Full dress coatee of Major R B Baker, 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot, 1854 circa...

Full dress coatee of Major R B Baker, 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot, 1854 circa. Wool cloth, gilt metal buttons, gilt metal epaulettes. Captain (later Major) Robert Broome Baker purchased an ensigncy in the 39th (The Dorsetshire Regiment) of Foot in 1849 and his captaincy in 1853. His uniform is of the coatee style which by the 1850s, with its skirts cut away to the front, was looking distinctly old-fashioned when set against the tunic worn by an increasing number of continental armies. Although the introduction to the British Army of the tunic was announced in August 1854, the expeditionary force which sailed for the Crimea the following month was still garbed in the coatee. The narrow silk stripes in the regimental facing colour (in this case green) on Baker’s epaulette straps denote someone of company officer rank.