Soldiers Cheat

[An t-Ileach]

Soldiers cheat. I don’t mean that in a disparaging way, but I bet it got someone's attention - and, in case anyone's wondering, I spent my years in the regular army establishing a 'right' to a place in the sun.

I’m thinking specifically about kit, and more particularly about the fèileadh mòr or Great Kilt.

Anyone who’s been in the service knows that there’s what is required by regulations, and then there’s what the soldiers actually do with it.

Take boots, for example. Any soldier who’s passed out from basic training and proceeded to his battalion will have ‘acquired’ something like three or four pairs of boots, even if the quartermaster only issued him with two pairs.

There’s the everyday working pair, kept well-enough bulled to keep him out of trouble with his platoon sergeant and the company sergeant major. There’s the field pair – frequently non-regulation, and often civilian specialist boots (for a while in Northern Ireland the favoured boots were Hi-Tek Trail, suitably blackened; and for Arctic deployments Scarpa Manta boots were preferred over the issue ski-march ones) - and usually with high tops. Then there’s the pair that is produced for inspections: they usually live in the locker covered with a cloth, and have many, many hours of spit and polish devoted to them. And if one is a Woodentop – oops, sorry, Brigade of Guards – there’s a pair of drill boots: World War II vintage ammunition boots with metal studs.

And berets and bonnets. There’s an arcane ritual required to make them fit properly. Supposedly one could be put on a charge if officially caught doing it, but everybody does it (and the Platoon Sergeant will unofficially make sure it’s done) and once it’s done nobody bats an eyelid.

And so it goes on. There was the trick of running a bar of soap down the inside of the creases of trousers, shirts, and blouses before pressing them so that they stuck and looked sharp.

And Personal Load Carrying Equipment. Some of the stuff that was procured by MoD Procurements Executive was awkward to wear in the field, and sometimes even positively dangerous (e.g. 1958-pattern large pack). So things got done to it. And still do.

And then there’s what goes into it. Regulations require a longish list of items that have to be carried. Most of these are rarely used, and the weight and space in the Bergen could be better taken by things that will really, really be needed – like food and ammunition (and more ammunition) - and so they get left behind. And there’s the mania for miniaturising cooking utensils, normally by buying civilian backpackers' ones.

I imagine this has been done by the soldiery down the ages.

The Roman legionary’s gladius was worn on the right hip and drawn vertically. This limited the blade length to about eighteen inches. I’m sure there was many a long-service triarius who ‘acquired’ a cavalry spatha, had the blade cut down by the armourer, wore it on the left side using a cross draw, thus giving himself an extra six inches of blade – very useful in a close-quarter battle.

What’s the point of all this? Well, basically, as I mentioned, it has to do with the fèileadh mòr.

There are various suggestions about how to put on the Great Kilt, and how to wear it, and quite a lot of stuff on the internet that tries to be helpful. However, there’s the perennial problems of pleating, how to wear the ‘train’ in the most satisfactory manner so that the bulk of it is carried conveniently and it looks smart enough, and doing this without needing a Victorian-sized sitting room floor. None of these seems to me to have been addressed clearly in ways that satisfy - or, rather, satisfy me. So I wondered how the soldiers of the various highland regiments in the 18th Century - when they still wore the fèileadh mòr - dealt with the matter.

The essential problem facing an infantryman is how to look smart and regimental, and how to do that quickly and with limited space to hand. Speed is of the essence whether it’s getting on parade or standing to. So, they’ll have cheated.

I’d bet that fairly early in his service, Jock acquired an extra fèileadh mòr for inspection purposes which met all that the regulations required. Then there was the one that he actually wore.

The need to look smart and military will have trumped how he would have put it on at his croft (say, like in Robert Griffing's "The Jacobite" - a rather scruffy looking civilian). So I’d reckon that some older soldier tipped him off as to the ‘cheat’. Then off he went to a local seamstress, some coins changed hands, and she tacked in a dozen or so pleats in the right sort of place, so when Jock needed to get dressed in a hurry in a tent or his barrack-room bed space it was a simple matter and with no fiddling to arrange the pleats.

So what did he do with the fly? I think Griffing’s paintings are well researched – I don’t know what his sources were. In three of them (“One of their own”, “Major Grant’s Piper”, and “A long way from home”) the fly is discernible.

One of their own:


Major Grant's Piper:


A Long Way from Home:


The right-hand part of the ‘train’ seems to be gathered up and tucked into something, or tied, by the left shoulder-blade (rather than passed over the shoulder and fixed by a brooch below the collar-bone). The left-hand part has probably been twisted, passed round the back, and tucked into the belt somewhere by the right hip leaving a bunch of cloth at the left thigh (perhaps to function as a pocket).

Can anyone shed light on this? I’m not really thinking about the art appreciation of Griffing’s work, which I like anyway, but the matter of arranging the train of the fèileadh mòr so that it looks smart enough and can be done simply.

