T H E C O V E N A N T E R
of the battalion were replaced with khaki.” the conventional way which is vice versa).
There were many earlier occasions when The other is that the officers are wearing
a lighter and more practical uniform would black armbands which would have been
have been a wise choice. In 1828 Private because of official mourning on the death,
McGregor is quoted as having written: on 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This
“We had to mount guard at first with shakos places the photograph almost certainly in
and red coats as in Europe till many men dropt the month following her death.
with sunstroke, then the Colonel found out we The 2nd Battalion was in India in 1881
were not in Europe. He would soon have killed at the time of the amalgamation and the
us all.” (Ibid p 230.) founding of the Scottish Rifles and was to
By 1833 the 26th were in China. One remain there until January 1895 when it
of the surgeons of the garrison at Chusan embarked for home. They were in India
wrote about the amount of disease and then at the time when we are told that
illness exacerbated by the fact that: khaki became the usual dress (1885) though
“Under a sun hotter than that ever in India, there is no reference to this that I can find
the men were buckled up to the throat in their in the Regimental History and there is no
full-dress coatees...” photographic clue from The Album. They
And soldiers of the 90th faired no better. were to remain in UK from 1895 until
They were in the Cape Colony (South sailing for South Africa in the autumn of
Africa) in January 1847. One resident there, 1899 on the outbreak of the South African
a Mrs Harriet Ward, wrote: war. There they would certainly have made
“Under every disadvantage of fatigue, privation, the change from rifle green to khaki.
and a residence under canvas in the height of Let me return now for a moment to the
an African summer, with the thermometer at subject of puttees and the way they are /
times 157F [78C] in the open air, the 90th, on were worn. I made the point about what
their march from Graham’s Town to the coast, I believe is the unique way in which the
presented a perfect picture of a regiment of Cameronians wore them. Is there a myth to
British veterans.” be exploded here as well? My understanding
Mrs Ward says nothing of the men’s was that the tradition came from the time
uniforms, but an earlier observer, while of service in South Africa. It seems clear
praising the soldiers’ physique, pointed out
that
“...the once bright scarlet of Britain’s blood-
red garb was sadly sobered down to a dark
dingy maroon, while the nether garments, well
patched and strapped with leather, bore evidence
to the hard service they had undergone...” (Ibid
p 252)
It was 62 years before khaki made its
appearance in South Africa to replace the,
by then, black greatcoats of the Scottish
Rifles. But this is not quite the whole story.
Both battalions served in India before that.
The 1st Battalion landed in Bombay on 1 that puttees (the word is Hindu) originated
January 1895 and stayed there till the end in India and came into service with khaki
of 1909 when it moved to South Africa. battledress uniforms. Both battalions saw
During this time they certainly wore khaki service there after its introduction in 1885
and there is a good photograph, reprinted and before they went to South Africa.
here, which I saw first in Major Brian Can we therefore assume that the puttee
Leishman’s excellent album, 300 Years of tradition stems from India instead? I think
Service, published as part of the 300th so. But did both battalions wind them the
celebrations in May 1989 [and still available same way? I wonder.
from the Museum.] While reading some note on Hodson’s
This photograph, of the Military Band, Horse I came across a comment to the effect
shows two other details of interest. On close that “Many view it [khaki] as the precursor
examination it is possible to verify that of modern camouflage uniform.” Not so,
they were of course wearing their puttees of course, as any rifleman will tell you.
“Cameronian style”, ie they were wound That distinction goes to the original rifle
from the outside to the inside (rather that regiments of the Peninsular War a further

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