These officers, apart from two who wear their dress tunic, are in the blue frock which replaced the stable jacket c1897. It was all blue cloth, buttoned with 5 small regimental gilt buttons down the front. There were pockets on each side of the breast with the same type of buttons, and hip pockets without buttons. The shoulder straps were also of blue cloth at this stage. Within a year or two silver chain-mail shoulders were worn throughout the cavalry. The shoulder straps have badges of rank in gilt metal. They wear gold-laced blue trousers, or overalls, which were closer fitting at this stage, and strapped under the ankle boots.
Some of the officers are recognisable; Lieutenant-Colonel Bloomfield Gough sits second from the left. Seated on the left is Major Malcolm Orde Little, 2nd in Command. The young man seated in the middle is the Adjutant, Lieutenant Desmond Beale-Browne. The officer in civilian clothes could be Captain Lord Douglas James Cecil Compton who joined the regiment on 2 Sep 1885.
Major Spencer Follet, standing on the right, was a man who brought shame on the regiment when he was CO in India in 1902. He chaired an inquiry into the murder of an Indian cook perpetrated by two drunken officers of the regiment. His verdict was that it could not be proven because the only witness (the victim who died 8 days after the attack) was a ‘native’.
This photo was published in ‘Black and White’ the journal of the 9th Lancers, on 5 Sep 1896. It was captioned: The officers of the Ninth (Queen's Royal) Lancers bound for South Africa. The photo was by J T Cumming of Aldershot.
