Costume and Commemoration -
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On permanent display
The vivid Victorian uniforms pictured were all made in the 1860s by the long established Longley Brothers Drapers who were based at Bank House in Henfield High Street. On display are the uniforms of Surgeon Lieutenant (and well known Henfield doctor), Adolphus Caudle the Younger (1860s), in addition to that of Sergeant George Roberts (1868). With recruits having to fund their own uniform and rifle, joining the Volunteers was an aspiration beyond the average Henfield labourer and mainly open to professional men. A Victorian precursor to the modern Territorials, the Rifle Volunteers were replaced by the Territorials during the army reforms that took place in the years after the Boer War. |