Hello All and I'm hoping you assist me.
I have seen images of British General Officers (certainly senior officers) uniformed under Portuguese regulations by Henrique José da Silva when in Portuguese service. I understand by Busaco 1810 a recent rapid expansion and intake of British officers thanks to the 'step-up' incentive yielded 158 new commissions.
Is there any evidence for how this new cadre was uniformed? I'm particularly interested in anything which might support temporary retention of their original British uniforms over the short term.
Thanks to anyone in advance with evidence either way.
Since Marshal Beresford was rather strict on the compliance with the regulations, issuing several orders of the day admonishing all the officers to follow those regulations, I think the British officers appointed to the Portuguese Army did not lost time to purchase their Portuguese uniform. Also, when Beresford announced, in one of his first orders of the day to the Portuguese army, the appointment of British officers to the army, a sensitive subject, he stressed that those officers will have to be considered in all equal to the Portuguese. So politically it was important for Beresford that those British officers presented themselves in the Portuguese uniform.
Thomas Bunbury, one that applied to enter the Portuguese service, mentions in his Reminiscences (vol. 1, p. 49-51) that some time elapsed between his application and he being gazetted and in the meantime he purchased his Portuguese uniform, which saved him from been harassed by Colonel Peacock which command the British depôt at Lisbon and was constantly looking for idlers, absent from their units and amusing themselves in the city.