Uniform

Weapons

As their duties precluded their being armed with firearms, British drummers were armed with a short sword for personal defence only. ‘Backsword’, a sort of informal fencing using sticks or wooden swords was a favourite pastime amongst drummers.

The regulation sword, based upon the 1796 infantry sergeants’ pattern was an elegant but clumsy weapon. Its brass ‘clamshell’ hilt was identical to that of the sergeants’ model, but the blade, of the prescribed ‘cut and thrust’ form was a diminutive 24 inches. Though an intentional modification to correspond to the shorter stature of young drummers, it further reduced the utility of a sword whose pattern was extremely inefficient in combat. While the 1796 pattern was regulation, many regiments purchased other types of swords for their drummers, with a myriad of different hilt and blade styles, though few were seldom any more useful. Yet despite their questionable utility, there are numerous references to drummers putting their swords to good use when necessary.

Bandsmen’s swords were even more varied. Given their status (for much of the period) as regimental employees, their dress was even less regulated, and their armament was entirely subject to the whim and financial resources of the colonel of the regiment.

During the 1790s, bandsmen were usually armed with a short or long-bladed sword affixed to a variety of European hilt styles. After the Egyptian campaign in 1801, Middle-Eastern scimitars resembling those used by the Mameluke cavalrymen of Egypt became the rage. These simple T-hilts were either made with a wooden grip or, more frequently, cast in brass with pommels resembling animal’s heads, and fitted with straight or curved scimitar blades. Those with curved blades were especially popular amongst the British Army’s janissary percussionists who were clothed in outlandish approximations of Arab garb.

Contrary to popular belief, the cruciform-hilted short sword akin to the Roman ‘gladius’ was not commonly used by British bandsmen during the Napoleonic period, as the pattern itself originated in the 1840s.

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