17TH LIGHT DRAGOONS

The next three images are from a collection of 25 original watercolours held by the Anne SK Brown Military Collection. Richard Caton Woodville provides a date of

1775 with this study of a mounted officer of the 17th Light Dragoons. The beginning of 1775 saw the regiment stationed in Ireland, where it had been sent from Scotland in 1764. Here, in the 11 years that followed, a reputation of being a well-disciplined and efficient corps was established and it was this that, notes Richard Cannon in his Historical Record of the 17th Lancers: ‘… occasioned it to be the first cavalry corps selected to proceed across the Atlantic’. Hostilities had broken out between Great Britain and her North American colonies and it would be the port of Boston, shortly before the affair at Bunker Hill, where the regiment landed on 24 May.

His Majesty’s warrant, dated 19 December 1768, directed that the officers of the regiment were to be distinguished by silver epaulettes. Woodville shows these being worn, the scarlet coat having white lapels, collar, cuffs and turnbacks. Silver buttons ornamented with silver lace can be seen on the collar, 12 in number down each lapel, on the skirts, lower arms and cuffs. The breeches are white, as is the long waistcoat just visible falling on the thigh. Clearly seen is the regiment’s famous skull and crossbones silver helmet ornament, the long crest being of scarlet horsehair.

The 17th Light Dragoons, America 1775 (Anne SK Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library)