Officers of the 1st Royal Lanarkshire Militia photographed by Duncan Brown c 1855-1856. These officers are wearing double-breasted tunics and trousers in the Charles Edward Stuart tartan and are probably posing outside the Militia headquarters in Hamilton.
The Militia was a military reserve force which could be mobilised to defend the country from invasion or insurrection. Officers were usually members of the local gentry or pensioned officers who had served in the regular army. Members worked in their normal occupations until called out, and unlike the Volunteers they did not drill regularly. In the 1850s, almost every Militia regiment was mobilised for home defence in order to release regular army regiments to fight in the Crimean War (1853-1856) and to suppress the Indian Mutiny (1857).
Duncan Brown (1819-1897) was a talented amateur photographer whose work documents aspects of Glasgow life from the 1850s until the 1890s.
Reference: 76
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow School of Art Archives
Keywords:
1st Royal Lanarkshire Militia, Crimean War, home defence, Indian Mutiny, Indian Uprising, Militia officers, soldiers, tartan, uniforms