3-008-461 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Queen's Westminster Rifle Volunteers, 1862. 'Major Russell, Colour-Sergeant Roe, Capt. Vacher, Major Loch, Capt. Busby, Capt. Worms, Earl Grosvenor, Dr. Buzzard, Lieut. Trollope, Dr. Cross, Cross Jun., Lieut.-Col. Lord Gerald FitzGerald, Major Mayne, Capt. Curtis, Hon. W. Byng...This regiment was formed by the amalgamation of two corps, the original Queen's, raised in Belgravia, under Lieut.-Col. Earl Grosvenor, M.P., and the Westminsters, raised in Old Westminster...[In] the choice of a commanding officer for the Westminsters...where could a more fitting person be found than in the eldest son of the Marquis of Westminster? The amalgamation of the Westminsters with the Queen's followed as a natural consequence; and, by permission of the authorities at the War Office, the regiment assumed the name of the Queen's (Westminster) Rifle Volunteers...The corps consists of eighteen companies, has excellent brass and drum-and-fife bands, and a numerous cadet corps...On the occasion of the presentation of the colours of the Old Westminsters at the Horse Guards parade on the 1st of June the corps mustered to the number of 1500; and on the occasion of the review at Wimbledon it was the only corps that mustered two battalions'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.