Post-WWII Scottish Unit Headgear (UK and Commonwealth)

[Reid10]

Recent photo of a Scots Guards officer wearing the SD peaked cap.

[Watchdog]

Another more modern Scottish headgear I have been looking for is one of the berets for the 125 Ration Squadron headquartered in Glasgow that used a Lamont tartan backing. I am always looking for the more obscure Scottish TA/Reserve unit headgear.

Hi Reid, yes I think that one will be quite hard to find as with many similar headdress the tartan patch will in most cases have simply been removed by soldiers who continued to wear the same beret when units were re-organised.

As far as I am aware 125 Sqn was part of 154 (Lowland) Regt Royal Corps of Transport which became 154 (Scottish) Regt Royal Logistic Corps and eventually in the early 2000s 125 Sqn became part of 159 Regt RLC which belongs to 102 Logistic Brigade and is based in Stoke in the Midlands of England which I think is when the tartan patch was deleted.
It would have been worn initially with the Royal Corps of Transport cap badge (or possibly Army Catering Corps by attached pers) then the current Royal Logistic Corps cap badge following amalgamation of RCT, ACC, RAPC, RAOC, RPC and RE Postal & Courier Services.
However, you never know what turns up in the boxes of headdress on a dealers table so now we are begining to see fairs going ahead I will put it on my list for you!

Regards

Mark

Regards

Mark

[Watchdog]

Recent photo of a Scots Guards officer wearing the SD peaked cap.

The chap receiving the trophy is a Scots Guards piper wearing a kind of un-dress highland outfit which is not actually "uniform" per se but more like the regimental blazer and tie worn by non-pipers and other regiments at functions such as presentations etc rather than "full-on" military parades.

His Glengarry cap is the Cameron type blue pattern as worn with uniform by pipers and fitted with the Scots Guards pipers cap badge. I would guess that he is a prize winner in a piping event of some sort.

Here is an example of the cap badge;



As with most pipers badges which are based on the main regimental design but either larger or with additional elements, these were initially produced by the regiment rather than the supply sytem and this is one of those. It is obviously cast and the reverse has the look of being "filled". However the design remains the same in more recent service supplied stamped versions. Also it is not unusual to encounter privately made solid silver badges procurred by the soldier himself, usually senior pipers or pipe majors, albeit that their badges are different design variants.

I hope this is of interest.

Regards

Mark

[Watchdog]

If anyone has a picture of this TOS being worn, please post it.[/QUOTE]

Still working on the Erskine patch question, seems to be some sort of state secret!!

A point to note concerning the missing toorie; This almost certainly due to the fact that in many cases the toorie is deliberately removed to facilitate pressing the top of the TOS with a steam iron after which it is re-attached with a safety pin until next time. A typical squaddie "dodge"!

Regards

Mark

[Watchdog]

[QUOTE=Reid10;2159211]The Royal Scots pipers had their own TOS with a tartan different from the rest of the regiment. They still wear the tartan backing, just with the SCOTS cap badge. QUOTE]

That's correct it is Royal Stewart whilst the rest of the regiment wear Hunting Stewart (and trews rather than the kilt) but it looks very different because of the angled orientation on a particular part of the sett of the tartan.

Regards

Mark

[Watchdog]

Attachment 1494792

By definition all RHF kit is "post war" due to the regiment only being formed in 1959 so I thought I might add some variations in cap badge over their life time. I don't have a Pipe Majors badge to show (it's that "hens teeth" thing again) but it is the same design as the standard pipers badge just better quality and more elaborate;

Oops, I pressed go before adding the pics!!




Edit

This is the cap badge worn by RHF Pipe Majors in the glengarry. It is a five part construction. The gold colour is electroplate probabbly rhodium or such. The white metal is silverplate and really does shine and twinkle in the sunlight. The picture cannot truly show this;



I hope this adds to the thread.

Regards

Mark

[Reid10]

I am sorry about being absent for a bit. Unfortunately I have had to do a bit of traveling lately.

