These figures are taken from a talk given to the Royal United Services Institute (R.U.S.I.) in 1860 whose subject was ON IMPROVEMENTS IN HELMETS AND OTHER HEADDRESS FOR BRITISH TROOPS IN THE TROPICS, MORE ESPECIALLY IN INDIA. These drawings, of a civilian hat, were selected to illustrate, up front, the impracticality of this eccentric’s proposed implementation of his theories.

Julius Jeffreys, a Victorian doctor, was an HEIC Staff-Surgeon of Cawnpore and Civil Surgeon of Futtehgurh in India during the 1820s and 1830s. He was a prolific author, traveler, inventor and a champion of the welfare of British troops serving in India and the Tropics. However, although his theories were often of great merit the execution of them was sometimes quite impractical to say the least. One has to add to that his inability to express himself in a concise and readable manner, to which this author can attest having ploughed through a good deal of this man’s turgid prose. Continue reading →