Mr. Skeeter,
Your request certainly does cover a very broad spectrum, but I am hopeful that Colonel Sir Harry Flashman, and perhaps others, as well as myself, may be able to afford some small assistance.
The differences in insignia, uniforming, and personal equipment - depending on the arm of service - i.e. Cavalry, Artillery, Infantry, etc. - as well as upon the
type of unit within a particular arm (e.g. Regular Line, Highland, Rifles, etc. within the Infantry)
and upon the specific Regiment - are considerably greater than within the United States Army of the period.
The first thing which occurs to me is that your suggested timeframe - i.e. circa 1879-1882 - may be a bit problematic, since mid-1881 saw very significant changes in the Regimental system, as well as in uniforming and insignia, of the British Army. (During the 1870's and early 1880's a series of such changes occured - generally referred to as the Cardwell Reforms after Edward Cardwell, the Liberal Government Secretary of State for War from 1871 through 1881.) In 1881, new "Territorial Regiments" of four battalions each (five battalions in Ireland) were created by amalgamation of various Regular Regiments and Militia Regiments, with two Regular Regiments generally becoming the first and second battalions of the new Regiment (the name of which may have been derived from the more senior of the two, or from some sort of combination) and the various Militia and Volunteer units absorbed into and forming the third and fourth battalions. Each new Regiment was "territorial" in the sense of being headquartered in a particular County (or Counties) and/or City, and was expected thereafter to recruit from that geographical area. There were corresponding changes in Regimental uniforms and insignia, and at the same time some fairly significant changes were introduced in the
general uniform regulations - e.g. facing (i.e. trim) colours were standardized from the plethora of different hues which had hitherto been used, to white for English (and Welsh) Regiments, yellow for Scottish, and green for Irish. (One exception to that was that "Royal" Regiments retained their blue facings, regardless of the area of Britain they were from.) Another significant change made at that time was relocation of Officers' rank insignia from the collar to the shoulder straps, and placement of Regimental insignia on the collar (i.e. "collar dogs") - which took the place of many of the earlier Regimental marks of distinction, such as a particular facing colour.
One such new Territorial Regiment was the unit of my own military persona - ie. "The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)" which became the county regiment of Fifeshire, Forfarshire and Perthshire, encompassing the Militia and Volunteer infantry units of those areas as well as re-amalgamting two Line Regiments as its Regular Battalions: the "42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot (The Black Watch)" and its former second battalion, which had been split off in 1787 to eventually become the "73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot". New badging and insignia were adopted for this newly formed Territorial Regiment, based upon the badge of the 42nd (Black Watch) but with the large arabic "42" in the center being replaced by an image of St. Andrew and St. Andrew's Cross, which is essentially still the Regiment's badge (or perhaps I should say "was" in view of the very sweeping changes and amalgamations just introduced this year to the British Army
) :-
Anyway, my uniforms incorporate both "pre-1881" and "post-1881" insignia (bonnet badgest/helmet plates, buttons, etc.) - but that is entirely in keeping with practice and the Regulations (at least for an Officer who had served up to 1881 with the 42nd Regiment, though it would not necessarily apply for an Officer of the former 73rd Regiment.) The specific provision of the 1881 Dress Regulations covering this reads as follows:
"Changes of facings and alterations in badges (for battalions in which these and the Officers' lace only are changed) will come into effect, both for the Line and the Militia, as regards the men, on 1st July, 1881. Officers newly appointed to these battalions will at once provide themselves with uniforms in accordance with these instructions, and other Officers in them as they may require to replace that now in possession."So there could have been a significant "phase-in" period, as Officers replaced their buttons, badging, etc. - either as needed, or as they could afford it.
At any rate, you may begin to realize that much will depend on what unit you choose to portray - i.e. it might be one that ceased to exist in 1881, becoming the second battalion of one of the new Territorial Regiments, or in any event would have seen fairly significant changes in uniform and insignia introduced that year. You might first have to continue your general reading to decide what arm and Regiment you want to portray, in what era and campaign(s). I suspect from the dates you have specified that your interest (at least initially) may be in the Zulu War period. But don't limit yourself - the British Army was stationed and saw action all over the world throughout the entire Victorian period! (If I recall correctly, there were only 4 years during Victoria's 64-year reign that the British Army wasn't fighting somewhere ...)
FWIW, I have just begun the rather arduous task of transcribing the text of the nearly 175 pages of the 1891 British "Dress Regulations for the Officers of the Army", of which I have a facsimile copy, for inclusion on the Grand Army of the Frontier website. Unfortunately, I am not aware whether any of the other major "editions" of the Regulations have been similarly republished (except for the 1900 version - which documents the changes made right at the end of our period of interest.) One wonders why the 1881 regulations have not been reprinted - in view of the sweeping changes introduced at that time - but if they have, I have yet to come across them. (I did get very excited, and succumbed to a bit of an eBay bidding frenzy, to acquire something described as a facsimile reprint of the 1881 regulations, but it turned out to be just a summary of the basics in a few pages, interspersed with price lists and illustrations of wares, published by a military outfitter at the time. Nowhere near the detail of the complete regulations, though certainly better than nothing.)
It is also my duty to contribute to a list of references for uniforms and such, regarding the Victorian-era British Army, for the GAF Uniform Board. However, I don't seem to have had time to get that completed, what with one distraction and another. Anyway, do keep in touch, and if you have specific questions, I'll do my best to assist.
A
very good online reference for lots of information on the British Army generally, and specific Regiments of Britain and the Empire in particular - with scads of other links relating to most of the Regiments - is "Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth", here:
http://regiments.org Be sure to bookmark that one - there is virtually a lifetime of reading to be found there.
Finally, to close off for now, here is a "period" chart of the pre-1900 Rank Insignia of the British Army, followed by a link to a much larger version (on which you can actually read the captions) - you might want to copy this larger version to your hard drive, for reference:
http://members.memlane.com/gromboug/rankch~4.jpg