned in Sheridan’s ʺThe Criticʺ had no connection whatever with the Westminster Volunteers mentioned in my article. There is less evidence available for these troops than for the later volunteer movements, but Mr. Bennett might be interested in the following.
To combat the serious threat of invasion posed by the declaration of war by France and Spain in 1779, the Government approved a scheme to raise independent companies of volunteers for home defence, providing that no expense fell to the Government save the supply of arms. Officers received neither pay nor army rank, except in the case of being called to active service which at all events was not to exceed six months nor to extend beyond the localities in which the companies were raised. A number of corps were raised in the southern counties and cities such as Birmingham and Edinburgh, but the centre of the movement was around London. Middlesex and the City of Westminster raised twenty-four companies (each of 60 men), the Tower Hamlets six, and four additional companies from the workmen of the Board of Works and Somerset House employees. The most famous unit, however, was the Light Horse Volunteers, which became not only the most prestigious volunteer corps of the Napoleonic period (ʺa corps of officers serving as privatesʺ) but was also the longest-lived, being disbanded only in 1829. The volunteer associations had short lives, however, most being disbanded by 1781.
Fortunately, some were still in existence at the time of the Gordon Riots in London when one unit, a corps of gentlemen known as the London Military Association, was on duty for four successive nights defending the Bank of England and the Mansion House against the mob.
Little information is known about the uniforms of any of the volunteer units of 1779-1782. All of those of which pictorial evidence remains are of regulation style, consisting of tail-coats, breeches and stockings and cocked hats (and in the case of the London Association, a light company uniform of the usual pattern, i.e. short jacket and leather cap). Unlike the volunteers of the 1790s it appears that almost all wore uniforms coloured like the regular army — red or scarlet coats with different facings. It seems possible that the London Association had black facings, which could apply equally to the Westminster Associations about which Mr. Bennett equires, a theory reinforced by the fact that the Light Horse Volunteers throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars retained a scarlet uniform with black facings, an unusual colour-scheme for light cavalry at that time — perhaps perpetuating the colouring of the uniforms of 1779? At all events, dark facings seem to have been usual - the Birmingham Independent Volunteers had black or dark blue and the Royal Bath Volunteers dark blue, for example. This is, however, simply a hypothesis — the Edinburgh Defence Band defied all uniform conventions by wearing light blue coats with spectacular orange facings!
Despite a brief existence and a generally unco-operative Government, the volunteers of 1779-82 fulfilled a useful and generally very efficient role (the London Association was asked to help quell the Gordon Riots at 4 p.m. and were actually on duty at 7 p.m., an amazing mobilisation time for the eighteenth century) and deserve more acclaim than the obscurity into which the force has fallen.
Hoping this helps to satisfy Mr. Bennett’s query (and those of your ʺUniforminfoʺ panel!).
Nelson, Lancs. P. J. Haythornthwaite