BRITISH ARMY.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 404, 10 April 1937, Page 3

BRITISH ARMY.

OLD-TIME DRESS. Evolution of Uniforms. The announced intention of the War Office to dress in blue uniforms the troops who nvill 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, sayt a writer in the London Daily Telegraph. Khaki field-service dress took the place « scarlet coat, bright buttons, and pipeclay after the Boer War. But the soldier’s dress in previous centuries had undergone many modifi cations. Uniforms, in the tense of precise uniformity, dates in the British Army from scarcely wore 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 Parliar ment’s force* 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 bodyarmour, 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; tiiere were Lord Derby’s “Blues” and Byng’fc' ‘Greens,” with, on the other side, Hazlerigg’s “Greys'* and Harrison’s ‘Red LaiubE.” Curiously enough, It was Cromwell’s New Model Army in n.'hich 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 i car let cloak was a point in battle, but equally so was the “sclrlet cloak, very richly laced, such as he usually wore,” of the Cromwellian Colonel Hutchinson, as his wif? writes. When Charles 11. disbanded the New Model and raised the Horse and Foot Guards, nucleuus of our standing Army, definite uniform was still lacking. Wood, a contemporary, sayj* "Sould'ers of the Life Guards were bedecked with ribbons of all colours, and would have a muff hanging at their 4jde; in dirty weather some *t>uld relieve their Gards in pattens.”

While quilted silk back and breast plates were used as underwear, and the wide feathered hate had a steel cap sewn into the crown, bodyarmouj only survived in the gorget or necApiece, which in modified form was uued a century later tn denote an off ter on duty. The “gorget: patches” of the Staff still coiimemorate it; as also, perhaps, do the edgeless button and braid collar ladge of the Osfdrdhire and Buckingh imshire Light Infantry. Origin of Facings, At the time of the Monmouth Rebellion and the Revolution, when many zegiments were added to the British Army, the long coat buttoned from tliroat to knee was universal. Units vere distinguished by _ linings of different colours, which showed at the revers and cuffs, and were later to becone “facings.” Theae were generally chojien by the colonels raising the regiments. In the case of the “Queen’u,” the name and the sea-green colour re- \ ferred to Catharine of Braganza. During Marlborough’s wars one of the first evolutions—or revolutions—effected bv private soldiers in the dress of the British Armj took place. Thu long coats proved cumr brous on the march: accordingly the men buttoned back the front flips, to leave the logr free, starting a new fashion which the now useless buttons at the backs of military tunics and some civilian coati.' still commemorate. Crimson siik sashes were now adopted by officers and sergeants; these had l a ho,e at each end, through which a pole could be run, forming a hammock to carry the weaier off the field if wounded. The sasheu suivive, though not with the immense iv/idth and length which enabled them th be •nod as stretchers. They are the same which the sergeants of the Somersetshire Light Infantry wear in the officer fashio* of that duy, an honour signalising the bravery ditplayedi by these ranks at Culloden, when casualties obliged sergeants to command companies'. In the Army of th > early Georges powder and pomatum for the hair became a universal fashion, necessitating queues of false I air and black silk bags, and ties to protect the back 01 the scarlet coat from grease. These "five-tailed black silk ribbons’’ still distinguish the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, their so-called "flashes” perpetuating the slang 18th-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 ihe mitre-shaped or conical grenadier caps which simplified' unslinging the musket. On the 'Whole, it was uncomfortably and unterviceably 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 l gaiters, a long smock frock, and loosely-knotted neck kerchief, surmounted by a steeplecrowned “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 alfke s , brown, or grey coats were worn indiscriminately with the “old red rag.” Captain Adair, of the 88th, appeared in a light blue frock-coat riclily frogged with lace, a green velvet waistcoat, and blue web pantaloots. Hats varied from the small, >lain “cock” of Wellington to Beresford’s multi-feathered headgear, and the famous’ top-hat which Picton wore ufitil hie death at Waterloo.

After this go-:lB.you.please period came, under George IV. and William IV., a return to jtuace—and the first rigidly-defined uniforms for the whole Army.

It is said that in devising the Lancer dress Kin; George supervised the fitting of the officers’ jackets, and ordered the tailor to cut smooth every wrinkle and fine-draw the seajus, saying “in military dress a wrinkle is unpardonable, bu. a seam admissible.” These sbam§ traditionally originated the piping on Lancers’ uniforms.

The new Huss, ar dress, the cuirasseg revived for the Household Cavalry, the hij h bearskin caps won by the Guards as. a Waterloo honour for which the- Palace sentryboxes had to be raised’—were adapted from the enemy, as had happened before. There were absiud innovations, such at depriving Dragoons of buttons and substituting hoots and eyes-, whilst Hussars had five closely-set rows. l of buttons on their jackets and as.' many more on the slung pelisse. Close-fitting uniforms, fight collars, bell-topped thakou and unserviceable white pantaloons for summer were features of the thirties and forties. Braiding, lace ; and trouser stripes were now a “healed pattern” affair, and in the infantry Grenadier companies wore a tearskin and Light companies a ‘bob ’ instead- of a plume in their shal:on. Sin i;e tie Crimea, War changas again. In the Crimea belts and collars.' were loosened and a smaller "pjstmnn” shuko prepared the way for the spiked helmet, together with the starlet tunic of preGreat Wa r days. On that ttnic (vere visible other survivals besides' those alre.idy noted. In some line regiments a black ‘worm” in the gold lace traditionally —although, psrhajs, erroneously—denotes a perpetual l mourning tor some famous general, Wolfe or Moore in most cases. In the lace of the Guards’ drummeru may be seen the fleur-de-lis ot the flays.' 'When King of England claimed ‘"rance also. The Boer War of 1900 established khaki as the service uniform. Duiing the Great War and since it has, with tew exceptions, supersede! red tunics and puttees are tt e modern equivalent ot spatterd.isliis and gaiters. Strangely, too, evolution brought back, in those years, the trench helmets which gave O ur warriors' so much the aspect or their predecessors at Crecy and Agincoui t.