Why so common?

[kilted redleg]

So Peter, you better than anyone knows when it comes to tartan there is always the romantic [legend] side of the tartan and the truth. If the RS tartan was a fashion tartan, did the Royals ever try to restrict its use and have it as just a royal tartan like Balmoral.

[figheadair]

So Peter, you better than anyone knows when it comes to tartan there is always the romantic [legend] side of the tartan and the truth. If the RS tartan was a fashion tartan, did the Royals ever try to restrict its use and have it as just a royal tartan like Balmoral.

George VI tried to restricted it but when it was explained that he could, he restricted the Balmoral instead.

[OC Richard]

Royal Stewart seems to be restricted in that military units have been granted the right to wear it by the Sovereign, for example King George VI granting blue hackles to the Cameron Highlanders and giving permission for the pipers to wear Royal Stewart kilts and plaids.

Here's Pipe Major Evan MacRae of the Cameron Highlanders during the short time they wore Royal Stewart.

A decade after George VI put their pipers into Royal Stewart the Camerons were amalgamated with the Seaforths to form The Queens Own Highlanders, the pipers of which reverted to the original Cameron Highlanders piper's uniforms with Erracht Cameron kilts and plaids.

BTW I think this photo is the most often reproduced image of a piper. I've seen it on tea-towels, ash-trays, shot glasses, and on innumerable post-cards.



Here's the original photo, a tea-towel which used it, and a tea-towel where they stuck a feather bonnet on Evan's head!

I'm surprised that white spats didn't appear on his feet at some point.

[kilted2000]

I wonder if RS being used as an anti-establishment way by the punk movement in the 70s played a role as well.

[kilted redleg]

I wonder if RS being used as an anti-establishment way by the punk movement in the 70s played a role as well.

Kilted, this statement is one of the "legend" that I referred to in my post that Peter was kind enough to answer. By the 1970's KGVI was long dead having passed in 1952 [this year will mark 72nd anniversary of his passing on February 6th]. "Punk rockers" would often take a government symbol to use to show their distain for authority. Here's the "legend" I heard regarding KGVI and the RS tartan. The good king wanted to restrict the use of the tartan, but he had an "advisor" who was a childhood friend and retired colonel of the highland regiments. Now KGVI's real first name was Albert and his family nick name was "Berti" and while at Balmoral with this "advisor" told him of the plan to restrict the RS tartan and asked for his thoughts. The "advisor" replied " your majesty you can't restrict the RS tartan. I started as a boy piper and worked my way up to where I am today. The RS tartan is the only tartan that I know for pipers and if you restrict it what does that say about all the pipers who bravely wore into battle for the crown and paid the ultimate price, or the pipers who left service and went on to establish pipe bands and used the only tartan they knew to honor the memory of their regiments; much less old pipers like me who when they left were given a regimental kilt in that tartan and a military sporran as a "thank you for your service" by their mates. Are we supposed round up all these pipers who wear this tartan, it would be the death of piping for sure. Berti you want to restrict a tartan then restrict the Balmoral tartan, no one wears it but you royals." The good king thought about it a while and decided to restrict the Balmoral tartan instead.
That legend was told to me by a Scottish father of a friend who served in the HLI during WW 2.
My personal opinion is that "punk rockers" were a day late and a buck short when comes to the RS tartan.

[Patty Logan]

The good king wanted to restrict the use of the tartan, but he had an "advisor" who was a childhood friend and retired colonel of the highland regiments. While at Balmoral this "advisor" told him of the plan to restrict the RS tartan and asked for his thoughts. The "advisor" replied " your majesty you can't restrict the RS tartan. I started as a boy piper and worked my way up to where I am today. The RS tartan is the only tartan that I know for pipers and if you restrict it what does that say about all the pipers who bravely wore into battle for the crown and paid the ultimate price, or the pipers who left service and went on to establish pipe bands and used the only tartan they knew to honor the memory of their regiments; much less old pipers like me who when they left were given a regimental kilt in that tartan and a military sporran as a "thank you for your service" by their mates. Are we supposed round up all these pipers who wear this tartan, it would be the death of piping for sure. You want to restrict a tartan then restrict the Balmoral tartan, no one wears it but you royals." The good king thought about it a while and decided to restrict the Balmoral tartan instead.

Wow now that’s the kind of history I wanted to hear! 😍🤯

[OC Richard]

An advisor who was a retired Colonel of the Highland regiments replied,

"Your Majesty, you can't restrict the RS tartan. I started as a boy piper and worked my way up to where I am today. The Royal Stewart tartan is the only tartan that I know for pipers....

I can't imagine how this quote could have come from a person who has spent time with Highland Regiments.

He didn't know about the Seaforth Highlanders? The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders? The Gordon Highlanders?

None of those pipers wore Royal Stewart.

Actually the Black Watch were alone amongst the kilted Highland regiments in having pipers in Royal Stewart until 1943 when The Cameron Highlanders switched from their traditional Cameron of Erracht to RS.

If that fellow had been a boy piper at Queen Victoria School we wouldn't have worn Royal Stewart there either, but Hunting Stewart.

[figheadair]

Here's the "legend" I heard regarding KGVI and the RS tartan. The good king wanted to restrict the use of the tartan, but he had an "advisor" who was a childhood friend and retired colonel of the highland regiments. Now KGVI's real first name was Albert and his family nick name was "Berti" and while at Balmoral with this "advisor" told him of the plan to restrict the RS tartan and asked for his thoughts. The "advisor" replied " your majesty you can't restrict the RS tartan. I started as a boy piper and worked my way up to where I am today. The RS tartan is the only tartan that I know for pipers and if you restrict it what does that say about all the pipers who bravely wore into battle for the crown and paid the ultimate price, or the pipers who left service and went on to establish pipe bands and used the only tartan they knew to honor the memory of their regiments; much less old pipers like me who when they left were given a regimental kilt in that tartan and a military sporran as a "thank you for your service" by their mates. Are we supposed round up all these pipers who wear this tartan, it would be the death of piping for sure. Berti you want to restrict a tartan then restrict the Balmoral tartan, no one wears it but you royals." The good king thought about it a while and decided to restrict the Balmoral tartan instead.
That legend was told to me by a Scottish father of a friend who served in the HLI during WW 2.

This definitely belongs in myth box.

[AFS1970]

I never really got the whole Kilt Kop thing, but I can't imagine coming up to a stranger at the entrance to an event and saying something like that. When out and about kilted, I usually have better things on my mind. I think if I saw someone in a tartan that I recognized and somehow felt I had a sort of ownership to the pattern, I would be more inclined to greet the stranger as a friend. Perhaps the best example would be the XMTS tartan, if I have mine on, and I run into the rabble it is certainly not a time to check credentials, more likely a chance to share a pint or a dram.

[AmateurKiltsmen]

I’ve always assumed it’s because it was Q.E II’s favorite tartan and is also worn by the RSDG