15th June 2023

Royal Staff Corps

Backmark: Charles Jennens London POW plume. Despite the oft quoted date of this back mark as being from 1860 onwards, this button dates circa 1823-1833. According to Ronald Montague, this button was made of gunmetal (a grey corrosion-resistant form of bronze containing zinc).

The Royal Staff Corps supplied orderlies, police and artisans from 1815-1833. Detachments served in Van Diemen’s Land and New South Wales from 1826-1829.

Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen’s Land Advertiser (Tas), 29th July 1825 page 3. An artificer was a “skilled mechanic/tradesman in the armed forces.”

The Hobart Town Gazette, (Tas), 26th November 1825 page 2.

Australian Almanack : for the year of Our Lord 1829, page 183.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 20th August 1829, page 2. Most of them did settle in the colonies.