Hi everyone,
A Canadian historian researching the Napoleonic/War of 1812 veterans who took up land grants at the Perth Military Settlement wrote to me asking whether British Army officers were supplied with pistols by government or if they were required to to provide their own at personal expense. I believe they were bought privately but don't really know of any evidence for this. Is anyone aware of primary or secondary sources I might be able to share with him on the procurement and design of officers' pistols during the Napoleonic period?
“British Cavalry Carbines and Pistols of the Napoleonic Era” by Barry Chisnell and Geoffrey Davies has a photograph of ‘A fine officers privately made 1715 style pistol by Freeman marked to the 2nd Royal Horse Guards (Blues)’. Not all officers had a high regard for their sidearm though, as Lt Col John Luard put it “There are but few cavalry officers, who served during the Peninsula War, that ever saw a pistol used, unless to light a fire in bivouac, and shoot a glandered or wounded horse”