Victorian era Coldstream Guards Captains Uniform

[jholl72]

Hey guys,
Picked this up yesterday at the Toronto show. Beautiful uniform grouping, I`ve narrowed the date to between 1895-1902. Its not named in the tunic but the pants have a label but its been resewn, so not sure if they are original to this tunic or just an add on to complete the set. Anyway I really like it!

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Edited March 17, 2013 by jholl72

[Mervyn Mitton]

JH - a lovely uniform and seems to be in excetional condition. The label on the trousers may have just been re-sewn - certainly, it

gives you a starting point to see if the name has associations with the CG .

Two points - on the left breast - are there the little thread holders for a ribbon bar ? With the date you have established I would expect

him to have seen service. The other point - I was always under the impression that most officers of that period - particularly the

Household Division - had their uniforms privately tailored ? Your tunic very clearly shows the broad arrow and War Department. I

wonder what our members may think ? Mervyn

[jholl72]

Hi Mervyn,

There are threads on the uniform to hold a ribbon bar. The War Department stamp is a bit of a question at this point. I have heard several theories but none are concrete.

One is that a quartermaster would have had an issue tunic. Another is that post WWII the CG would have had issue uniforms. And the third, I read that some tailors picked up old issue items and then tailored them and sold them to officers.

Again, nothing concrete on those theories. The tunic certainly has more age than post WWII, so I think that does not apply.

I haven't yet researched the name in the trousers but will attempt that this week.

[coldstream]

Hello JH,

A nice tunic, could you point out what has given you the date range 1895 - 1902? Is it just the 'WD' stamps or something else?

Regards Simon.

[Graham Stewart]

Looks as though the label in the trousers read's "A.D.B. Godfrey - RMA", which obviously would stand for Royal Marine Artillery. At the same time something in my mind is telling me these are infantry pattern trousers and not normally associated with the RMA.