Original British Victorian Boer War Era King’s Royal Rifle Corps Officer Patrol Jacket Original Items

Original Items: Only One Set Available. This tunic, known as a “Patrol Jacket” within the British Army to the Boer War Era. The King’s Royal Rifle Corps was in action in South Africa during the Second Boer War. The Jacket is made of a fine English melton wool, with decorative woolen braid, melton scarlet cuffs and collar, and a quilted lining of linsey-woolsey (cotton/wool) material.
 
Measurements:
Chest: 18.5”
Collar to Shoulder: 5”
Shoulder to Shoulder: 19.5”
Shoulder to Cuff: 26.5”
 
The King’s Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years’ War in North America known as ‘The French and Indian War.’ Subsequently numbered the 60th Regiment of Foot, the regiment served for more than 200 years throughout the British Empire.

After the Napoleonic Wars, the regiment received a new title: first, in 1815, its name was changed to The Duke of York’s Own Rifle Corps and then, in 1830, to the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC). In 1858, the Rifle Depot at Winchester was made their headquarters. The regiment served in the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882. During the rest of the 1800s, the unit also was active in China, Canada (Wolseley expedition), Afghanistan, India, Burma and South Africa. The regiment was deployed during the Second Boer War from the outset playing a key role in the first battle at Talana Hill. Two officers from the regiment were awarded the Victoria Cross; Lieutenant Frederick Hugh Sherston Roberts and Lieutenant Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies.Private Frederick Corbett also received the Victoria Cross for his action at Kafr Dowar, Egypt, on 5 August 1882; his VC was later rescinded when he was convicted of embezzlement, theft, and being absent without leave.

Following the end of the war in South Africa, the 1st battalion was transferred to Malta, where it arrived in October 1902.  In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve; the regiment now had two Reserve but no Territorial battalions. In 1958, the regiment joined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and the Rifle Brigade in the Green Jackets Brigade and in 1966 the three regiments were formally amalgamated to become the Royal Green Jackets. The KRRC became the 2nd Battalion Royal Green Jackets. On the disbandment of 1/RGJ in 1992, the RGJ’s KRRC battalion was redesignated as 1/RGJ, eventually becoming 2/RIFLES in 2007.