Full dress kurta, Lieutenant-Colonel C P G Griffin, 1st (The Duke of York's Own) Regiment...

Full dress kurta, Lieutenant-Colonel C P G Griffin, 1st (The Duke of York's Own) Regiment of Bengal Lancers, 1900 circa. The distinctive full-dress kurta (long coat) was worn by both British and Indian officers of Skinner’s Horse. The adoption of distinctive yellow kurtas on the Regiment’s formation in 1803 prompted the nickname ‘the yellow boys’. The son of a Scottish father and a Rajput mother, Skinner is believed to have chosen this colour after an ancient Rajput custom. The tradition held that warriors riding into battle would vow to win or die in the attempt. They would then anoint their faces with saffron and put on ‘Clothes of the Dead’, yellow robes tied over their armour with yellow sashes.