Marrion’s Men #6: Officer, Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry

Well, it’s been over a year since I painted my last figure in the Marrion’s Men series of 54mm Yeomanry figures based on R.J. Marrion’s illustrations, but recently I posted on the unexpected discovery of another. This was a figure from the excellent Tradition of London shop, a captain of the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry.

Though not identical, it closely matched the figure seen on the back cover illustration of #6 in the Army Museums Ogilby Trust series – “Uniforms of the British Yeomanry Force 1782-1914.” My figure’s doppelganger can be seen below right on my copy of the book, with his foot on a milestone and nonchalantly smoking a cigarette.

The Tradition figure’s notes state that it depicts an officer of the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry (DLOY) from 1909 in Field Dress. 54mm high in metal, the figure comes from their Squadron Range and was designed by Alan Caton (who sadly passed away in 2015). The pose differs very slightly from the Marrion illustration – the foot rests on a wooden box; the sword and sabretache are missing; and the right hand now rests on a knee instead of holding a cigarette.

Otherwise, the uniform details match very closely indeed and the figure is indisputably inspired by Bob Marrion’s fabulous illustration.

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Barlow and Smith’s book on the DLOY includes a photograph which, in turn, must have been the inspiration for Bob Marrion’s original artwork. It features someone looking much like our officer on horseback in 1900. He is identified as being Major J. Rutherford. I like the idea of the continuity of inspiration that has gone on behind this figure.

• 1900 – Major Rutherford is photographed on horseback in Hightown Camp.
• 1983 – Artist Bob Marrion uses the photograph as a template for an illustration.
• 1990-2000? – Sculptor Alan Caton casts the master of a version of Bob Marrion’s drawing.
• 2020 – Marvin paints Alan Caton’s brilliant figure for his collection.

The above caption reads: Fig.14 Major J. Rutherford in Mounted Field Dress at Hightown Camp, 1900. He wears the new service felt hat and the original pagri is just visible. The 1896 serge frock is worn with Undress white belt and slings, and the pantaloons have gold stripes; knee boots. The sabretache with gold ornament, introduced about 1895, can also be seen… (see also back cover, figure on right.)

Instead of the “gold stripes”, Tradition’s notes state they should be yellow. Given that Barlow and Smith state that “from 1903, the gold lace stripes on the overalls and pantaloons were replaced by yellow cloth“, my 1909 captain having yellow stripes is correct and, from a purely visual point of view, I do like the bright colourful contrast to his otherwise dark blue uniform.

The slouch hat was headgear which became popular following its appearance in the Anglo-Boer War of 1898-1902. Worn by the Imperial Yeomanry, amongst others, it may have been the lack of cork available for more foreign service helmets which led to its widespread adoption. Barlow and Smith offer a few words on our officer’s uniform and specifically his slouch hat.

During the annual training at Hightown in 1900, the slouch hats were served out for wear with the drill and working kit. The DLOY were one of the first yeomanry to wear this headgear on home service. The hat was of drab felt with at first a blue pagri but this was quickly replaced by a leather strap. The 1896 pattern serge frock… now bore shoulder chains for all ranks and brass collar badges…

Those colour badges appear to be gold with a red rose in the centre, according to Marrion’s illustration. So I’ve taken that as my guide and reproduced a tiny scarlet splash of the Lancastrian red rose in the badge.

The usual alder wood plinth and engraved plaques set the figure off nicely. It came with it’s own metal stand of a brickwork floor but I wanted to maintain the plinths I’ve used throughout the series:

Though I confess to accidentally dating him to be a year later than Tradition’s stated 1909! This matters not, I’m sure.

I confess to being very pleased with how this figure has turned out. What’s more, the painting of it was done quickly and with (for me) a relatively minimum amount of fuss. Sometimes simple uniforms can be strangely all the more difficult to get looking really satisfactory, I find, but this one seemed to come together nicely.

Tradition do a nice line in 54mm yeomanry figures, thanks to Alan Caton, and I confess to having my eye on one or two others (although no more are apparently based on Bob Marrion illustrations). I painted a nice figure of theirs last year depicting a man of the South Notts Hussars.

There’s something of the rakish, derring-do anti-hero about our Lancastrian captain. I can imagine Imperial Rebel Ork creating a clever character portrait and back story for this man.

And that’s not all – there’s more. I’ve only gone and won another figure for my Marrion’s Men series! It’s a figure which I’ve found on eBay and which I was outbid on some time ago! More on this anon but below are the display in my house of all my Marrion-inspired 54mm yeomanry with two prints of Bob Marrion’s artwork alongside.

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