This print shows Bombay native soldiers of two different battalions in the late 19th century, although which battalions or what date is not known. On the left is a havildar, or possibly a jemadar, indicated by a crimson waist sash. He has shoulder wings and is taller than the other two, so he is a grenadier. The man in the middle is a subadar-major, wearing an officer’s coat with a silver epaulette on his left shoulder. The man on the right is a sepoy, wearing shorts and grey head-dress. The subadar-major and the sepoy both have grey facings on their red coats, and are bare-footed.
The regiment was titled 2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment Bombay Native Infantry from 1796 to 1824. The first mention of their uniform in the regimental history is on 14 January 1809 on which date ‘the Battalion received a new Colour. This was necessitated by the change in the colour of the facings of all Corps to yellow.’ So all the Bombay battalions had yellow facings from 1809 but the facings colour before that is not recorded. A colour chart of 1814 by Hamilton Smith shows that the battalions adopted different facings at some point; the 2nd Battalion having bright blue. Boris Mollo’s book The Indian Army (1981) lists the battalion’s uniforms before 1824 as red coats with sky blue facings and silver lace for officers.
