P P S Me yet again I forgot to mention the photo of the two French marine infantrymen must I think date from 1884 or 1885 rather than as late as 1888 It was taken by Edouard Hocquard who served with the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps as a doctor in those two years He took part in the Bac Ninh campaign March 1884 and the Lang Son Campaign February 1885 I m pretty sure the picture which is one of a suite of images he took in Tonkin that have been published on the internet dates from 1884 and have said so when I used it in my Tonkin Expeditionary Corps article Click on the image there and it ll link you to the website