Item Description
Original Items: Only One Set Available. The office of LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND, one of Great Britain's longest in existence, was first introduced in the year of 1171 and has been manned every year since until 1922 with the independence of Eire, the Irish Free State.
The Lord Lieutenant, often referred to as the Viceroy, was the representative of the British Monarch, actually the term Viceroy coming from the French for "Vice King". The Viceroy was based in Dublin at the famous Dublin Castle but had many other "seats" around the country.
This particular uniform set comes from the period of 1902 showing King's Crown buttons and can be identified to having belonged to one of the following five candidates of that time who held the office:
The EARL OF ABERDEEN who served 1905 - 1915
The LORD WIMBORNE who served 1915 - 1918
The VISCOUNT FRENCH who served 1918 - 1921
VISCOUNT FITZALEN 1921 until Independence in 1922
The set, displayed on a custom-built mannequin (included with purchase) contains-
Red Melton cloth tailed frock coat of King George the Third era design, complete with blue collar and cuffs embroidered with silver wire shamrocks.
High quality silver wire epaulettes.
Silver buttons of King's Crown surrounded by laurel wreaths.
Bicorn hat similarly embroidered constructed of beaver pelt with red and white feather plume.
Pair of coveralls (trousers) of very dark navy blue with wide silvered embroidery stripe down the outside of each leg.
Red and gilt striped and tasseled waist belt.
The Frock Coat/Tunic bears medal loops which may indicate that this set belonged to the Viscount French, who as Field Marshall Sir John French became Chief of Staff of the British Army in 1912, later the Earl of Ypres, and finally the Viscount French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. A man of sparkling military career going back to the War in the Sudan, the Boer War, WW1 and finally the Anglo Irish War. Wikipedia provides an excellent in depth summary of his entire life.
A very rare fascinating uniform set of excellent quality and history easy to display on custom-built manikin, amazing!
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