This uniform belonged to General Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch who was appointed Colonel of the 1st Royal Regiment on 12 Dec 1834. The coat and epaulettes date from the reign of William IV, as the buttons have his cypher and the epaulettes also have WIVR embroidered within the crescent. The bell-top shako, however, has Queen Victoria’s cypher on the badge so dates after 1837.
The epaulettes each have an embroidered crown and Star of St Andrew to denote Colonel rank; lieutenant-colonels had a crown, and majors a Star of St Andrew.
The 1834 Dress Regulations have this to say on the different epaulettes:
Epaulettes — Field Officers — plain gold-lace strap; solid crescent; embroidered badge of the King’s cypher: the bullion of Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel is to be three inches and a half deep; that of a Major, three inches.
Captains — gold lace strap, with narrow silk stripes of the colour of the regimental facing; metal crescent; bullion smaller than that of a Major, and two and a half inches deep.
Subalterns — the same as a Captain, except that the bullion is smaller.
Officers of the Light and Grenadier Companies had wings instead of epaulettes
