Original British Victorian to Pre-WWI 12th (Prince of Wales’s Royal) Lancers Other Ranks Full Dress Uniform & Czapka Group with Belt, Gauntlets & Aldershot Tattoo-Marked Helmet
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 Lancers Other Ranks Full Dress Uniform & Czapka Group with Belt, Gauntlets & Aldershot Tattoo-Marked Helmet)
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Original Items. One-of-a-Kind Group. This is an impressive British 12th (Prince of Wales’s Royal) Lancers Other Ranks full-dress grouping assembled around an original lancer’s czapka, dark-blue and scarlet tunic, matching breeches, waist belt, white gauntlets, yellow cap lines, and a later pair of modern black riding boots added to complete the display. Several pieces retain important period markings, including a 1913 date in the tunic, a 1913 date on the belt, War Department ownership marks, and a PROPERTY OF THE ALDERSHOT TATTOO stamp inside the czapka. The National Army Museum documents the 12th Lancers’ late-Victorian full dress as a dark-blue tunic with scarlet facings, yellow shoulder cords and cap lines, white gauntlets, and the regiment’s distinctive lancer cap.
Raised in 1715, it became one of the British Army’s long-serving lancer regiments and continued under that title until amalgamation with the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers in 1960.
The uniform tunic is a correct Other Ranks or trooper’s full-dress example in dark blue with scarlet facings, retaining its regimental buttons and yellow cap lines. A period National Army Museum photograph of a 12th Lancers private from about 1895 shows this same general arrangement: dark-blue tunic, scarlet collar, cuffs and plastron, yellow worsted shoulder cords and cap lines, white gauntlets, and lancer headgear.
The Czapka, built of hard leather, features a huge brass Helmet plate showing the multiple Battle honors of the 12th Lancers. These honors can be used to date its issue to the 1880s. The following battle honours were displayed in 1881: WATERLOO, PENINSULA, SOUTH AFRICA 1851.2.3, SEVASTOPOL and CENTRAL INDIA. No more honours were shown before the reign of Edward VII when those for the South African war were added. The helmet’s interior crown retains a few stamps, including a WD BROAD ARROW stamp over a faint number, which appears to be 1901, for the year of manufacture. There is another stamp, a rectangular cartouche reading:
PROPERTY OF
THE ALDERSHOT TATTOO
This denotes that the helmet and possibly the rest of the set minus the boots were used during the Aldershot Military Tattoo, a famous annual military pageant and display held at the Rushmoor Arena in Hampshire, England, dating back to 1894 and drawing massive crowds before ending in the mid-20th century. It was often attended by the Queen and other royals, with the lancers playing a large role. One of the regiment's most documented performances occurred during the 1933 Aldershot Searchlight Tattoo. The 12th Royal Lancers participated in a massive "combined ride and drive" alongside the Royal Horse Artillery and massed mounted bands. Historic press photos from the event captured the regiment dressed in pre-WWI full dress uniforms, spectacularly charging out from a replica castle gate into the Rushmoor Arena.
The leather sweatband shows heavy wear and the interior cloth lining bears several ink depot stamps, some of which are crossed out. The original plume and cockade are both retained, with the plume remaining in very good condition. The leather-backed chinscales are in great shape as well.
The uniform tunic shows moderate wear with the correct fittings for an other ranks, in this case a trooper. All 12th Lancers buttons are retained but the tunic has some minor mothing in spots across the exterior. The interior retains fragments of an original maker’s label, with the date 1913 still readable. There is a WD Broad Arrow stamp in the interior sleeve. The interior collar lining appears to have detached from the collar at one point and was stitched back together. The bottom edge of the tunic has some red trim which has torn away in several places.
The original correct 12th Lancers belt retains faint stampings on the back. There is a date, 1913, a maker’s stamp, and size markings 102 36? The exterior shows heavy fading from serious period wear!
The matching trousers have the correct yellow lines down each side with leather reinforcements. There is staining and some minor mothing but they are in overall good condition.
The white gauntlets have aged to a toned yellow, and the wrists retain their thickness without breakage. They are unmarked besides an R and L denoting the hand, but they are entirely correct for wear during this period with the British Lancers.
The included boots are black and look the part, but are modern American-made boots in size 6 ½C. They are by Service Riding Apparel of Yonkers, New York.
This grouping is particularly significant for the combination of an Other Ranks 12th Lancers full-dress tunic dated 1913, breeches, a similarly dated regimental belt, correct yellow cap lines and white gauntlets, and an earlier-pattern czapka bearing both War Department ownership marks and a later PROPERTY OF THE ALDERSHOT TATTOO stamp. Rather than representing a perfectly date-matched set, the surviving components document the long service life of British ceremonial equipment from the late Victorian period into the years immediately before WWI and, in the case of the helmet, into later military pageant use.
Approximate Measurements:
Collar to shoulder: 9"
Shoulder to sleeve: 20"
Shoulder to shoulder: 15"
Chest width: 17"
Waist: 15.5"
Hip: 17"
Front length: 30"
Waist: 14"
Rise: 15"
Inseam: 25"
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