PM Stuart Samson Gordon Highlanders

[OC Richard]

Great song, thanks for sharing. I noticed the guys with cheetah pelts drapped over them. Does that have any expeditionary significance with the Gordon Highlanders?

Not cheetah probably, they're usually tiger and leopard.

Yes expeditionary significance exactly. Bass drummers especially, serving in India, didn't want the drum hardware to damage their uniform tunics so they cut a hole in a tiger or leopard skin and wore it as sort of a protective bib. Tenor drummers often wear them too. Sometimes you'll see the bass drummer in a tiger skin and the tenor drummers in leopard skins.

These skins were a mark of overseas service.

Strange to think that a tiger skin would be less valuable than a uniform tunic, but in the 19th century skins were evidently cheaper than a tunic (which had to come all the way from Britain).

Here you can see drummers of The Black Watch wearing them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM3lSOLv9Ow

I wonder how many of the skins used by the regiments are old genuine ones. Highland Outfitters sell new ones made from fake skins. Sometimes they have the animal's heads on the back.