Show us your Vintage Kilt Photos

[BoldHighlander]

A beautifully realized family portrait of a veteran sergeant of the 2nd Battalion, The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and his wife & daughter.

A great site and I have enjoyed scrolling through these atmospheric photos.

However, I should be sorry for anyone to be led astray, if only for a moment, so I am writing to say that your "veteran sergeant of the 2nd Battalion, The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders " on page 33 (April 2010)-

- looks to me very much like a sergeant of the Black Watch. The plain blue glengarry may have distracted your informant but the cap badge, kilt, sporran and spats all proclaim him to be a Royal Highlander.

"The sergeant wears the ribbons of the Queen's and King's South Africa Medals. The 2nd Battalion of the Cameron Highlanders did not serve in South Africa..."

but the 2nd Battalion, The Black Watch, on the other hand, did, which should solve the mystery of the good sergeant's South African medals. 2nd Bn, BW performed stalwart service in SA, before sailing to India in 1902 to take up station at Umballa in the Punjab. They served in India till 1914.

I hope that's of use. It would have mattered to the man concerned.

A son of the Black Watch

Indeed ... I was going off the info provided with the photo, and my only excuse was that I wasn't paying as close attention as I normally would. Thank you for catching that.

[BoldHighlander]

This film costarred Beryl Mercer and was based on a popular play "The Old Lady Shows her Medals" by J. M. Barrie, author of 'Peter Pan'.

[BoldHighlander]

[BoldHighlander]

[OC Richard]

That sporran worn in those movies is very interesting, having a plain brass cantle with a St Andrews badge affixed. I can't recall ever seeing the Black Watch wear such a sporran.

Anyhow time for more photos!

The interesting new No1 Dress adopted in 1953, sometimes called Coronation Dress. The Scottish regiments had only Service Dress from 1914 (when Full Dress was withdrawn) until this time.

As worn by the Gordon Highlanders in 1955:



and by the Queens Own Highlanders (post-1959) and The Black Watch:



A photo of the Pipes & Drums of The Gordon Highlanders:



A publicity photo of the 1962/63 North American tour of The Royal Scots Greys and The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders.. check out the greatest mustache in Army history!



A wedding of an officer of The Essex Scottish:



A pipe band wearing Bush Hats... Kiwis? Aussies?



And lastly a civilian wearing a jacket with an interesting arrangement of buttons:



And Pipe Major Robert Ireland (pictured in civilian attire)

[BoldHighlander]

OC Richard, do you have any background info on this photo? I'm curious about the gentleman in the middle. He is wearing what appears to be formal civilian evening wear, which seems oddly out of place with the military uniforms of the others and the background of the photo. I realize that such "evening wear versus day wear" conventions may not have existed back then, but I must admit, his garb confuses me!

I see what appears to be a formal wing collar shirt and bowtie with a waistcoat and PC-like jacket with lapels, worn with buckle brogues, a fancy dirk on a dirk belt with shiny waistplate, Argyll hose (?), fly plaid, and a wonderfully ornate cantle on his horse hair sporran. And perhaps mini-medals on his lapel... I can't tell. But then the bonnet throws me off (is this customary with such formal attire?). And he's wearing this in the middle of the day, outdoors, in some sort of military parade or ceremony?

Do you know where this was, what year it was taken, what the circumstances were, etc.? I freely admit I'm not familiar with these names or military conventions, and I'm just curious about how his attire fits in with the context of the photo.

Hi Tobus, I can't tell you very much about the occassion of the photo, but the gentleman in the middle is Pipe Major Neil Sutherland (Calgary Highlanders). You can find this photo and background on Pipe Mjr Sutherland that I posted earlier in this thread here.
Also the picture above of the pipers at St. Valery can be seen in an early post(ings) I made of the 5th Camerons in WWII (most shown in battledress by the way). Not to be nit-picky, and I know it can be a pain with the number of postings already, but we're starting to see more than a few duplicate postings here in the Vintage Kilt photo thread. Just saying