BRITISH ARMY

Evening Star, Issue 22573, 15 February 1937, Page 16

BRITISH ARMY

HOW UNIFORMS EVOLVED The announced intention of the War Office to dress in blue uniforms the troops who will take part in the Coronation parades brings into prominence again the much-debated subject of our post-war reliance upon khaki as the distinctive wear of members of His Majesty’s Army (writes Major J. T. Gorman, in the London ‘ Daily Telegraph’). Khaki field-service dress took the place of scarlet coat, bright buttons, and pipeclay after the Boer War. But the soldier’s dress in previous centuries had undergone many modifications. Uniform, in the sense of precise uniformity, dates in the British Army from scarcely more than a century ago. _ Medieval soldiers, the retainers of different great nobles, carried only distinctive badges on hat or arm. Later, sashes or brassards of different colours were worn, and at the beginning of the Civil War the Parliament’s forces were distinguished by orange scarves. The regiments of this period were cahed by their leaders’ names, and the rank and file, who could not afford the expensive buff coat or body armour, wore the leader’s liveries rather than uniform. Thus Newcastle’s “White Coats ” died gallantly for the King at Marston Moor in jerkins of undyed wool; there were Lord Derby’s “ Blues ” and Byng’s “ Greens,” with, on, the other side, Hazelrigg’s “ Greys ” and Harrison’s “ Red Lambs.” Curiously enough, it was Cromwell’s New Model Army in which the rank and file first wore' what was to be-, come later the King’s scarlet, although the leaders on both sides had adopted this colour. Prince Rupert’s snort scarlet cloak -was a rallying point in battle, but equally so was the “ scarlet cloak, very richly laced ,such as he usually wore,” of the Cromwellian Col. Hutchinson, as his wife writes. , When Charles 11. disbanded the New Model and raised the Horse and Foot Guards, the nucleus of our standing Army, definite uniform was still lacking- - Wood, a contemporary, says: ‘ Souldiers of the Life Guard were bedecked with ribbons of all colours, and would _ have a muff hanging at their side; in dirty weather some would relieve their Cards in pattens.” While quilted silk back and breast plates were used as underwear, and the wide feathered hats had a steel cap sown into the crown, body-armour only survived in the gorget or neckpiece, which in modified form was

used a century later to denote an officer on duty. The “ gorget patches ” of the staff still commemorate it; as also, perhaps, do the edgeless button and braid collar badge of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. ORIGIN OF FACINGS. At the time of the Monmouth Rebellion and the Revolution, when many regiments were added to the British Army, the long coat buttoned from throat to knee was universal. Units were distinguished by linings of different colours, which showed at the revers ’ and cuffs, and were later to become “ facings.” These were generally _ chosen by the colonels raising the regiments. In the case of the “ Queen’s,” the name and the sea-green colour referred to Catharine of Braganza. During Marlborough’s wars one of the first evolutions—or revolutions — effected by private soldiers in the drses of the British Army took place. The long coats proved cumbrous on the march: accordingly the men buttoned back the front flaps to leave the legs free, starting a new fashion which the now useless buttons at the back of military tunes and some civilian coats stil commemorate. Crimson silk sashes were now adopted by officers and sergeants ; these had a hole at each end, through which a pole could he run, forming a hammock to carry the wearer off the field if wounded. The sashes survive, though not with thfe immmense width and length which enabled them to be used as stretchers. They are the same which the sergeants of the Somersetshire Light Infantry wear in the officerfashion of that day, an honour signalising the bravery displayed by these ranks at Culloden, when casualties obliged sergeants to command companies. In the Army of the early Georges powder and .pomatum for the hair became a universal fashion, necessitating queues of false hair and black silk bags and ties to protect the back of the scarlet coat from grease. These “ fivetailed black silk ribbons. ” still distinguish the Royal Welch Fusiliers, their so-called “ flashes ” perpetuating the slang eighteenth century term for these ties. Painfully high and tight black leather stocks took the place of the loose scarves of earlier days. Equally stiff cylindrical lacquered leather shakos, copied from the Austrian army, had superseded, in the rank and file, the variously cocked hats, already supplanted in Grenadier Companies and some whole regiments by the mitre-shaped or conical grenadier caps which simplified unslinging the musket.

On the whole, it was uncomfortably and unserviceably arrayed soldiers who entered the Great War of the French Revolution and Napoleon; and, as before, the privates proceeded to make their own reforms. Wellington’s men of the Peninsular and Waterloo, unlike those “who fought at Minden,” discarded stocks, hair powders, and gaiters, and slit their tight breeches above the ankle to allow free movement. The artillery drivers of 1793 dressed in ploughman’s gaiters, a long smock frock, and loosely-knotted neckerchief, surmounted by a steeple-crowned “ Mother Shipton ” hat with yellow hand and white cockade. This stage yokel’s outfit was completed by a long whip. ! FIRST “ RIGID ” DRESS. Lack of uniformity in uniform was still markedly in evidence. Grattan relates that in 1810 hardly two officers . dressed alike; brown or grey coats were worn indiscriminately with the “ old red rag.” Captain Adair, of the 88th, appeared in a light blue frock coat richly frogged with lace, a green vel- , vet waistcoat, and blue web pantaloons. . Hats varied from the small, plain “ cook ” of Wellington to Beresford’s multi-feather headgear and the famous top hat which Pioton wore until his death at Waterloo. After this go-as-you-please period came, under George IV. and William IV., a return to peace—and the first ngily defined uniforms for the whole Army. It is said that in devising the Lancer dress, King George supervised the fitting of the officers’ jacket, and ordered the tailor to cut smooth every wrinkle and fine-draw the seams, saying “ in military dress a wrinkle is unpardonable, but a seam is admissible.” These seams traditionally originated the piping on Lancers’ uniforms. The new Hussar dress, the .cuirasses revived for the Household Cavalry, the high bearskin caps won by the Guards as a Waterloo honour—for which the Palace sentry boxes had to be raised—were adapted from the enemy, as had happened before. There were absurd innovations, such as depriving Dragoons of buttons and substituting hooks and eyes, whilst Hussars had five closely-set rows of buttons on their jackets and as many more on the slung pelisse. Close-fitting uniforms, tight collars, bell-topped shakos, and unserviceable white pantaloons for summer were features of the ’3o’s and ’4o’s. Braiding. lace, and trouser stripes were now a “ sealed pattern ” affair, and in the infantry Grenadier companies wore a bearskin and Light companies a

“ bob ” instead of a plumo in their ■ shakos. War changes again. In the Crimea, belts and collars were loosened and a smaller “ postman ” shako prepared the way for the spiked helmet, together with the scarlet tunic of pre-Great War, days. On that tunic were visible other survivals besides those already noted. In some line regiments a black “ worm ” in the gold lace traditionally—although, perhaps, erroneously—denotes a perpetual mourning. for some famous general, AVolfe or Moore in most cases. In the lace of the Guards’ drummers may be seen the fleur-de-lys of the days when Kings of England claimed France also. The Boer War of 1900 established khaki as the Service uniform. During the Great AVar and since, it has, with few exceptions, superseded red tunics, and puttees are the modern equivalent of spatterdashes and gaiters. Strangely, too, evolution brought back, in those years, the trench helmets which gave our warriors so much the aspect of their predecessors at Crecy or Aginconrt.