This photograph shows a Staff Sergeant in full dress of the 1st Battalion of the 14th (Buckinghamshire) Regiment of Foot with his wife and two children. The photograph has no markings and was taken by an unidentified photographer. The photograph dates c.1878 to 1881. Unfortunately the identity of the Staff Sergeant is not known. Should anyone recognize him please let me know.

This sergeant is wearing an 1868 pattern serge frock. [1] The early pattern of this frock, as you see here, was scarlet for NCO's, edged with distinctive white braid, with a five-button (regimental pattern) front and rounded skirts. There are no facings on the cuffs of this frock. He is wearing a Sergeants' Sash with gold lace chevron badges on the upper right sleeve. The frock pattern changed in 1881 which helps in dating this photograph. He is holding a pair of white gloves in his left hand. He is wearing a Sergeant's 1st Pattern, Swords Staff Sergeants (the word order is correct). This pattern was worn until 1888 when a new pattern was introduced. The sword has a slightly curved 32½ inch blade, a gilt guard, and a black leather scabbard with gilt mounts.

The rounded frock collars and tapered shoulder straps are faced in buff. When collar badges were adopted in June of 1873, the 14th Foot was unique in that it was the only regiment to have a separate collar badge for each of it's battalions. The 1st Battalion had a white horse on hind legs on a down curved bar in white metal and the 2nd Battalion had a Royal Bengal Tiger in brass. The collar badges in this photo are very difficult to see clearly but would seem to be the white horse from what details that can be made out. The fact that the badges are made of white metal would make it difficult to see them clearly on buff facings.

The trousers are dark blue with a narrow red welt down the outside seam which is just visible on the upper thigh of the sergeant's left leg.

The dark blue forage cap worn in this photograph was worn from 1878 to 1902 and helps to date the photograph. The cap badge is a scroll on the bottom, a white horse in the center, and the Prince of Wales' Plume at the top. The scroll is inscribed with the regimental motto, "Nec aspera terrent", (nor do difficulties deter).

The sergeant's family is seen here. His wife is seated with a child on her lap. The child standing on the left is holding a parasol. I believe the children are boys. Marriage and a family in the Victorian army was not a way to make one's life easier.

"Marriage is allowed to all the staff-sergeants, to 50% of the other sergeants, 4% of the corporals and privates in the cavalry, artillery and engineers, and 3% in the infantry.[2] Corporals and men have this concession made them on condition of their having served seven years, and that they have two good conduct badges, and prove that they have 5 Pounds in the savings bank. Married soldiers may receive rations separately, and uncooked, and if the man is engaged on duty away from his family, he is paid 4.d. a day for his wife and 1-1/2 d a day for each child."[3]

The following information is quoted from Farwell (1981):

"A man who married without permission[4] had a hard time indeed, for his wife and children were denied quarters of any sort and were given no extra rations; the wife had to work or starve."

"Women on the strength had (to use the official language) 'the privilege of washing for their respective companies.' They might thereby earn a halfpenny per day per customer. Some worked as cooks or did needlework; the more respectable were selected to be maids or nursemaids in officers' homes. Until the last half of the Victorian era, they usually lived in the barracks with the men, their home a corner screened off with blankets or canvas sheets. It was a hard life, and many of the women were rough. Certainly they needed to be tough."[5]

For a nation, which much of the time, seemed little interested in military affairs, the record of the British Army in the 19 ^th century is a surprisingly distinguished one. The second half of the 19 ^th century witnessed the height of the British Empire and the rise of the United Kingdom to the zenith of its power. It was families, like in this photograph, with basic values, a willingness to sacrifice, a belief and pride in their regiment, and a love of Queen and Country that were the British Army of the 19^th century.