Show us your Vintage Kilt Photos

[OC Richard]

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Hi all. A picture of my great great grandfather John Peter Grant from Perthshire, Scotland. He was in the 79th Regiment of Foot from 1859 to 1869... If anyone has knowledge of the ceremonial dress he is wearing, I'd love to know.

That's a fantastic photo there! I have a photo of my great-great-grandfather, a Civil War soldier, and I cherish it.

About his costume, it certainly isn't the uniform either of pipers or of soldiers of the 79th Foot (Cameron Highlanders). Thing about the piper's uniform of the Cameron Highlanders: it was adopted in the 1840s and never really changed. Up till the formation of The Highlanders in the 1990s the uniform was essentially the same.

Here is William Fraser, a piper of the 79th, very clearly showing the distinctive waistbelt and crossbelt hardware, sporran, etc



Your great-great-grandfather's costume stikes me as more or less typical civilian Highland costume of the period. However we must keep in mind that at that time there were a number of military pipe band uniforms which did not survive the 1881 Army reforms, such as the dress of the pipers of the 78th Foot, here seen in 1860



and the dress of the pipers of the 91st Foot, here seen in 1864. Note how similar the sporran is to your great-great-grandfather's



But all in all, I think his costume is a civilian one.

[creagdhubh]

Very interesting!

[saxandpipes]

Here are 2 photos of a couple of my great grand uncles (the brothers of my great grandmother).





Can anyone identify the uniforms?

Cheers,

Michael

[OC Richard]

A very interesting "kit" there. It appears to me to be a mix of civilian and military items. For example, the crossbelt is a Black Watch regimental pipers' crossbelt. What makes it look a bit odd is that the keeper had been slid all the way down so that it's resting on the tip, but anyhow it's clearly a BW crossbelt with both badges intact. (Yes the lower badge looks like a Cameron Highlanders badge, but it's the badge worn on the BW crossbelts). And the tartan appears to be Royal Stewart, worn by BW pipers.

The waistbelt buckle, I don't know, it could be Camerons, though as you can see in the photo I posted above that the Camerons pipers wore a distinctive oval buckle. The Other Ranks of the Camerons did wear a buckle like that, more or less.

But he couldn't be a Black Watch piper, as the sporran, plaid brooch, cap feathers, and spats aren't right, and in fact look like typical civilian items. But you never know! There were so many Volunteer and Militia and Dominions battalions that one can never say for sure.

Here's an old album cover which clearly shows the crossbelt, sporran, plaid brooch, and squared-off spats of the Black Watch pipers. As you can see the fellow in the vintage photo is wearing the identical crossbelt.