[kiltyascharged]

Speaking from my own experience as an historical re-enactor. I belonged to a highland regiment Fraser's 78th Highlanders of Foot of the French and Indian war
or for our friends across the pond, the Seven Years War. We wore the great kilt as our uniform.
And being the only regular British troops out on the field we had to look sharp. what we did was to sew three loops along one edge of the cloth and after it was pleated in the normal fashion, we put the kilt on and prceed to tuck the bulk of the material into our belts to form a triangular shape then we took all of the loops and attached them to a button that was sewn just below the left shoulder or on top of the shoulder.This helps take off some of the weight of all the extra material and also is a conveniant way to carry extra gear like black powder charges that are need for the battle re-enactments.Or non-period water bottles that had to be out of sight.
I think that the paintings are of the 42nd Highlanders of Foot also known as The Blackwatch.
I hope that this is helpful.There is a web site for Fort Ticonderoga that shows photos of some of the highland units.http://www.fort-ticonderoga.org

[English Bloke]

I'm afraid I can't help with your great kilt query but I can relate you your comments re: cheating squaddies. I recall SOP kit checks as a grim experience, seemingly designed to give the inspecting NCO an opportunity to catch individuals for contravention of a standing order rather than ensuring that soldiers were adequatly equiped for tasks they had to face. As a basic-training tool to encourage blind obedience or to guide inexperienced soldiers in what they might need when out of Barracks seems fair enough. As does having your field dressing in a standard place for fast access by anyone applying life saving F/A when YOU most need it. These things I can understand but why the silly stuff continued into working units was always beyond me. An example that springs to mind is the shiny boot-polish tin (as in all paint removed) and the contents of said tin had to be new and un-used, and the brushes that went with said tin also had to be new; and why was it carried in an ammunition pouch?? I remember thinking, what is the point of carrying a tin of polish you can't open and brushes you can't use on your boots in a pouch you can't keep your ammo in now 'cause it's full of crap... Not to mention flashing a shiny tin around in a hostile environment is definately not the action of a wise man. We all used to cheat. I recall packing SOP's as per list, half an hour before the Sergeant turned up and then putting it all back the way I wanted it after he'd gone. A valuable lesson in life I suppose, maybe that was the point. I liked your theory about the Gladius and the chopped down Spatha by the way, I know I would.

I hope you find the answer to your Great Kilt question but from the pictures you provided it does look like the flys are tucked away.

[Cynthia]

Sorry I can't help with your post, but I just have to say that I LOVE the paintings you posted. They're wonderful!

[davedove]

I can't really shed any light on your query, but I have much the same question.

All the guides you see for donning the great kilt usually involve laying out the kilt on the ground, pleating it, laying down on top of it, then belting it on.

I really can't imagine that the kilt wearer's of old did it that way, at least not all the time. For instance, what if it was muddy out? Why would you put your perfectly good kilt in the mud needlessly? And it takes a bit of time to do it that way. Surely there was a quicker, simpler method.

[Nick the DSM]

i believe there's a method for you to be able to pleat the great kilt in your hands, standing up.

[An t-Ileach]

Cynthia:
Robert Griffing is a great artist, isn't he? He's obviously tried to get all the contemporary details right - like the regimental variations of the uniforms, and even with the Hurons.

davedove:
I was that line of reasoning that set me off in the first place

Nick the DSM:

I bookmarked the link to that when I came across it first: http://www.tartanweb.com/shop/pages/...reat_kilt.html.

It still seems a bit time consuming, and I think one would struggle a bit getting the aprons in the right places. I tried doing it a few times but I didn't find its results entirely satisfactory. Maybe I haven't given it enough 'times' in order for me to get sufficiently dextrous?

DSM wouldn't mean "Divisional Sergeant Major", by any chance?

[Nick the DSM]

Cynthia:
Robert Griffing is a great artist, isn't he? He's obviously tried to get all the contemporary details right - like the regimental variations of the uniforms, and even with the Hurons.

davedove:
I was that line of reasoning that set me off in the first place

Nick the DSM:

I bookmarked the link to that when I came across it first: http://www.tartanweb.com/shop/pages/...reat_kilt.html.

It still seems a bit time consuming, and I think one would struggle a bit getting the aprons in the right places. I tried doing it a few times but I didn't find its results entirely satisfactory. Maybe I haven't given it enough 'times' in order for me to get sufficiently dextrous?

DSM wouldn't mean "Divisional Sergeant Major", by any chance?

Hahaha! No, it means Drum Stick Massacre, its an old nickname of mine.

I think the only other thing i can think of would be a drawstring...

[Dukeof Kircaldy]

Well, this post did get my attention.

[Mark Keeney]

And berets and bonnets. There’s an arcane ritual required to make them fit properly. Supposedly one could be put on a charge if officially caught doing it, but everybody does it (and the Platoon Sergeant will unofficially make sure it’s done) and once it’s done nobody bats an eyelid.

OK, I'll bite. Can you explain this ritual? You have gotten me curious.