West Essex Yeomanry s/plated officers coatee button C.1831-77

WEST ESSEX YEOMANRY 17mm silver plated officers coatee button by JENNENS with a central Garter Star,   raised 1831, disbanded 31 March 1877

This particular corps (1831-1877) never served abroad. Palmer retired in 1868, the unit reverted to the plain title “Essex Yeomanry Cavalry” in 1871, the artillery troops were disbanded in 1876, and with only 46 men left on parade it was wound up entirely on 31 March 1877.  A completely separate, later regiment (the modern Essex Yeomanry, re-raised 1902) is the one that fought in the Boer War, WWI, and WWII. Your button predates all of that.

One nice detail

In 1877 the disbanded West Essex Yeomanry reformed as the Waltham Abbey Town Band, which kept wearing the old Yeomanry uniform.  So the button’s design lived on in civilian bandsmen’s dress even after the unit itself ceased to exist.