DRUM BANNERS
UNIFORMS, ARMS & EQUIPMENT - LANCERS
The 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers
Drum banners were presented to the regiment soon after its reconstitution. At first, befitting a Royal regiment the ground was blue with the central motif of a wreath surrounding a garter with the Irish Harp within and the name of the regiment below. The whole above crossed lances. In the late 1860s the banners’ ground became dark green. The drum banners were carried unchanged until after 1902 when the King Edward crown replaced the Victorian. Battle Honours were finally added in 1910.
The 9th (Queen’s Royal) Lancers
The first Drum Banners, described by Mr. Ebsworth in 1847, were of crimson edged with gold lace. In the centre was the cypher of Queen Adelaide doubled and intertwined with crossed lances with gold pennants behind. They bore three battle honours – PENINSULA, SOBRAON & PUNNIAR. A new pair of banners were purchased in 1869 which are as shown in the illustration, in use during 1881-1902. New banners were acquired in 1904 which added four new battle honours including SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902, which replaced the Afghanistan honour which was placed on the wreath. The Queen Victoria crown remained unchanged until after the Great War.
The 12th (Prince of Wales’s Royal) Lancers
The illustration shows the banners carried from about 1851 with the addition of the battle honour SEBASTOPOL awarded after 1856. After 1902 three more battle honours were awarded including SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902 and which required a reorganizing of those on the wreath. With those changes, the banners remained the same until the 1920s.
The 16th (Queen's) Lancers
The drum banners carried by the 16th Lancers in the eighteen-eighties and nineties were substantially the same as they were in 1855. The battle honour AFGHANISTAN refers to the campaign of 1839-41. These banners remained unchanged until after the Great War.
The 17th (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Lancers
In the 1840s and 50s, the drum banners of the 17th Lancers were a simple skull & crossbones (the Motto) and scroll. In the eighteen seventies, the wreath and central garter with the legend "DEATH OR GLORY" were added. Sometime after 1896 the six battle honours earned before 1881 were added. (See image below).
The 21st (Empress of India's) Lancers
Upon their transformation to Lancers, the regiment lost no time in securing a new set of Drum Banners. Evidently, they modified the existing Hussar ones. On the right hand drum they kept the Royal Arms but placed their regimental title on the lower scroll. On the left drum, they replaced the White Horse of Hanover with the Imperial Cypher over crossed lances and added the battle honour KHARTOUM on a scroll below.
DRUM HORSE
FURNITURE
