Uniform jacket, Royal Dumfries Volunteers

Image Rights Holder:

Dumfries & Galloway Museums Service

Project:

:Future Museum

Material:

textile, wool, metal, brass, silver

Dimensions:

length (back) 840mm; (sleeve) 700mm

What:

Robert Burns

Subject:

jacket

Who:

When:

18th Century

Where:

Background:

Will, William "Robert Burns as a Volunteer" Glasgow: John Smith & Son Ltd, 1919

Description:

The Royal Dumfries Volunteers were founded in 1795 to counter the threat from post revolutionary France. Robert Burns, whose loyalty to Great Britain had been called into question by his support for the French revolutionaries, joined immediately. He had also lost the friendship of Mrs Dunlop, an Edinburgh correspondent, because of his political leanings, and so he then sent a song, "The Dumfries Volunteers" to her. This song became popular throughout Britain.

This is the red uniform jacket of the period, similar to the one which Burns would have worn.