Mark, thank you for keeping the thread going and for the great information! I have what appears to be a strange hybrid of the RHF badges you displayed above. It came on a glengarry I recently found during my travels. The grenade body is pebbled like an OR badge, but is two piece with bolts like the officer version. Perhaps for NCOs? Reminds me a little bit of the two-piece badges worn by the Scots Guards NCOs.

I am working on putting my newest headgear into the proper format to post on the thread. Hopefully I will have a few up tomorrow. I am also expecting a glengarry (Witwatersrand Rifles) and TOS (Transvaal Scottish) from South Africa in a month or so.

I had the chance to get a SG Drummer Bonnet this week, but was outbid! I never seen one come up for sale before and should have gone all in. I will keep my eye out.

Thank you for the offer to keep an eye out for the 125 SQN beret! If you see any other headgear for the Scottish Regiments, let me know. I will figure out how to pay you for the hat...and your troubles. I have a friend stationed in the UK who can send things through our mil post, which saves a lot on shipping.

Cheers

Reid

[Reid10]

Oh, and the search for the Red Erskine TOS continues! I have searched every site and source I can find. I agree, it is some kind of RHF secret...

[Reid10]

Still looking for a good picture of a member of the unit wearing the glengarry. Most show members of the unit wearing a blue bonnet or khaki TOS, but the glengarry is mentioned in several sources with pictures. Unfortunately, none of it being worn.

[Watchdog]

I have what appears to be a strange hybrid of the RHF badges you displayed above. It came on a glengarry I recently found during my travels. The grenade body is pebbled like an OR badge, but is two piece with bolts like the officer version. Perhaps for NCOs?

I had the chance to get a SG Drummer Bonnet this week, but was outbid! I never seen one come up for sale before and should have gone all in. I will keep my eye out. Cheers Reid

Hi Reid,

As far as I am aware the RHF never had an NCO pattern cap badge. I suspect that the one you have might be a private purchase "Non-issue" type. Especially during the period when the anodised aluminium badges were prevalent many regiments had badges supplied by often the same maufacturers for sale in PRI shops (a bit like US Px shops) where regimental ties, sweatshirts, cufflinks etc were sold as well as things like map cases and waterproof notebooks etc. Such badges were usually brass/white metal therefore polishable and of better quality than the issued a/a rubbish. Soldiers could not be forced (not in the truest sense of the word ) to buy these but many preferred them as a matter of "style" and serious unit pride. In some units it was the un-written law and if you wore a a/a badge for anything other than field work or really dirty work that indicated wearing "scruff-order" you were simply not one of the "in-crowd"

If your badge is one of these, which from your description it sounds as if it is, I would regard it as a collectible variant in it's own right as it would have been worn by a real soldier unlike the dreadful Danbury Mint rubish sold as commemoratives in ready made "display" frames and of no value as militaria.

Of course it is also possible that it might be an item that was issued in small numbers between formation of the regiment and the advent of the a/a badges and co-existed alongside the gilt brass OR' badge that I showed below.

Can you post a picture? I'd be really interested to see it.


The saga of the Dress (red) Erskine patch on the TOS continues. Every time I get close the answer blows away like smoke in the breeze

As for the Scots Gds bonnet, would that be a bearskin? Scots Guards Pipers wear a feather bonnet but the drummers wear the bearskin like the rifle companies.

Either way they are expensive. A bearskin in good condition is upwards of £230 depending on period and a feather bonnet would run to at least double that and you could pay considerably more. Bear in mind that the bearskin is exactly the same for all guards regiments. The only difference is the plume (Scots Gds don't wear one as they are the centre of the line. This also the reason for them not having a chinstrap or buttons on the forage cap.) and the bearskin caps are made with a plume socket on both sides.

Both the the bearskin and feather bonnet (ostrich feathers by the way) are the kind of regimental property that rarely goes with the soldier on discharge but is always returned.

Regards

Mark