End of 2SCOTS pipers' Antecedent Dress?

[OC Richard]

I follow kilts, sporrans, etc on Ebay and sometimes the things that come on the market suggest changes that might be happening in the Scottish regiments.

Suddenly a large number of MOD Dress Erskine kilts have appeared.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-br...%7C6000%7C7000

For people like me who support the traditional dress of the Scottish regiments this is worrisome.

For those unaware, when the uber-regiment The Royal Regiment Of Scotland was formed in 2006 it put all the Scottish battalions into a single generic kit. The various dress distinctions of the old Scottish regiments were lost.

The only personnel to retain their traditional dress (termed "antecedent dress" by the MOD) were the Pipes & Drums.

The Pipes & Drums of 2SCOTS continued the old kit of the Royal Highland Fusiliers with the pipers in Dress Erskine kilts & plaids.



I have been hearing rumours for years about the various Pipes & Drums being put into generic kit, and hoping that that day would be long in coming. I do know that the members of the Pipes & Drums have been issued the generic RRS kit in addition to their Antecedent Dress, so the abolishment of the latter is only one easy money-saving step away.

Pipers of the 2SCOTS in the hybrid civilian kit worn when competing at Highland Games, showing their generic RRS kilts; only the Dress Erskine bag-covers survive from their Antecedent Dress. (Not sure why they wear Royal Stewart drone cords.)



So suddenly seeing a band-sized set of these kilts for sale makes one wonder why.

[kilted redleg]

OC

There are two ways the MOD can go with this: 1) Everyone including the pipes and drums will wear the RRS tartan or 2) All pipes and drums will wear the Royal Stewart tartan. You live in California and play for the Dodgers. I live in New York and play for the Yankees. I get traded to your team I'm not going out in pinstripes to play ball I'll be wearing Dodger blue - sounds like the same thought process applies here. You are right though it's probably a money saving step, though I've read on other sites the MOD is having the same problem we in the states are having - Getting recruits!!

[jhockin]

IMHO it’s all about Conservative cuts. Just sayin’. :0(

[OC Richard]

There are two ways the MOD can go with this:

1) Everyone including the pipes and drums will wear the RRS tartan or

2) All pipes and drums will wear the Royal Stewart tartan.

Seems to me that your second option would be the most attractive, sensible, and economic way to go.

For starters, the pipers of 1SCOTS, 3SCOTS, and 7SCOTS already wear Royal Stewart.

Add to that the fact that the Pipes & Drums of 5SCOTS has already been abolished.

The kilts that would have to go are the Dress Erskine kilts of the 2SCOTS pipers and the Cameron of Erracht kilts of the 4SCOTS pipers.

It's this very thing that's made me wonder why so many MOD Dress Erskine kilts are suddenly being sold off on Ebay.

BTW here's my earlier thread about the dress of RRS pipers

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...orm-rrs-94092/

[Brian Rose]

As many of you may know, Jim Ramsey posts a lot of videos to You Tube featuring the RRS and other British Military units. Mostly bands. Today he posted 2 Scots parade in Glasgow. The pipers still appear to be in antecedent kilts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpOAGMi72ms

Jim has been known to to repost edits of earlier work but I don't think I've seen this before. OCRichard may be a bit premature in his thoughts. Perhaps the kilts are genuinely surplus to MOD needs. Left over from consolidation of the regiments? We'll just have to keep watching.

[kilted redleg]

I love Ramsey's vides nobody does military bearing quite like the Scots! I do have a question being an ex dogface myself. On
the tam o shanters {tos} some of the fellas have the RROS insignia sitting above the left ear, a few have it forward the ear
and one guy has it near the corner of the left eyebrow. Just where is it supposed to be in relation to the ear. Also it looks like
there is a piece of tape on the back of the tam can the rabble help me with this or am I just making too much of this!

[Bruce Scott]

I love Ramsey's vides nobody does military bearing quite like the Scots! I do have a question being an ex dogface myself. On
the tam o shanters {tos} some of the fellas have the RROS insignia sitting above the left ear, a few have it forward the ear
and one guy has it near the corner of the left eyebrow. Just where is it supposed to be in relation to the ear. Also it looks like
there is a piece of tape on the back of the tam can the rabble help me with this or am I just making too much of this!

The TOS is issued with the non-functional 'bow' and tartan patch already attached. The bow should be at the centre of the back of the head, which should place the badge about midway between the left ear and eye.

[kilted redleg]

THANKS BRUCE!!!!

I could not make out the bow on the back it looked like a piece of tape on the back and I thought it might be something like that with the insignia, but wasn't sure.