Carte de Visite
F. W. Hepburn - Photographer
Grahams Town, Cape Colony, Southern Africa
1880s

A gunner from the Grahamstown Volunteer Horse Artillery, a now obscure Cape Colony volunteer unit. First raised about 1877 the unit persisted until around 1895. This gunner wears
the unit's rather flamboyant first style dress uniform that consisted of a blue hussar style tunic, white foreign service helmet with white horsehair falling plume. After 1885 the unit was
issued a new uniform styled after that of the Royal Horse Artillery.

Members of the Grahamstown Volunteer Horse Artillery took part in several colonial campaigns including the 9th Cape Frontier War (1877-78)  and the Basuto Gun War (1880-81).