Richard Simkin painted this scene in 1880, showing an officer in review order followed by his trumpeter. He painted a similar scene in 1885, and both images are reproduced here to show the trumpeter over this period. In this painting he holds a bugle and has a trumpet strung to his back. The strings are multicoloured red and yellow, and probably blue, which would be expected for a Royal regiment. But there is no sign of tassels. He is in review order with a plume on his lance cap; black and white horsehair. There is reason to assume that trumpeters and musicians of the 9th Lancers had red plumes, a continuation of the custom which started c1817. However, both Simkin paintings show the trumpeter with a black and white plume. This is backed up by Orlando Norie who painted the regiment 15 years earlier, showing (in the background) an officer and trumpeter, in Other Ranks Mounted 1865. A Simkin print of 1896, of the drum horse, shows the drummer with a red plume. It is usual to find that trumpeters and band musicians had similar plumes but it appears that the 9th did not follow this practice.
