exceptions to tradition: the Queen

[Mike_Oettle]

While it has been said on these forums in several places that there is no such tradition as the requirement that a sgian dubh must draw blood before it is re-sheathed, I was told a story many years ago about my commanding officer that led me to believe (at the time) that it was true.
I did not have the opportunity to ascertain what my commanding officer actually did or believed about the practice, but a chap I knew told me that he had met the officer in question and, on being shown the sgian dubh, was told that it had to draw blood, and that his (my informant’s) thumb had been pricked by the tip of the sgian.
I should mention also that the officer in question (his rank was commandant, since the South African Army had at the time done away with lieutenant-colonels) was not himself a Scot. He was a South African-born Lebanese, a devout Roman Catholic who had married a Roman Catholic lady of Scottish extraction. He was well respected as a businessman (he ran a car dealership) and as a soldier.
In fact, another story told about him was that he had run away during the war to join the regiment (First City), which was in camp in the Eastern Transvaal at the time. As a pupil at St Andrew’s College he was known to the men in the regiment (officers and other ranks), who knew he was only 16, and arranged for him to return to school.
After the war he did join the regiment, and went to England for two years on an exchange programme with the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment. He rose to the rank of sergeant before being sent on a course to qualify as a commissioned officer.
So clearly he was a seasoned soldier before becoming the OC, and familiar with British military tradition, but at the same time without direct experience of Scottish kilted regimental usage.
However, since I did not discuss the incident of the sgian with him on the few occasions that I was in his company socially, I cannot verify it.
Nonetheless, he could have been convinced that it was a genuine tradition.
I similarly did not discuss with him the tradition of not wearing underwear with the kilt, nor any possible exceptions to it.
Not sure whether this clears anything up at all, but there it is.
Regards,
Mike

[Mike_Oettle]

Nighthawk wrote: “If you were take a French poodle and put a German collar on it, would it all of a sudden become a German shepherd?”

Of course it would not become a German shepherd. But bearing in mind that the poodle is actually a German breed, it might emphasise the fact that the dog in question was not in fact French.