Product Description
20 September 2007 British Army Uniforms.
1st class
- a military police NCO from Kosovo,
- a tank commander from the Second World War, and
- an artillery observer from World War One;
78p
- a rifleman from the Peninsula War,
- a grenadier from the battle of Blenheim and
- a trooper from the Earl of Oxford's Horse from around the time of the restoration of King Charles II.
• 1st Class
NCO Royal Military Police 1999
This female military police NCO wears camouflaged combat clothing, and has a 9mm automatic pistol and a personal radio. Her red beret is the legacy of the red cap-cover worn by military police, earning them the nickname ‘Redcaps’.
• 1st Class Tank Commander 5th Royal Tank Regiment 1944
British armoured units were casual about uniform, but this member of 5 RTR is dressed correctly in tank-suit and black beret. He lacks officer’s pips or NCO’s chevrons to identify rank: status is inferred from his map-board. His revolver is for personal protection: the real weapon is his tank, and he is as close to the other members of his crew as soldiers ever have been since they plied musket and bayonet in the distant age of horse and musket.
• 1st Class Observer Royal Field Artillery 1917
Artillery was the major casualty-producer of the First World War, and the forward observer provided the link between guns, out of sight, and the targets they engaged. This officer has no visible badges of rank, and wears has a goatskin jerkin over his tunic. Although his boots and breeches reflect his status, he otherwise looks much the same as the signallers manning the telephone down which his orders to the guns are passed. His respirator (gas-mask) is in the ‘ready’ position, and he holds a pair of German-made binoculars.
• 78p - Rest of World airmail up to 20gm Rifleman 95th Rifles 1813
This rifleman of the 95th is ramming a bullet into his flintlock Baker rifle. His green jacket has silver buttons, and his equipment is black leather not the white of line regiments: his neck is constricted by a stock, and his shako is ill-suited to a Spanish summer. However, he has his eye on a suitable target, and would be working with a particular comrade: ‘Comrades are always to have the same berth in quarters... and go on the same duties with arms.’
• 78p - Rest of World airmail up to 20gm Grenadier Royal Regiment of Foot of Ireland 1704
This proverbial Redcoat wears a long coat with turned-back cuffs and braided front that mirrors the civilian ‘justacorps’ of the period. Most infantry wore tricorne hats, but grenadiers slung their muskets across their backs to throw grenades, and the hat-brim got in the way. Their grenadier caps, initially utilitarian, grew ever-taller and more richly embroidered.
• 78p - Rest of World airmail up to 20gm Trooper Earl of Oxford’s Horse 1661 Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was first commanding officer of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, known as the ‘Oxford Blues’ because of their blue coats. This soldier has a leather buff-coat over his tunic, and a carbine swings from his cross-belt. His doffs his hat in salute, his courtly manner summing up the swagger and flamboyance of the age.
