Interesting picture

[figheadair]

However, I would like to draw your attention to the sporrans. Abrown sporran with two brown/ dark tassels. ... It should be a dead give away. I am thinking these fine lands are members of the London Scottish. A quick recce of theweb and that

See post #2.

A bit of digging suggests that the picture shows either the London or Liverpool Scottish (Toronto Scottish are post-WWI and Tyneside Scottish don't appear to have been kilted). Both has similar sporrans and so it's down to the sporran badge and in particular whether the animal in the centre is a lion or a stallion.

[kiltedsawyer]

I think you are all over-thinking this.................. It's laundry day.

[OC Richard]

I actually have come across similar photos fairly often. Think about it: you have a load of young men with nothing to do and sometimes they just do silly things to break up the tedium.

BTW those appear to be Liverpool Scottish sporrans:



London Scottish sporrans are different.

[fluter]

Thanks for the tent ID's, guys. The tents are what first caught my eye---once upon a time, I belonged to a Scout troop that used tepees when car-camping.

Agreed. Those are late 19th C. British army tents. Photo might be taken in Africa. Check out the deeply tanned faces and hands!

... that pattern of tent is very similar to the bell tents used in the CF up until recenttimes;

[McFarkus]

At least the large sporrans preserved a bit of modesty.

[de Stokesay]

I have been a member on this board for a while now but just haven't gotten around to actually posting yet. I tend to be a habitual lurker on internet fora. I am a regular kilt wearer though starting at the age of about 15. I started wearing my grandfathers' old (pre-1929) Black Watch army kilt but over time it shrank in my closet. I now wear one of Keltoi's lovely military box pleated kilts in HOE Fergusson. Love it!

Sorry for the off topic bit but felt that I ought to introduce myself before replying to this thread. On to the picture though.

Having served alongside various Canadian highland infantry regiments, back in my L.I. days, I believe that what this picture refers to is called a "sporran parade". This is often a form of protest but is sometimes just an expression of boredom.

Back in 1995, I was stationed at CFB Wainwright as staff on the sergeants' courses that summer and I was working with several highlanders of various regiments. When the candidates were not in the field most of the staff got weekend leave passes but on one particular weekend we all got leave passes except the highlanders. It turns out that the officers' mess was having a formal dinner and they needed servers so the highlanders got voluntold to be waiters as they had the coolest dress uniforms (this is another reason why I always "forgot" my dress uniform at home when off on summer tasking). Needless to say the highlanders were not thrilled with this development so they all showed up to serve at the appointed time and place (O-club) wearing nothing but their boots, hose, and sporrans, just like the picture above. It would appear that no-one specified which particular version of highland dress uniform (mess dress, walking out dress, &c.) was required so they used their initiative and did a sporran parade.

I believe this made for a rather interesting and somewhat distracting formal mess dinner but you can't charge everybody.

de Stokesay

[plaid preacher]

What a great story destokesay. I have 500th say that was pretty brazen for those days i.e. - post airbourne/ hazing scandals. I spent that summer at MTD Durndurn ( SK) with 3 PPCLI.

[de Stokesay]

Plaid Preacher - My thoughts of the time were that it was indeed brazen but not from an airbourne/hazing-scandal-aspect so much as the sheer audacity of the thing. Once again though, they can't charge everyone.

I did my basic training and infantry trades training at CF Det. Dundurn in 1991 and my machine gun course and driver course there in 1992.

Since I was in the North Saskatchewan Regiment, Dundurn was where we did much of our regimental training. In the early 1990s it was mostly N Sask R and Calgary Highlanders out there. Those Cal Highs were interesting to work with.

Did you get much chance to work with highland regiments? Did you ever hear of a sporran parade? They weren't that common but I did see a couple over the years.

Where was 3 PPCLI stationed when you were in?

[plaid preacher]

Well then, we were garrison mates, I suspect. I was Chaplain to16 SVC BN from 1990-1995. We probably know each other. I spent the summer of 95 with 3PPCLI while they were In Dundurn training reservists for Bosnia. At the time 3 PPCLI was the 10/90 BN, and it was just after the had been moved from Esquimault to Chilliwack.