Other views now prevailed, and out of 300 who answered the circular addressed to them, and who expressed any opinion at all in the matter, 220 were in favour of a change. After a considerable time had been taken in arriving at a decision, it was resolved to discard the dark grey for a very light grey, retaining the Royal blue facings and the black belts of the old uniform.
The sanction of the Honorary Colonel and of the War Office having been obtained, the change was carried out at the commencement of 1890. Taking advantage of a grant from the Volunteer Equipment Fund raised by the Lord Mayor (Sir James Whitehead), the Corps at the same time furnished itself with greatcoats and the full equipment considered necessary by the War Office; so that at the Inspection of this year the Regiment paraded in its new uniform, and, for the first time, fully equipped.
The Inspection of 1890 was also remarkable for another event of importance. For some time past Lord Bury had been announcing his intention of shortly resigning the command of the Corps, which he had now held for thirty years.
A few months before, the officers of the Corps, foreseeing the coming resignation, had presented Lady Bury with an oil painting of his Lordship, in the uniform of the C.S.R.V. The portrait, by a rising young artist of the day, had been exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, and had been very favourably noticed.
Resignation of Lord Bury.
At the close of the Inspection referred to (held in the Camp in the Old Deer Park, Richmond) Lord Bury, in a few earnest words, regretfully bade farewell to the Regiment in which he had spent so large a period of his life, and with which he expressed a hope that his family would henceforward be always connected. He then formally handed over the command to his successor, Major and Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel Mills; and, with an outburst of hearty cheering in his honour, the Civil Service Corps took leave of its first Commanding Officer.
Staff Promotions.
On the resignation of Lord Bury, and the appointment of Lieutenant-Colonel Mills to the command of the Regiment, Captain and Honorary Major J. J. Cardin, of the Post Office, was promoted to the post of Major; and it is doubtful if in the whole history of the Corps can be recorded any more popular promotions than these two.
Building of Head Quarters.
There remains now but one more event to chronicle in order to bring this brief category to a close, viz., the building of a Regimental Headquarters. Ever since its formation the only apology for a Headquarters which the Corps possessed consisted of a single room, kindly lent by the authorities of the Exchequer and Audit Department, in which the business of the Regimental Staff was conducted. It had been felt for some time that the satisfactory condition of the Corps justified an effort being made to provide its members with similar accommodation to that possessed by most of the London Corps. The chief difficulty was that of obtaining a favourable site at an outlay within reasonable limits. This difficulty was at length overcome mainly by the exertions of Colonel Mills, through whose agency the Government were induced to lend, under very favourable conditions, a piece of ground between the two west wings of Somerset House, approached from the Embankment by what was originally the West Watergate.