Volunteer Regiments of England, Scotland & Wales 1806

Volunteer Regiments of England, Scotland and Wales 1806. Edited by Alan Sapherson. Introduction copyright C. A. Sapherson 1988. Published 1989 by Raider Books (Raider Games) Leeds, UK. ISBN 1 870445 55 4

41 page A4 booklet. The information in the booklet is given by county. Each unit is listed as follows

1. The title of the unit

2. The rank and name of the Commanding Officer

3. The total number of both officers and men in the unit

4. The colour of the uniform coat with the facing colour of the collar and cuffs

5. The colour of the lace worn by the officers

6. The colour of the breeches or pantaloons

The following is taken from the Introduction:

The information in this list comes from a chart published in London in the year 1807. The title of this document is: “A view of the Volunteer Army of Great Britain in the year 1806” by James Willson. Published 1st March 1807 by John and Henry Richter, London.

The chart lists the majority of the units in full, but a few details of the uniforms are missing. The only difficulty with the description is that Willson did not distinguish between those facing colours which were yellow and those which were buff – listing them all as yellow. Please note that the Volunteers were not militia, they were all genuine volunteers who joined their respective units to meet the threat of a French invasion. The cost of their uniforms and equipment was met by themselves or the unit commander. The total force of the volunteers was:

· Cavalry 31,771

· Infantry 328,956

· Artillery 10,133

A total of 370,860 men

The staples are considerably corroded and the booklet has suffered some minor scuffing and handling damage, but all internal content is clean and unused.