The Regular, The Orderly and the Neat

Arawa Guerilla, Issue 8, 1 November 1942, Page 1

The Regular, The Orderly and the Neat

The following extract from the Journal of Sgt. Roger Lamb of the 9th Foot and 23rd Foot during the American War, 17761782 gives an admirable insight into what the attitude was in those days to the often Irksome attention to detail in matters of dress, equipment and personal neatness which must constitute part of a soldier’s life. Methods of warfare have changed since Lamb’s time, social conditions are different, dress is different, but the general underlying principles to which he draws attention, the basis of soldierly conduct and the importance of order and the regular are as true to-day as they were in his day and as they were in the days of Scipio Africanus and Gustavus Adolphus. Weapons and . tactics change, but man remains very much the same. “Though our service at New York was broken by four warlike expeditions and several forays, the Regiment conducted itself throughout Just as if all were ‘peace, parade and St. James’ Park’; I mean, as to the formality and regularity of our' behaviour and the exquisite care'that each soldier was made to take of his personal appearance. Many hours every day were spent upon the pipe-claying of cross-belts and breeches — however, dried far more quickly here than in the humid air of Ireland —upon the shining of shoes, the polishing of buttons and buckles, and, above all, upon the correct adornments of the hair. "I recalled how, upon the disembarkation of the Ninth at Three Rivers in Canada, Major Bolton had informed companyofficers that the tallow provided for us would now be better daubed upon our shoes, to preserve them from the damps, than upon our hair, to hold the flour with which we powdered itand that this flour likewise would be of more service to us in the edible form of loaves. Few even of the officers had thereafter attempted to keep themselves spick and span.

“But the Royal Welch Fusiliers were 'ho rough and ready regiment: the comb, flour-dredge and pomatum box were as prime necessaries with us as cartouche box, powder-flask and ramrod, and no slightest deviation from , correct soldierly behaviour in barracks was ever allowed to pass, nor any gross conduct or unsoldier-like lounging in the streets. We were often sneered at for macaronis; but we let that pass as a compliment, for we also took correspondingly greater care for our arms than other regiments. For example, I was very pleased to find that the company-officers, being persons of substance and with a pride in their profession, had at their own charges provided their men with the fine black flints which gentlemen use in their sporting guns. These remained sharp even after fifty discharges, whereas the ordinary Army issue of dull brown pebble was never good for more than fifteen, and often less. . “What was still more to the point, when we were at Harlem a’iid a part of the Regiment quartered upon a wharf, figures of men as large as life made of thin boards were anchored at a proper distance from the end of the wharf; at these the platoons fired as a practice in markmanship. Floating objects such as glass bottles, bobbing up and down in the tide, were also pointed out to them as targets, and premiums given to the best shots. No other regiment to my knowledge practised this sort of musketry, the colonels befog content merely with simultaneity of the volleys, and letting aim go hang. “I have always had a great love of the regular, the orderly and the neat; and as a sergeant in this corps I was able to indulge it to the full. My sergeant’s wig, which was paid for by the colonel, and fitted for me by the Regimental perruquier, was of the finest hair, and. I kept it always in irreproachable trim.”