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Remembered Today:

Tartan trews


Piper42nd

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I see in the Clothing Regulations 1914 that kilted highland regiments were issued one pair of tartan trews per man.  Does anyone have photos of them being worn in the trenches or were they left behind?   Does anyone have photos of the highlanders wearing any trousers for that matter?  Thanks, Harvey

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19 minutes ago, Piper42nd said:

I see in the Clothing Regulations 1914 that kilted highland regiments were issued one pair of tartan trews per man.  Does anyone have photos of them being worn in the trenches or were they left behind?   Does anyone have photos of the highlanders wearing any trousers for that matter?  Thanks, Harvey


For highland regiments plaid trews were in-barracks wear for certain orders of ‘undress’ and were not worn by them in the field. 
 

Enclosed are photos of highlanders wearing trousers at home in Britain.  Gordon Highlanders in service dress pantaloons and Black Watch in government No2 trews.

 

Also see: https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/152739-sgt-major-john-madden-gorden-highlanders/

 

 

DCFBF065-64B0-45BE-B7B8-ACF77DA3401C.jpeg

54149D36-5C2E-4AE5-9C09-8A534559ECBC.jpeg

Edited by FROGSMILE
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Thank you.  I'm still wondering if any of the kilted regiments switched to trousers at any point in the war while occupying the trenches.

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3 hours ago, Piper42nd said:

Thank you.  I'm still wondering if any of the kilted regiments switched to trousers at any point in the war while occupying the trenches.

 

Yes - see:

 

And:

 

 

Edited by Andrew Upton
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As Andrew has said, by the end of the war many battalions had started wearing SD trousers.  Wet and muddy kilts had encumbered soldiers and infamously cut into soft skin behind the knees so that softer plaid cloth had to be introduced.  Nevertheless, they were not wholly removed from store and you can still see photographs of units wearing kilts right through into 1918.  See enclosed photos, all taken in that year.

 

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852E6CD8-031C-4479-892B-9B2F93AF76AA.jpeg

57D33EEC-395B-4F06-947D-C5E1B276CDF8.jpeg

Edited by FROGSMILE
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Thank you gentlemen.  The information has been a great help.  I am now motivated to read the 1st Black Watch war diaries for reference to issue of trousers.  Being retired helps.

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You'll be very lucky to see such detail referred to in their diary. It's basic stuff for the most part, locations and casualty info mostly.

A newspaper with a letter published by a soldier from the front, or interview with them on leave, more likely has things like this mentioned.

 

Cheers,
Derek.

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It might be worth looking in battalion histories. It's the kind of thing that might get a mention (with the reason) in passing. Having said that the only mention I can remember is actually the opposite (the beginning of wearing kilts) in the history of the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry (and I think, the equivalent section of Wauchope on 14 Black Watch).

 

On a different tack - wasn't there a problem with the wearing of kilts and gas (particularly mustard gas)?

 

RM

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As an aside, Tartan was also a class of plain cloth - and there are examples of Frocks and serge Service Dress trousers (with labels identifying them as such) made of the same.

 

Indeed, the original pattern for the SD trousers described them as "Made of drab-mixture tartan, weighing about 22 ounces per yard, 54 inches wide, in 18 sizes... etc etc".

 

Yet not to be mistaken for trews, of course.

 

Cheers,

 

GT.

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GT makes an important point that has been lost in the decades since WW1, and is the reason I used the word ‘plaid’.

Edited by FROGSMILE
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As far as 9th Royal Scots were concerned, pre-war they wore trews at the rifle range. During the war they were put in trousers twice, first in May 1916 to disguise the fact that one division held the corps front at the Labyrinth north of Arras, second in the morass that was Courcelette in the winter of 16/17. Reconnaissance parties prior to Cambrai were also trousered, if that is a word! 

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Here are a couple of Cameronian (Scottish Rifles) Second Lieutenants wearing tartan trews in the UK. Later photographs, from the same album, (sorry I am currently away from my scanner) show them wearing ordinary service dress trousers.
Sepoy

CAMERONIAN-2LIEUTs.jpg

Edited by Sepoy
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Thanks for the additional information.  I'm still looking for photos of a kilted regiment wearing trousers in the trenches if anyone has any or knows of a source.

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If you have access to the BNA or other site with old newspaper access, then the 15th of February, 1915 Dundee Courier has a photo of men from the 5th Black Watch, in France wearing trousers.

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On 02/12/2019 at 13:41, rolt968 said:

On a different tack - wasn't there a problem with the wearing of kilts and gas (particularly mustard gas)?

I don't know of any specific orders relating to this topic, but given the properties of certain gases on exposed skin, I would be very surprised if this wasn't a contributing factor in the move to trousers.

 

Ron

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According to Edward Spiers ‘Finally, mustard gas with its propensity to burn the sweatier parts of the anatomy, signalled the death knell of the kilt’ , though I think they were still service issue to the brink of the next war.

Cecil, Hugh and Liddle, Peter H (editors), ‘Facing Armageddon’, 2003; Chapter 24 Spiers, Edward, ‘The Scottish Soldier at War’, p.317

Douglas Wimberley was of the view that the kilt allowed ‘unnecessary exposure of naked flesh to burns’.

Quoted by French, Craig, 'Friends Are Good On the Day of Battle', 2016;

Mustard gas was first used in July 1917 at Third Ypres. Soldiers were told that diluted bicarbonate of soda was to be applied externally.

 
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