military sporran challenge

[OC Richard]

OK, I'm sort of bored, so why not?

Here's a little test of your knowledge of Scottish military sporrans. We'll start with the dead-easy ones and work up to more difficult ones.

If you're an expert and know them all, it might be nice to recuse yourself at the beginning so as to let people not as familiar take their best shots.

Most of the file names identify the sporran, so you can always check your answers.

Oh, I didn't say identify how, sorry, what I mean is by Regiment. But also Other Ranks and Officers wore different patterns, and pipers usually had a different pattern too. Making things more complicated is that oftentimes a different pattern was worn by Officers in Levee Dress. Whew!

Here we go with the easy ones

1



2



3



4



5



Now for some slightly more tricky ones

6



7



8



9

[Grizzled Ian]

I'll dip my toe in the water.

I think sporran 7. has a cipher under the crown that indicates Princess Louise. Was there a Princess Louise's Own that was amalgamated in with the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders somewhere along the line?

[OC Richard]

Yes very good eye there! You are on the right track.

[MacGumerait]

Not totally sure , but number 9 looks like a Gordon Highlanders officer's sporran perhaps Victorian era .

[figheadair]

Definitely not my area of expertise but....

No1 - 93rd Sutherland Highlanders piper/drummer. Used from the Napoleonic era but not sure how long for.

No2 - Black Watch ORs WWI.

No3 - Seaforth Officers

No4 -Cameron Highlanders ORs

No5 -Gordon Highlanders (ORs?)

No6 -Liverpool Scottish

No7 -Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Officers

No8 -Black Watch Officers

No9 -Gordon Highlanders Officers

[OC Richard]

Awesome Peter!

1) 93rd Highlanders (pre-1881) and Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (post-1881) Other Ranks, worn from the second quarter of the 19th century up to around 1970, when the new chrome-cantle generic sporrans appeared. From 1953 to some time around 1960 this was replaced by the Culloden sporran, but then reappeared.

2) 42nd and Black Watch Other Ranks. This style emerged some time after the Crimean war, the earlier style had the badge on a shield below the cantle.

3) 78th and Seaforth Highlanders Other Ranks.

4) 79th and Cameron Highlanders Other Ranks. A historical note, this is the first military sporran to have two long tassels, rather than five or six short ones. This sporran first appeared c1840 as an Officers Undress sporran, worn with the shell jacket etc. It soon spread to the rest of the regiment to become the general Other Ranks sporran, but was still worn by Officers in Service Dress through WWI.

5) 92nd and Gordon Highlanders Other Ranks. This pattern appeared, as best I can tell, around the time of the 1881 reforms, and makes the Gordon Highlanders the last of the three regiments which jumped on the two-long-tassels bandwagon started by the Camerons. (The Seaforths were the third. The Argylls and the Black Watch retained their original short tassels.)
6) Liverpool Scottish Other Ranks.

7) Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Officers Levee Dress.

8) Black Watch Officers, Sergeants, and Pipers, 1870 to present (still worn by the pipers of the 3rd Battalion Royal Regiment Of Scotland).

9) Gordon Highlanders Officers post 1881.

[OC Richard]

Now for some more, many of them a bit more unusual.

10



11



12



13



14



15



16

[figheadair]

Better let someone else have a play too I guess.

[figheadair]

As no-one else seems to want to play and whilst I have a spa1re hour at the airport......

No11 - Gordon Highlanders. ORs c1890-1930?

No12 - Black Watch Officers. c1920?

No13 - Cameron Highlanders. Pipers?

No14 - Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

No15 - London Scottish. ORs c1900?

No16 - Black Watch officers. Appears to be missing the Kandahar battle honour so pre-1880?

[MacGumerait]

I was thinking # 16 was a Seaforth Highlanders Officers Sporran , mid 1800's .