An officer is shown here in full dress, mounted, during the short period when all the lancer regiments of the British army wore scarlet. The fall lancer capalways white-topped for this regiment - is heavily gold-laced, and upon a rayed gilt plate on the front it carries the regimental device in silver, incorporating the skull and crossed bones with the motto on a label beneath "OR GLORY." The plume is of black cock's tail feathers. Note the false peak at the back.
The collar, cuffs and stripe in the gold-laced shoulder belt are white - the regimental facing colour.The shoulder belt has silver pickers, spikes shaped like arrows and attached by chains to a mount. These were used to ram into the touch-holes of captured guns, thus making them unserviceable. Hence the phrase "to spike their guns."
The elegant saddle-cloth combines the Royal Cypher "WR" over crossed lances, surmounted by a crown, with the regimental device and number below. With suitable change of cypher, this was worn until 1914.
