1846 Company Sergeant, Royal Artillery

Description

Company Sergeant was a rank peculiar to the Royal Artillery, borne by senior N.C.O.s of the foot artillery companies. It will be seen that the badge of rank is like that of colour sergeant in the infantry, although the rank of colour sergeant could have no meaning in the Royal Artillery, whose guns are its colours. This plate gives a good idea of the uniform in which the foot artillery companies fought in the Crimean War, although by then the shape of the head-dress had been altered slightly. The uniform of an officer would have been very much like it, with different rank badges, of course, and oak leaf embroidery on the collar and cuff slashes. This was the last uniform worn by the old artillery companies. In 1855, after the Crimean War, the regiment, like the rest of the army, went into tunics, and was organised into self-contained batteries, each with its own guns and horses, under the Commander-in-Chief, and not the Master General of the Ordnance. Source: Portrait of a Company Sergeant, in possession of the R.A. Institution.