Original British Victorian Era Named Officer Plume Tin of the Derbyshire Yeomanry – Circa 1880 Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. Tine bears the officer’s name on a tarnished brass plaque:

J. N. GELL ESQ. DERBYSHIRE YEO

Steel plume tin measures 19″ overall length and is oval in cross section 7″ x 3″ with a hinged lid on either end. Intended to house the officer’s exotic feather helmet plume it was important to have the plume “pass through” the container in order to keep its delicate feathers in shape and not to be pulled or withdrawn which often caused damage. Still retains the original Victorian mottled paint finish, this is a very unusual officer’s accessory very often overlooked by collectors.

The Derbyshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1794, which served as a cavalry regiment and dismounted infantry regiment in the First World War and provided two reconnaissance regiments in the Second World War, before being amalgamated with the Leicestershire Yeomanry to form the Leicestershire and Derbyshire (Prince Albert’s Own) Yeomanry in 1957.

The regiment was first formed as the Derbyshire Corps of Fencible Cavalry in 1794, as a regiment of full-time fencible soldiers for home defense. The regiment changed shortly thereafter to the Derbyshire Corps of Yeomanry Cavalry, a part-time yeomanry regiment, and was dispersed in individual troops. In 1834, the troops were regimented as the Derbyshire Yeomanry Cavalry, who sponsored two companies of the Imperial Yeomanry in 1900, for service in the South African War, and in 1901 was itself reorganized as mounted infantry as the Derbyshire Imperial Yeomanry. In 1908 it was transferred into the Territorial Force, returning to a cavalry role and equipping as dragoons, under the new title of The Derbyshire Yeomanry.