Uniforms and Equipment of the British Army....

[Krithia]

In his Introduction, the author goes a long way out on a very slender limb, by claiming:

'By the start of the First World War the Victorian Full Dress uniform of scarlet, blue or green was virtually obsolete. A Special Army Order declared that Service Dress was to be worn by all ranks for all purposes, except ceremonial guard'

This is not true, and may be based on a misconception.

Thanks Joe for clarifying this point to Grumpy, this was true. The answer was in the sentence "By the start of the First World War", which, if I remember correctly was 1914. To confirm it was the order AO/292 of August 1914 as you state. There are numerous photos of the period 1902 to 1914 that show Full Dress in use, a few are in Chapter One of the book. After the beginning of the war you see very few examples in photos. Of the physical item I have seen many actual examples of the dress with dates right up to and including 1914, but funny enough none after.

[Muerrisch]

Two things threw me:

'Victorian' [when we had shot past Edward to George, in which periods the tunic had had several considerable changes]

and 'by' rather than 'at' the start of the war. 292 was one of a stack of AOs which, I suspect, were all typed out ready to issue on declaration.

[auchonvillerssomme]

I have recently purchased this book, excellent.

Mick