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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Sussex => England => Sussex Lookup Requests => Topic started by: brisall on Sunday 23 April 06 20:50 BST (UK)
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Hi Please can any one help with the Volunteer Coast Artilleryman uniform,Im trying to find out what their uniform dress would have been for the period of approx 1800,these men manned cannons on the Sussex Coast.
Thanks.
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Hi Brisall
If you 'Google' Volunteer Coastal Artillary
UK pages only
You will get lots of hits similar to this
www.cyberport.co.uk/historyfile/portland_and_weymouth/garrison_life/garrison_life.htm
which is about life in the Volunteer Artillary
Hope that helps
Chris in 1066
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Hi Thanks very much for the links to Volunteer Coast Artllerymen,very interesting but for some reason it seems difficult to obtain an image of the Volunteer Coast Artillery uniform of approx 1800!
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Might the Redoubt Museum in Eastbourne have something?
Andrea
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Thanks for the advice,I have left a message on their website and hopefully might get lucky.thanks again.
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Hi There
About 7 years ago I wrote a book called The Brighton Garrison, 1793-1900, parts of which deal with The Volunteer Coastal Artillery. If you can get a copy of it you will find a lot of background info in it.
To summerise here, early documents are a little confusing for there were a number of local variations of volunteer artilleryman. The earliest were organised by a Colonel Harrington, and these were followed by men under the command of a Colonel Hannington. These largely similar names which appeared in early handwritten records have caused obvious confusion. Furthermore, many of the local fishermen were also organised into another group of water and land based artillery volunteers known as Sea Fencibles.
I do have a few details of the Volunteer Artilleryman's uniform from Colonel Hanningtons time (as worn by gunner W R Wood c1850) but this may be rather late for your period of research. The book has a copy of a photo showing Wood as a young recruit wearing the uniform which consisted of a basic tunic & trousers with a peaked cap (rather like the pill box cap worn later by the boys brigade) Their cap badge was a grenade.
Round the waist they had a wide brown belt with a pouch for a side arm and a frog for a 24 inch sword. Gunner Wood, rose through the ranks to become the Volunteers' Colonel, retiring in 1889. A further photo dated circa 1865, shows the full uniform as worn by the gunnery team after they won an artillery competion at Shoeburyness.
My research showed that both the Volunteer Artillery and volunteer riflemen originally wore a colourful scarlet uniform, but they were eventually told to change it into a dull green and grey. This created tremendous revolt in the ranks and it was reported in the local press that they would loose recruits if their volunteers had to adopt the uniform of the workhouse. The scarlet jacket was therefore kept for much longer than other coastal volunteer artillery regiments.
Roy G
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Hi Roy,Thanks for your reply,I have ordered a copy of your book from Savery Books Fiveways Brighton and should have it by Wednesday,Thanks again.