Wigan Album

Looks like Royal Artillery, going by the cap badges, lanyards and bandoliers.

Going off a photo of my dads uncle,it looks like the Lancashire Fusiliers.

Educate me please Mick. What are lanyards and bandoliers.

Jude - lanyards are the pieces of white braid which can be seen on the left shoulder of the battledress. Bandoliers are the pouched leather belts they are wearing diagonally across the battledress. These were used for carrying ammunition.

Thanks Mick. What was/is (?) the purpose of the lanyards? Was it different colours for different regiments, rank or?

Courtesy of 'The Garrison' website:-
"Lanyards associated with dress came into use in the late 19th Century, when field guns, such as the 12 and 15 pounders, used ammunition which had fuzes set with a fuze key. The key was a simple device, and every man had one, attached to a lanyard worn around the neck. The key itself was kept in the breast pocket until needed. The lanyard would hanging loose and soon become dirty and for the day-to-day barrack routine it looked out of place on an otherwise smart uniform, so for peace time purposes, the lanyard was plaited, and blancoed white, to match the white bandolier and the white waist belt worn by the Gunners of the day.

Prior to the South African War, Gunners were issued with a steel folding hoof pick, carried on the saddle or in the knife. In about 1903 these were withdrawn and replaced with jack knives, which were carried in the left breast pocket of the Service Dress attached to a lanyard over the left shoulder. In the war years that followed, the lanyard could be used as an emergency firing lanyard for those guns which had a trigger firing mechanism, allowing the gunner to stand clear of the gun’s recoil.

About the time of the Great War, the lanyard was moved to the right shoulder, simply because of the difficult problem of trying to remove the knife from the pocket underneath the bandolier. By now the bandolier and belt, worn with the battle dress, had long ceased to be white, whilst the lanyard remained so."

Nice one Mick