Chapka, officer, Duke of Cornwall’s (Loyal Meneage) Yeomanry, 1816 (metal, paper and cloth)

Chapka, officer, Duke of Cornwall’s (Loyal Meneage) Yeomanry, 1816. Grey metal crown covered with japanned black brown paper, scarlet cloth sides stiffened with metal rod. Black patented leather skull and peaks and a red and white plume. The chapka plate bears the Prince of Wales’s feathers emerging from a coronet, with a die-struck scroll bearing the regimental title. The chapka, or lance cap, was an item of headdress originally worn by Polish lancer regiments. British forces encountered Polish lancers in French service during the Napoleonic Wars. The British Army’s lancer regiments, formed after the Waterloo campaign, subsequently adopted the chapka. The Duke of Cornwall’s (Loyal Meneage) Yeomanry adopted the lance in September 1816, making this chapka one of the earliest known for a Yeomanry unit.