Robert Burns
BackUniform 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.