The King’s Dragoon Guards served in Canada from 1838 to 1843. The regimental history by Michael Mann says this: ‘The KGB were issued with special winter clothing of a full-length blue overcoat with brass shoulder scales, and held in by a white belt and a white pouch-belt; knee boots, fur gloves, and a fur cap with a flap to cover the neck and ears, and a red side flap. Colonel George Cathcart, commanding the KDG in Canada reported:
‘I have been able to give every man a pair of jackboots. They are quite waterproof. They have the art of making them so here by putting the smooth side of cowhide leather outside, and then making a particular composition of wax and boiled oil… The boots are made large enough to wear a long stocking over the sock, inside of the boot, and pulled over the knee.’
The illustration is by Pierre Turner based on a painting by M A Hayes of a sergeant and four privates escorting prisoners in 1838.
