Thanks very much for the suggestion on "The Broad Arrow" Spiral. That pretty well cinches it! I must get a copy of this as I've seen it referenced so many times. I've tried to recall whether British lances were mentioned in Robson, but cannot recall. I do know that one source was the venerable old reference "Sword, Lance and Bayonet" by Charles Ffoulkes. There was a great article in the Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting, I think in the 1970's which frustratingly is among my files not handy at present.
Good one on the Custer movies Andy!!! One of the quintessant examples of artistic license is the misperceived ideas of that tragic event looked like! In my travels I was at the Little Big Horn for about a week several months ago, and were actually situated at one of the very locations where Custers troops camped just prior to the action.
Swords and lances at Little Big Horn....not! However, if anybody had the lances, the Sioux warriors would have had them...no pennons though
As for the British lances, the red and white were the colors used by the British military on thier lances overall, with the exception being 3rd Skinners Horse in the Indian cavalry who had yellow and blue pennons.
The cavalry lancers of various countries all seem to have used color coding on thier lance pennons as well, for example the German uhlans in WWI had black and white pennons and thier lances were metal.
All the best,
Jim