Hi folks,
As some of you may know, I am working on a PhD on military music. Is anyone aware of a list of a given officer's annual expenses, including subscriptions paid to the band, alongside the costs of messing, laundry etc?
I have plenty of data on the amounts officers contributed annually for the upkeep of regimental bands, which varied significantly depending on rank and unit, e.g. equivalent to ten and nineteen days’ pay for captains of the 40th and 3rd West India Regts. I also know of numerous complaints about excessive music bills damaging the finances of less prosperous officers. But ideally I would like to get a better sense of the size of band subscriptions as a percentage of officers' overall financial liabilities - evidently it was sizeable but far less than the costs of food and wine at mess. I am aware of helpful figures in Burnham and McGuigan's British Army against Napoleon about deductions for officers' rations on p147-148 but these don't provide like-for-like comparisons as the examples of band expenses I have come from different regts/years.
I'm not sure if anyone will have relevant information, but I would be grateful for any suggestions.