British 1827 Pattern Pipeback Rifle Officer’s Sword, King’s Royal Rifle Corps (60th Rifles)

Curved pipeback blade with quill point, pierced steel hilt of ‘Gothic’ style with inset Rifles badge of a strung bugle and crown. Steel ferrule, smooth backstrap and oval pommel cap. Wire-bound shagreen grip. Steel scabbard with two hanging rings. No leather washer. The blade is 32½ inches (~82.5cm) in length, the sword 37¾ inches overall (~95.8cm).

The blade is etched on one side at the forte with the maker’s mark ‘TATHAM 37 Charing LONDON’, indicating the firm of Henry Tatham. Moving up the blade on that side it is further etched with foliate motifs within a geometric pattern, then a pair of crossed lances with banners, the left banner reading ‘LX REG’ and the right bearing the strung bugle symbol of the Rifle regiments, then a large strung bugle, then a laurel wreath, then ‘LX Regt’ surmounted by more laurels, then a crown, a palm wreath and a fleur-de-lys like design. It is similarly etched on the other side with a geometric pattern at the forte, then the crossed lances with banners but with the bugle and text on the opposite sides, then a laurel wreath, then ‘The King’s own Rifle Corps’ surmounted by laurels, then the crown, palm wreath and fleur-de-lys.

This detailed custom etching is all legible upon close inspection but is faint. This has probably been worsened by past polishing but faint etching is a common feature for swords from the 1810s to the 1830s. Manufacturers must have used weaker acids or shorter immersion times, but their reason for doing so is unknown.

The King’s Royal Rifle Corps was raised in 1756 as the 62^nd (Royal American) Regiment of Foot, and renumbered the 60^th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot just under a year later. It was from the beginning a unique force, intended to specialise in forest fighting in the wilderness of North America, where at the time the British colonies in North America were in conflict with the settlers of New France, each side joined by various Native American allies in the ‘French and Indian War’, which was one theatre of the global Seven Years War. Special dispensation was given for the new unit to recruit foreign Protestants, allowing them to make use of Swiss and German volunteers with the necessary skills, as well as American volunteers and men from regular British army units.

The result was a unit somewhere between colonial infantry and a foreign legion, with the flexibility to move ahead of its time in equipment and tactics: while it wore cocked hats and swords on parade, in the field the men carried hatchets, short coats with no lace for ease of movement and most importantly, a rifle.

The 60^th distinguished itself in the successful campaign into Canada in 1760 under General Wolfe, who personally conferred on them the motto Celer et Audax (Swift and Bold). The regiment’s various battalions distinguished themselves in disparate North American conflicts from Canada to the Caribbean. Two fresh battalions were raised for the American Revolutionary War, where they fought in Georgia.

In 1797 the Duke of York became Colonel-in-chief of the regiment, and shortly afterwards the 5^th Battalion of the 60^th was raised in England as green-jacketed riflemen. This battalion famously went with Wellington to the Peninsular War in 1808, where it was divided into companies attached to regular infantry brigades. Lord Wellington wrote to his brigade commanders that “they will find them to be most useful, active and brave troops in the field and that they will add essentially to the strength of the brigade" and stressed that the rifle companies could and should be deployed flexibly: "when opposing the enemy they would of course be on the front, flanks or rear according to circumstances”. Marshal Soult identified the British rifle battalions as a key threat in a letter to the Minister of War: “The men are selected for their marksmanship; they perform duties of scouts and in action are expressly ordered to pick off officers... This mode of making war and injuring the enemy is very detrimental to us; our casualties in officers are so great that after a couple of actions the whole number are usually disabled in the ratio of one officer to eight men”.

In 1815 its name finally reflected its role as it became the 60^th (Royal American) Light Infantry. However, with its links to North America diminishing and its role as a rifle regiment more clearly established, the regiment was renamed the 60^th Duke of York's Own Rifle Corps in 1824, although at least one battalion was in Canada at all times until 1824. In 1830 it gained the most prestigious patronage of all, becoming the King's Royal Rifle Corps (sometimes phrased as the King’s Own, as etched on this sword, or as the ‘60^th Royal Rifles’).

This sword must therefore post-date 1830, and as the pipeback blade was replaced in rifle officer’s swords in 1845 with a fullered Wilkinson-style sabre blade, it cannot date to later than 1845. As noted above the style of etching is characteristic of the 1830s at the latest, so I am inclined to think this is a very early example of the 1827 Pattern, and to have been made not long after the new name was granted to this regiment. An identical example, also to the 60^th Rifles, from the National Army Museum is illustrated in Robson’s Swords of the British Army (Revised Edition p.160).

From 1845-60 the 1^st Battalion served in India, from which it took part in the Sikh War, and Indian Mutiny. It returned to Canada in 1867 to guard against Fenian raids, then accompanied Sir Garnet Wolseley's expedition across Canadian wilderness to end the Red River Rebellion in Manitoba. The 2^nd Battalion fought in the Ninth Xhosa War in South Africa in 1878.

The regiment served through both World Wars. In 1958 the regiment was grouped into the new Green Jackets Brigade as the ‘2nd Green Jackets, the King's Royal Rifle Corps’. In 1966 the three regiments in the Brigade were amalgamated into one ‘large regiment’, with the 2nd Battalion maintaining the lineage of the King's Royal Rifle Corps. In 2007 the Green Jackets was amalgamated with the rest of the Light Division to form The Rifles. Regimental titles were not officially maintained for the battalions of this new large regiment, but the 2^nd Battalion, The Rifles is the descendant unit of the KRRC today.

Henry Tatham was a sword cutler and gunmaker founded in 1800. From 1803-1816 he entered into partnership with the cutler Egg during which the firm traded as ‘Tatham & Egg’, then it reverted to his own name until its closure in 1860.

The blade is bright, with only a few small spots of patination. Both its true and false edges have been sharpened, leaving sharpening marks, and this edge is undamaged. A few traces of old varnish are present in the recess where the ‘pipe’ meets the flat of the blade, which may account for its better-preserved finish. All other steel parts of the sword have a dark patina, with speckled pitting in places. The wire binding of the grip is all present and tight, the shagreen of the grip is sound with only light handling wear. The leather washer has been lost. The scabbard is free of dents, its surface is likewise darkly patinated with speckled pitting overall.