There was very little change to the uniform of dragoon guards from 1768 until the mid 1790s when the coat was shortened and buttoned from neck to waist. This naïve portrait of Thomas Beckit was painted somewhere in England (in 1800 the KDG were at Croydon, Windsor, the Midlands and Exeter). There is no question that it shows the King’s Dragoon Guards, as the regimental title is written above the mounted figure (see below). But the shako worn by Thomas Beckit does not conform to any descriptions or clothing warrants of the period. Another painting, dated 1802, by the same artist shows the same headgear from the side so we know that it was short and close-fitting having a raised part at the front with a large brass badge. There is a white over red plume on the left side.
His right sleeve has two chevrons, point upwards and spaced apart, which indicated the rank of sergeant from c1795 to 1803. NCO rank badges began to appear in the mid 1790s, although the 10th Light Dragoons had them as early as 1793 according to the famous painting by Stubbs. Sergeant majors had three stripes and corporals had one. A General Order of 24 May 1803 changed these to 4 stripes for a sergeant major, three for a sergeant and two for a corporal.
