Military Origin of ‘True Scotsman’ Tradition

[Steve Ashton]

There is a letter dated in the summer of 1918 in the archives of the Royal British Columbia Museum from a solder of the CEF to his girlfriend. In the letter he mentions that with the scant availability of sanitation and his unit not having baths or showers in over three weeks that lice were running rampant in his unit.

To combat head lice the solders had resorted to shaving their heads. To combat crabs they were also shaving their pubic hair and had dispensed with the wool underwear that they had been issued. His mentioning this in a letter makes it seem that this practice was new to him.

He mentioned in a previous letter from the winter that this unit were issued kilts for parade but had not worn them since moving up to near the front lines. He seemed glad that he was not wearing a kilt in the frigid weather.