Glengarry's of old?

[OC Richard]

Seems like the dicing can go one way or the other, depending on which photo and which original glen is used as the source. Mine follows an original glen I have photos of, if I remember rightly. I need to dig out the photos to make sure, though.

Your reproduction looks fantastic! The right shape, the right dicing, everything.

Mine is a funky homemade thing: I embroidered a strip of dicing and just stuck it on a modern glen.

[79thReproductions]

All the 79th glengarries I have seen have the same dicing. The Debose, Gettysburg, William Beard. If you have pictures of the 4th or 5th glengarry that exists, Id love to see it!

There are 5 known to exists...but I have heard rumors of a 6th... a 7th. Lord knows if I find one at a garage sale......... heh.

I started making glengarries with embroidered dicing on bodies that I made. I thought about altering modern black ones, but I came to the conclusion that making them out of wool, interfacing, and a lining cost less then a complete modern one to alter and in the end, it is more period in its shape and details.

I have always enjoyed your impression and work. I remember finding the site years ago and being blown away. Besides some close friends...no one knows the things that you were putting out on the web at that time.

Do you still have your impression? I remember seeing it on ebay I think. I hope no one bid and you were forced to keep that beautiful uniform!

[NorCalPiper]

Look at the curvature of this Glengarry-

[macwilkin]

Look at the curvature of this Glengarry-

Made especially for the Black Watch of Canada during WWI. One of the RHRC battalions also wore a khaki tartan kilt.

T.

[OC Richard]

One of the RHRC battalions also wore a khaki tartan kilt.

Khaki, or Hodden Grey?

The Hodden Grey kilts of the London Scottish and Toronto Scottish are quite often mistaken for khaki. Can you post a colour photo showing the khaki kilt?

Here's a typical photo of members of the London Scottish. Being in black & white one could think the kilts khaki:



But in colour the kilt, plaid, and doublet are seen to be Hodden Grey:



(The Pipe Major in the upper photo has stars or pips or something around his Badges of Office, which I've not seen elsewhere.)

That khaki glen well shows the old sort of glen that has a front that doesn't curve down steeply like modern glens and looks taller when viewed from the front. Great pics!

Oh... that evil photo of postwar 79th stuff that keeps popping up!! It's done more damage to recreating the uniform of the 79th than anything else except the absurd MacMillan book.

[macwilkin]

No, not Hodden Grey. If you want to see the tartan in question, it is depicted in the Osprey Men-at-Arms book, "The Canadian Army at War" by Mike Chappell, plate C1. The tartan was worn by the 73rd Battalion, CEF, due to shortages of uniforms during 1914-15. The NCO depicted is wearing the khaki kilt with a matching glengarry, as previously depicted. It looks nothing like the swatches of Hodden Grey behind the TOR SCOTS and LS badges in my collection.

T.

[HarborSpringsPiper]

No, not Hodden Grey. If you want to see the tartan in question, it is depicted in the Osprey Men-at-Arms book, "The Canadian Army at War" by Mike Chappell, plate C1. The tartan was worn by the 73rd Battalion, CEF, due to shortages of uniforms during 1914-15. The NCO depicted is wearing the khaki kilt with a matching glengarry, as previously depicted. It looks nothing like the swatches of Hodden Grey behind the TOR SCOTS and LS badges in my collection.

T.

That is interesting and thanks for posting it. I also found this on p. 37 of The Canadian Corps in WWI http://books.google.com/books?id=s8Z...20kilt&f=false

By April 1917, khaki (or 'drab') kilts were issued to all Highlanders in reserve units in England, these being exchanged for tartan by men who were sent to a front line Highland unit as reinforcements.

[79thReproductions]

Oh... that evil photo of postwar 79th stuff that keeps popping up!! It's done more damage to recreating the uniform of the 79th than anything else except the absurd MacMillan book.

Agreed! Especially the "First Blood" book in the well known civil war series. It has the post war uniform marked as "The uniform the 79th Highlanders wore" Paraphrasing of course but it leads the reader to believe that the 79th wore that pre war.

[OC Richard]

No, not Hodden Grey. If you want to see the tartan in question, it is depicted in the Osprey Men-at-Arms book, "The Canadian Army at War" by Mike Chappell, plate C1.

Ah, I see. Yes I have that book, and it shows a kilt made of a tartan which has a pale grey background.

I thought you were talking about a kilt made of the same fabric as the WWI tunics and trousers were, a self-coloured (plain) kilt in the colour called "khaki" in the UK but called "olive drab" in the US. I've never seen a kilt like that, though people tell me about them all the time, claiming that Scottish regiments were issued them. In every case the photo turns out to be of the London Scottish.

By the way, the colour plates in those Osprey books vary greatly in quality and reliablity from book to book and I always follow actual photographs rather than those plates. Some Osprey plates are outrageously incorrect.

[macwilkin]

Ah, I see. Yes I have that book, and it shows a kilt made of a tartan which has a pale grey background.

I thought you were talking about a kilt made of the same fabric as the WWI tunics and trousers were, a self-coloured (plain) kilt in the colour called "khaki" in the UK but called "olive drab" in the US. I've never seen a kilt like that, though people tell me about them all the time, claiming that Scottish regiments were issued them. In every case the photo turns out to be of the London Scottish.

By the way, the colour plates in those Osprey books vary greatly in quality and reliablity from book to book and I always follow actual photographs rather than those plates. Some Osprey plates are outrageously incorrect.

Are you preaching to the choir! I am a history instructor who teaches military history (among other subjects), and I would issue the same caveat about Osprey books*. However, in this case, Mike Chappell, the author of said book, is usually pretty reliable in terms of accuracy. Chappell was an ex-RSM with the Wessex Regiment, if memory serves me correctly. I would love to contact him and ask him about his source for that particular kilt. You'll need to take using the term "khaki" up with him, I'm afraid.

T.

*Some of the titles on American Civil War uniforms, for example. I worked for 10 years as a park ranger at a Civil War Battlefield, and they are out there in terms of their depiction of some units.