Cross belt : Lieutenant William Mair, British 99th Regiment of Foot

Cross-belt of buff leather with sword slings and fire gilt finished brass cross-belt plate with 99th Regiment badge in gilt and silver. The gilding on the plate has been partially worn away. The original regimental badge has been replated causing some loss in the sharpness of the fine details. A leather flap on the inside of the belt plate is stamped with 'W. MAIR 99 REG'. The buff leather has been coated more recently with a modern whitener. There is some illegible handwriting on the inside of the belt.

Officer's cross belt of the 99th Regiment of Foot. This regiment was first raised in 1760 and was disbanded several times before being raised in 1824 as the 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot. The 99th came to Australia in 1842-1843 and contingents served in Hobart, Sydney, New Zealand and Victoria at various times.

The name on the inside of the belt suggests that it belonged to Lieutenant William Mair. Born in Scotland in 1806 William Mair was commissioned in the 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment in 1830. Between 1831 and 1841 he served in Mauritius and Ireland. Mair arrived in Hobart Town in March 1842 as escort for 200 convicts. He soon after moved to Sydney where the rest of the 99th arrived in detachments. In the following year Mair acted as regimental paymaster, and sometimes quartermaster. He transferred to the Mounted Police with the rank of captain in February 1843 and was appointed adjutant of the unit.

With only light duties to occupy him in Sydney Mair toured outlying stations at Maitland, Penrith, Bathurst, Berrima, Goulburn and Yass. In December he travelled by sea to Melbourne to visit stations in the Port Phillip district. He returned to Sydney overland through Albury and Goulburn in 1844. In October 1846 Charles La Trobe, then superintendent of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, sought more mounted police to control riots between Irish Orange and Catholic factions in Melbourne and asked Mair to take command of the Port Phillip mounted force. Mair resigned as adjutant and rode to Melbourne, recruiting additional troopers on the way. Once in Melbourne he was also appointed a magistrate. Mair remained in Melbourne until he was recalled to Sydney in 1849, shortly before the Mounted Police were disbanded.

In 1851 La Trobe, by now lieutenant-governor of the new colony of Victoria, appointed Mair a police magistrate, initially in the Port Fairy district, and then the Ballarat District. In 1852 he was asked to raise, equip and drill a mounted police force for escort and other duties in the goldfields which eventually numbered 280 men and was known as Mair’s Gold Mounted Police Force. The various Victorian police forces were amalgamated in January 1853 and Mair was appointed paymaster of the new force. He had remained in the army but sold his commission in 1855, serving in the police force until 1875.

In 1860 Mair enrolled and commanded a volunteer rifle corps at Brighton. He was active in the Victorian militia until 1886, retiring with the honorary rank of colonel. Mair died at Nyora, Gippsland in 1904.