84th Punjabis. Officer’s tunic as worn between 1903 and 1922

84th Punjabis, a good example of an officer’s dress tunic complete with epaulettes and all badges and buttons. The 2nd Lieutenant’s scarlet tunic has very dark green facings, 8 buttons to the front and 6 to the back with two smaller ones on the epaulettes. These are of fine gilt with the ASSAYE honour beneath the elephant beneath a Tudor crown and two other early battle honours, SERINGAPATAM and BOURBON. The backmark is HOBSON & SONS, LONDON W. We are not entirely convinced that the elephant collar badges are original to the uniform as the black lining to the collar has been partly unstitched and Army Regulations, India 1913 does not mention any collar badges in the uniform description. The buttons on the rear of the uniform are all correctly pegged under the lining in the original fashion. The the lining is good for its age, as is the general condition of the uniform. Before 1903 the regiment was the 24th Madras Infantry, hence the attractive Assaye elephant that such prized early honour of the few thousand Company and Royal forces who took part in the campaign which routed some 50,000 troops of the Raja of Berar. After 1922 the regiment became the 10th Bn. 1st Punjab Regiment. apr16/1

One of my favourite button designs, partly because it depicts an elephant. It is out of keeping with the clean simplicity of most of the Punjab infantry designs of the period.