GOOD-BYE TO THE SAM BROWNE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 30, 19 January 1940, Page 3

GOOD-BYE TO THE SAM BROWNE

(By 23/762)

Soon the Sam Browne Belt, one of the most popular articles of military equipment, will be no more. Its gradual disappearance is one of the many changes in an army which is becoming less picturesque as it becomes more mechanical. For this war even the puttee has disappeared. No longer is this belt an essential part of the dress of every officer. Young subalterns, especially, will be denied the pride of wearing one for the first time. A cloth belt, incorporated in the tunic as in Air Force uniforms, has now become the general rule, though part of the Sam Browne can still be worn round the waist by officers. General Sir Sam Browne, V.C., who invented the belt which has carried his mame ever since, was one of the most famous soldiers in the history of the British Army in India. "Sam Browne’s Cavalry,’ named after a cavalry regiment which he raised for service on the North-West Frontier, still has a proud place in the Indian Army List. In the days when General Browne first devised the belt which was ever afterwards to bear his name, revolvers carried by the officers frequently went off accidentally and wounded their owners. Cavalry officers of those days also carried swords. The general conceived the idea of wearing a leather belt round the waist, with a narrow strip of leather running over the right shoulder to keep the weight even both back and front where it was attached to the waist belt. Thus both sword and revolver could be carried easily and both hands would be free for action. Another advantage was that the whole piece of equipment could be put on and taken off with speed and ease. Apparently General Browne was an inventive sort of fellow, for he originated also the chain burnisher which was formerly worn on the shoulder as a guard against sword cuts. To-day those guards have developed into ornaments on dress uniforms. The idea of the belt first came to General Browne while he was serving on the North-West Frontier. Then came the Indian Mutiny, in which he won his Victoria Cross. He lost his left arm in a hand-to-hand encounter when he and one of his troopers overcame a field-gun and its crew. When he had recovered he perfected his belt, which has scarcely altered since that time. Soon the belt was adopted by the Indian cavalry and by British officers serving abroad. The War Office, however, did not adopt it officially until 1898. Adapted By Other Nations Curiously enough, the Sam Browne Belt has been adopted by every nation of the world in some form or other. Dictators and foreign politicians of note have been particularly attracted by it, as any photograph will show. The French were the first to copy the belt. In 1919

it became part of the regulation dress of officers of the French Army, and was known as the ‘"Ceinturon Baudrier." Then the Americans followed, first with one of their own designing, and later with one of British pattern which is worn to-day. Now, as far as the British Army is concerned, the Sam Browne Belt will soon become a relic of the past, along with many other articles of army uniforms of more picturesque days. The photograph of Major-General B. C. Freyberg, V.C., which appeared on the cover of a recent Listener, shows the belt as it is being worn to-day. The Creator General Browne was born in India in 1842. At the age of sixteen he’ was sent to school in England and a few years later he had gained his commission and an appointment in the Indian Army. At 24 he was adjutant of his corps, the 46th Bengal Native Infantry, and took an active part in the second Sikh War when Punjab was annexed and the Sikh soldiers became the famous Punjab Frontier Force. After the Indian Mutiny, the inventor of the belt rose rapidly in rank, until he became a Lieutenant-General in 1877. A year later he commanded the force which cleared the Khyber during the first stages of the Afghan War. Soon afterwards, weakened by worry and strain, he left India, honoured by Queen Victoria and both Houses of Parliament. He died in 1901 at his home on the Isle of Wight. His belt, his regiment, and a mural tablet in St. Paul’s Cathedral, are his monuments.