Westmeath Rifles Militia Officer’s Full Dress Busby c1874-78.
A fine quality example, this short lived pattern was based on the 1869 pattern Line infantry shako, but without a peak. The stiffened body covered with black lambswool, the crown of black cloth. Black double cord sewn-in caplines supported by two black metal Garter-type stars, black lion's mask and ring ornament at the rear for the cap lines. Plated metal rose pattern side ornaments and ribbed plated velvet lined chin chain. At the front a large black metal coiled bugle horn with a plain black cord boss above. Buff leather sweatband and black silk lining. Complete with double black cord cap lines and olivets. No plume. Original black japanned metal carrying tin, this with Dublin Station labels (frayed). Traced to Sub-Lieutenant the Hon. T. K. D. St. Lawrence, very good condition £500-£700

Provenance: Howth Castle Sale, Dublin, October 2021.

The Hon. Thomas Kenelm Digby St. Lawrence was born on 12 December 1855, the son of Thomas St. Lawrence, 3rd Earl of Howth, and was educated at Harrow. He was appointed a Sub-Lieutenant in the King’s Own Royal Tower Hamlets Militia in 1876, and by December of that year had transferred in the same rank to the Westmeath Rifles Militia. He was commissioned Lieutenant in the 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) Dragoon Guards on 21 August 1878, and was promoted Captain on 19 December 1883. He served throughout the Egyptian Campaign of 1882 being attached to the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards (Medal with clasp and Khedive’s Star). During various home postings he led the mounted troops when quelling the Belfast Riots in August 1886. He was placed on temporary half-pay due to illness on 22 April 1891, and died from typhoid fever at Ardmore, Dublin on 8 May 1891. He is buried in the chancery of the old church of St. Mary’s Abbey, Howth, Dublin.