East India Company - 5th Light Cavalry ( Bengal European ) Silvered Officers Ball Button

An early ball button with fixed shank and feint makers details to the reverse. I can make out W&R ...S.. and HJ below. Circa 15mm in diameter. Rare as only worn 1858 - 1859.

Happy to be corrected, but I beleive this to be worn by the 5th Bengal European Cavalry, a cavalry regiment of the British East India Company, created in 1858 and disbanded in 1859. The regiment was originally raised in Bengal by the East India Company in 1858 as the 5th Bengal European Light Cavalry, for service in the Indian Mutiny; the "European" in the name indicated that it was manned by white soldiers, not Indian sowars. During the Mutiny, a major of the regiment, Charles John Stanley Gough, received the Victoria Cross. As with all other "European" units of the Company, they were placed under the command of the Crown following the end of the Mutiny in 1858, but the regiment was disbanded rather than be transferred into the British Army.

A2.8

Code: 55604