Portrait of C.W. Bampfylde as Colonel of the Somerset Militia. Private collection.

Bampfylde’s proud career in the Somerset Militia saw him rise steadily through the officer ranks from Major (1758) to Lieutenant Colonel (1761) to Colonel (1767). Long marches and a month annually of militia training were suffered into the 1770s and at low pay – ‘My Militia pay will never reimburse my military expenses, as we are so liberal as to bestow two-thirds of it on our subalterns.’