This corporal of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Scots posed for Barbados photographer W. G. Cooper sometime around 1883 - not long after the regiment's adoption of tartan trews after being styled a Lowland regiment in the wake of the 1881 reforms.

 

Four companies of the 1st/Royal Scots had been serving in the West Indies since 1878 (another four were at Malta during the same time period) and the entire battalion was reunited in the West Indies in 1882. There is a good possibility that this unnamed corporal would later see action in Bechuanaland (1884-85).

 

He wears the crossed rifle badge for marksmanship on his left cuff and the splendid 1881 pattern regimental helmet plate is partially visible on his white foreign service helmet at far left.

Carte de Visite
W. G. Cooper - Photographer
Barbados
c. 1883