Mess jacket: Brevet Lieutenant Colonel C H Bartlett, New South Wales Headquarters Staff

Scarlet superfine jacket with dark blue collar and pointed cuffs. Upper edge of collar decorated with gold, staff pattern lace and lower edge with gold Russia braid. Dark blue shoulder straps edged with gold lace, each bearing an embroidered bullion crown and star for the rank of lieutenant colonel and single small gilt New South Wales Military Forces button. Dark blue pointed cuffs decorated with one chevron of partially padded gold lace at the point. Pointed jacket fronts and lower edge of jacket trimmed with gold lace with gold lace barrels at the back seams. Left front edge is decorated with a row of gilded studs. The jacket fastens down the front with brass hooks and eyes. The neck edge fastens with a single hook and eye or a loop of gold gimp braid. There are markings on the left breast where either medals or medal ribbons may have once been attached. Jacket lined with partially quilted scarlet silk. Concealed vertical welt pockets inside each breast. A wide band of maroon dyed leather reinforces the lower edge of the jacket. Sleeves lined with striped white silk twill and collar with black ribbed silk.

Mess jacket worn by Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Bartlett probably from 1899 onwards. Charles Henry Falkner Hope Bartlett was born in 1 August 1853 at Broadwater Station, near Maitland in NSW. His first military appointment was as a lieutenant in the East Maitland Company of the Northern Battalion, NSW Volunteer Force in 1872. In March 1875 he was promoted to captain. He reverted to the rank of lieutenant in 1878 when his corps were amalgamated but was promoted again to captain in 1880. Bartlett resigned in 1883 when he took up an appointment as adjutant in the NSW Permanent Military Forces. In 1885 he went to the Sudan as adjutant with the New South Wales Infantry Contingent to the campaign. He took part in the advance on Tamai and was Mentioned in Despatches. He received the Egypt medal with clasp 'Suakin 1885' and the Khedive's Star. In 1887 Bartlett went to England where he underwent training in musketry and in the operation of Gardiner and Nordenfeldt guns. After his return to Australia Bartlett was promoted to major in 1887. He was deputy assistant adjutant general on the NSW Headquarters staff from 1893 to 1895. He received a promotion as brevet lieutenant colonel in 1899 and was appointed to the administrative and instructional staff of the 3rd and 4th Regiments in 1902. In 1906 he became assistant adjutant general and chief staff officer with the Commonwealth Military Forces where he was recommended for promotion to Colonel. Bartlett was appointed aide-de-camp to the governor-general, the Earl of Dudley, in 1909 and retired as a colonel on 1 April 1912. He died on 17 June 1916 at Woolahra, Sydney.

• Mess waistcoat : Brevet Lieutenant Colonel C H Bartlett, New South Wales Headquarters Staff
• Trousers: Brevet Lieutenant Colonel C H Bartlett, New South Wales Headquarters Staff