3-028-712 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Presentation of Colours to the St. George's Volunteers, 1870. 'The old colours belonging to the volunteer corps of St. George's parish, Westminster, from 1795 to 1803, under the command of the Earl of Chesterfield, grandfather to the present Earl, were lately found in a lumber-room of Chesterfield House, Mayfair...Lord Chesterfield has given them, with great propriety, to the existing St. George's Rifle Volunteer Corps, under the command of Colonel the Hon. C. H. Lindsay...On Saturday evening they were formally presented by Lord Elcho...in the grounds of the Duke of York's Royal Military School, Chelsea, near the Royal Military Asylum, or Chelsea Hospital...The St. George's Volunteer Corps, mustering about 200, was under the command of Colonel Lindsay...It marched, with its band, from Wellington Barracks...The corps was drawn up in line opposite the old colours, which rested upon a pile of drums. The Ensigns presented the colours to Lord Elcho, and received them again from him...The volunteers then marched past, with colours flying, and formed a hollow square, in the midst of which Lord Elcho stood to bid them farewell. A large number of soldiers, volunteers, Chelsea pensioners, and others, witnessed the proceedings'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.