Uniform jacket, Royal Dumfriesshire Volunteers

The Royal Dumfries Volunteers were founded in 1795 to counter the threat from post revolutionary France.  Robert Burns, whose loyalty to Great Britain had been called into question by his support for the French revolutionaries, joined immediately.  He had also lost the friendship of Mrs Dunlop, an Edinburgh correspondent, because of his political leanings, and so he then sent a song, "The Dumfries Volunteers" to her.  This song became popular throughout Britain.   This is the red uniform jacket of the period, similar in style to the one which Burns would have worn, although Burns' jacket likely would have been blue in colour.