BRITISH ARMY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23107, 5 February 1937, Page 11

BRITISH ARMY

OLD-TIME DRESS

EVOLUTION OF UNIFORMS THE KING’S SCARLET 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 muchdebated subject of our post-war reliance upon khaki as the distinctive wear of members' of his Majesty’s army, says a writer in the 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. Mediaeval 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 called by their leader’s 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, Hazlerigg’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 become later the King’s scarlet, although the leaders on both sides had adopted this colour. Prince Rupert’s short 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 Colonel Hutchinson, as his wife writes. When Charles II '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 Guards were bedecked with ribbons of all colours, and would have a muff hanging at their side; in dirty weather some would relieve their Gards in pattens.” While quilted silk back, and breast plates were used as underwear, and the wide feathered hats had a steel cap sewn into the crown, bodyarmour 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, nerhaps, 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 dress 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 backs of military

tunics and some civilian coats still commemorate. Crimson silk sashes were now adopted by officers and sergeants; these had a hole at each end, through which a pole could be run, forming a hammock to carry the wearer off the field if wounded. The sashes survive, though not with the immense 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 officer fashion of that 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 “ five-tailed black silk ribbons ” still distinguish the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, their socalled “ flashes ” perpetuating the slang eighteenth century terms 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 Peninsula and Waterloo, unlike those “ who fought at Minden,” discarded stocks, hair powder and gaiters, and slit their tight breeches above the ankle to allow free movement.

The artillery drivers of 1793 dressed in ploughmen’s gaiters, a long smock frock, and looselyknotted neck-kerchief, surmounted by a steeple-crowned “ Mother Shipton ” hat with yellow band 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 velvet waistcoat, and blue web pantaloons. Hats varied from the small, plain “ cock ” of Wellington to Beresford’s multifeathered headgear, and the famous top-hat which Picton 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 rigidly-defined uniforms for the whole army. It is said that in devising the Lancer dress King George supervised the fitting of the officers’ jackets, 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 admissible.” These seams traditionally originated the piping on Lancers’ uniforms.

The new Hussar dress, the cuirsasses 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 thirties and forties. 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 plume in their shakos. SINCE THE CRIMEA

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, Wolfe or Moore in most cases. In the lace of the Guards’ drummers may be seen the fleur-de-lis of the days when Kings of England claimed France also.

The Boer War of 1900 established khaki as the service uniform. During the Great War and since it has, with few exceptions, superseded red tunics, and puttees are the modexm 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 and Agincourt.