This full length shot is labelled on the reverse with a handwritten note, "Major Barnes, 73rd Reg't., taken at Simla (India), 12 June 1876" The photographer is unknown. The measurements are about 3 inches by 5 inches. The problem with the date on the label being off by about a year with J. W. Barnes' actual date of rank as a Lieutenant Colonel (11 July 1877) is considered minor. This could be accounted for as a minor mistake of memory when the photo was labeled. It is also possible that the photo was actually taken as labeled and may have had to do with the availability of a photographer. He would have known of his promotion sometime in advance and may have wished to have a photo to mark his promotion.
Lieutenant Colonel Barnes is wearing a regular infantry 1874 pattern levee dress uniform of the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment. (Note the Levee belt and sash) The tunic is scarlet with green facings on the collar and sleeves. The tunic sleeves and collar show the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. The collar clearly shows the 1874 to 1880 field officers lace pattern and the crown badge of rank of a Lieutenant Colonel. His medals are, from left to right as you view the photograph, the medal for the South African Campaigns 1834-1853 and the medal for the Indian Mutiny 1857-1859. The trousers are blue with a levee dress (gold with a central Crimson stripe) side seam strip down the trouser leg. He is wearing spurs on his boots. The 73rd Regiment was a regular infantry regiment of the British Army at this time.
This photograph measures 3 and 3/4 inches by 7 and 1/2 inches and was taken by Lymonds & Co. of 39 High Street in Portsmouth. The photographers identification is printed along the bottom front edge of the photograph. There is no backmark. The following edited notes on this uniform are from Ernest Owen,
The photograph was probably taken in 1881. (He was a Colonel on 11 July 1881) James Whittaker Barnes is in the uniform of a lieutenant colonel commanding the 2nd Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). Identification is based on the following:
a. The uniform shown is a Highland uniform of a field officer in mounted full dress. The 73rd,of which he was a member, was first organized as the 2nd Batt., 42nd in 1779/1780 and reconstituted as a separate unit, numbered 73rd in 1786. It lost it's highland status in 1809, along with several other similarly uniformed units and did not regain it until it's amalgamation with the 42nd in the army reforms, known as the Cardwell Reforms of 1881.
b. The uniform regimental distinctions show that of the Black Watch. You can distinguish the red plume in the feather bonnet which was particular to that regiment. The badge securing the plume to the bonnet appears to be a sphinx, which also was a badge of the Black Watch. The details of the plaid brooch can not be made out in the photograph. The pattern of the tartan appears to be Black Watch, and the facings appear to be blue, which distinction the Black Watch shared with the Camerons, but the Camerons wore a different tartan.
c. The lace patterns are that of a lieutenant colonel. They had two bands of gold lace on the gauntlet cuff of the doublet with one line of gold braid within the two bands. This is very noticeable in the photograph. The broad bands of gold lace on the Inverness skirts of the doublet indicate that he is a field officer. The embroidery on the collar is that of a lieutenant colonel.
d. Lieutenant Colonel James Whittaker Barnes assumed command of the 73rd
in 1877. He remained in command when the 73rd became the 2nd Battalion of
the Black Watch as directed by the Cardwell Reforms of 1881. In July,
1882 he was succeeded as commanding officer of the Battalion by Hastings
D'Oyly Farrington.