the yeomanry and volunteers of 1794-1808: a guide to military art

The Volunteer Corps and their mounted component the Yeomanry Cavalry were a voluntary part-time organisation for the purpose of home defence in the event of invasion, during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

The Corps typically drew its members from the propertied classes. Officers were usually members of the gentry and the enlisted ranks tended to be from the lower middle classes. The failed Expédition d’Irlande of 1796 and invasion at Fishguard caused the expansion of the corps, including the formation of workplace units in which the enlisted ranks were filled by the workmen and the officers were drawn from the clerks and foremen. Such units, made up of working-class men, became more common in the late 1790s and early 1800s due to the increased fear of invasion.

Ray has made a fine selection from contemporary plates, showing both Officer and rank and file volunteers, displaying their fantastic unrestrained uniforms in ceremonial, manoeuvre, posed and drill settings.

One hundred and one military plates are shown and form part of our developing range of books dedicated to uniformology, that draw on seminal works and from the 18th and 19th century. They are masterpieces of military art, and important historical reference works.