Military Origin of ‘True Scotsman’ Tradition

[Regimental]

The practice definitely existed during WW1 when my father was in the trenches with the Gordons and the reason was simply to minimise laundry when on active service. BUT
1. The "rule" did not apply to officers and that included pipers.
2. Short trews were issued to be worn if the medical officer indicated that cold weather would require their use on sentry duty, when the soldier was behind the lines having his kilt deloused and when he went home on leave.
3. There are stories about mirrors on sticks to check on adherence to the practice but, in the Gordons, the command "prove" was simply issued which required the soldier to lift the aprons of his kilt to waist level.

That’s really interesting, and good to have some account directly from that era. I had definitely heard myself that the practice of going without underwear did not apply to officers in WWI (insofar as it applied to anyone) – interesting that this extends to pipers from your understanding. Certainly a contrast with the post-war era and today, where kilted officers very much abide by the ‘regimental’ tradition – I wonder how that evolved over time.

I’ve never seen any credible evidence of the mirrors on sticks approach, and it seems most unlikely that that level of effort would be gone to, to be honest (I’m not even sure how effective a small mirror would actually be!). The “prove” command seems more realistic if checks were actually to be made.