Lovely Original Pre WW1 Highland Light Infantry HLI Major's Scarlet Mess Dress Jacket
On the shoulders it has very large Scottish Thistle bullion wire and golded rope shoulder boards and with bullion wire rank crowns for a Major.
Brass HLI buttons throughout - all present.
Jacket has cream collar and cuffs facings.
Jacket is designed to fasten and all HLI buttons present.
Nicely lined but with some degrading to the lining, specifically with rips around the collar.
Chest Size is small approx 35 inches. Armpit to armpit measurement is 17.5 inches. Armpit to cuff is 19 inches
Jacket has a makers label for Sandilands & Son of Conduit St London and named to Cap W M Hamilton HLI
Jacket condition is very good, other than the lining. One slight moth trail on the front and a patch of small dark stains on the back.
Major William Malcolm Fleming-Hamilton
He was born in 1869, was schooled at Eton and fought in both the Boer War and WW1.
He was a Justice of the Peace (JP) and Deputy Lieutenant (DL), and he was from Craichlaw, Wigtownshire, Scotland. He died in 1931
The London Gazette records his commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the HLI as “Gentleman Cadet William Malcolm Fleming Hamilton … to be Second Lieutenant” — dated 14th August 1889
He appears as Captain W. M. F. Hamilton in Boer War shipping records (troopship Galician, Sept 1902), and was made a temporary Major on 5th August at the outbreak of WWI.
In March 1922 he retired and is listed among the Highland Light Infantry officers shown as Major (retired pay) who ceased to belong to the Reserve of Officers.
