TOPIC:

Can anyone please help me identify the uniform worn by the men in this photo? One of the men is my great grandfather Thomas Henry Orton (known as Harry) who served in South Africa with the King's Own Scottish Borders from Jan 1900 to Nov 1901. I think the other man is his brother but I can't find any record of any of his brother's serving in South Africa. I know that my great grandad was in the Melton Volunteers attached to the 1st Volunteer Battalion (VB) of the Leicestershire Regiment but then enlisted in the KOSB. Are the uniforms the men are wearing Boer War uniforms that the KOSB may have worn? Also, does anyone have any idea why Harry might have joined the KOSB when he lived in Leicestershire and was attached to the Leicestershire Regiment? Any help would be much appreciated.

Your image.

The uniforms are indeed Boer War uniforms, and members of the the KOSB may have worn these if they were fighting as mounted infantrymen. As the war progressed, infantry units became less useful than mounted units, so companies from many regiments were mounted, and if you read here,
www.angloboerwar.com/unit-information/im...n-scottish-borderers
you'll see "The Mounted Infantry company of the regiment did much hard work and had some stiff fighting...".
The slouch hats, flap raised on the left, were typical of mounted infantry, and the regimental badge would have been on the hat flap.
The man on the right also has badges on his epaulettes, though we can't tell much from this angle; he also wears a Mounted Infantry P1897 bandolier, while the man on the left wears a "Boer pattern" bandolier.

Are there details of the photographer or the studio on the photo?