Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

1803 Pattern Infantry Officer's Sword

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Overview

The 1803 pattern Infantry Officers Sword has a curved blade double-edged towards the point with the knuckle-guard with crowned 'GR' cypher surmounted by a bugle horn suspended on a ribbon, a ring for a tassel above, lion-head pommel and back-piece in one, and ribbed dark horn grip bound with twisted copper wire.

Historical information

This sabre was introduced to fill an important need amongst British officers who duties took them away from the safety of regular Infantry line formations. Skirmishing with the enemy as light infantry or riflemen was a very dangerous venture, and these extended formations were vulnerable to being overrun by timely movements of enemy cavalry or concerted pushes by enemy infantry.
.While the regular pattern 1796 Infantry straight had some cut and thrust functionality to it, it was completely inadequate for the Grenadier, Light Infantry and Rifle officers of the British Army. In the late 1790s unofficial curved bladed Infantry sabres started popping up in regiments. These sabres came in many shapes and sizes and in 1803 the army officials took steps to standardize this sabre.
In addition, this pattern was taken up (with a white ivory grip) by many mounted regimental field officers (majors and colonels), again because of its usefulness in combat. Even some General officers adopted it instead of the 1796 staff pattern

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-54-500

Contextual Information

This sword is displayed in the Pre 1914 Galley as part of the stories of British military detachments in Western Australia from 1826 to 1870. All edged weapons, including bayonets, knives and swords in the collection of the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia are physically secured within locked display cases.

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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