The Fife Major was the second-in-command of a corps of drums, responsible for the training and discipline of the regiment’s fifers.  It was nonetheless a semi-official rank within the British Army, as not every regiment maintained a fife major as part of its establishment.  Still, a number of regiments in Canada such as the 10th Royal Veteran Battalion and the Frontier Light Infantry had fife majors during the War of 1812.

​

Evidence concerning the dress of fife majors is extremely scarce.  A watercolour of the fife major of the 7th (Royal Fusiliers) Regiment painted in 1787 suggests they wore uniforms similar to those of the drum major, including a laced baldric as a badge of office.  The drum and fife majors’ uniforms of the 7th Regiment were, however, entirely non-regulation and unusually elaborate owing to the fact that the regiment’s colonel at that time was HRH the Duke of Kent, son of King George III and a notable enthusiast of military fashion. 

​

John Shipp, who served as fife major of the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment in the very early 1800s left the most comprehensive description of a typical fife major’s uniform in his memoirs.  Shipp recounted that when promoted, he wore “two stripes [corporal’s insignia] and a tremendous long sash [of a sergeant], which almost touched the ground” along with his normal drummers’ coat, and was allowed to carry a small cane as well.  Later, having grown out of his previous coat, he was issued “a splendid white silver-laced jacket [or light buff, the 22nd’s facing colour], with two small silver epaulettes,” which his swagger caused to sway in the evening breeze.  Whether this was the distinctive dress of the 22nd’s fife major or a cast-off drum major’s coat is unclear.  Regardless, it is clear that corporal’s stripes and a sergeant’s sash worn in conjunction with some form of musician’s uniform were the distinguishing marks of a fife major, at least in the 22nd Regiment.