The subject of regimental tartans, like the question of the kilts themselves, is by no means as straightforward as it at first appears. It is quite true to state, as Colonel Angus Fairrie has done in his history of the Queens Own Highlanders, that the setts have, at least as far as the surviving regiments are concerned, remained unchanged since the Napoleonic period. However the fact also remains that in certain regiments the size of the checks has changed over the years and that in consequence the overall appearance of some of the kilts has materially changed. The average size of the checks, measured by the overstripes, would appear to have been 5" in contrast to the 6" checks used by some, but by no means all regiments today. It would also appear to be the case that modern dyes have produced rather darker tartans.
With the exception of the 79th's unique Cameron of Erracht sett all the regular highland regiments serving in this period appear to have worn setts based upon the old government or 'Black Watch' tartan. This is a dark blue material overlaid with a regular green check. The horizontal and vertical bands forming the check are heavily edged in black and a fine tracery of thin black lines crossing the blue squares further serves to darken the appearance of the tartan. A black overstripe normally runs down the centre of the green bands but a number of regiments are distinguished by a brightly coloured one as set out in the schedule below. Since the depth of the apron visible under other clothing can be variable reference is made in the schedule only to the vertical bands.
42nd ROYAL HIGHLANDERS
The question of the tartan worn by the 42nd during this period is one which still remains to be settled satisfactorily. The problem basically is the presence or otherwise of a red overstripe. There is no doubt that this overstripe was worn by the grenadier company and in this period at least it is clearly depicted in Hamilton Smith's well known illustration of a grenadier corporal c.1812, Clark and Duborg's version of Piper Clarke of the 71st at Vimeiro - which actually depicts the 42nd, and an earlier cartoon depicting a piper, [contemporary evidence appears to be lacking for the use of 'Royal Stewart' tartan by the regiment's pipers]. The Dayes watercolours of c.1790 depict an officer and soldier of the 42nd, both wearing plaids undifferenced by a red overstripe.
According to Colonel David Stewart of
Garth however the red overstripe was not
reserved for the grenadier company but was
worn by all the companies in their kilts but not
their belted plaids. Since he himself joined the
42nd in 1787 and served with the regiment until
1805, this statement must be regarded as
authoritative. [7]
The red stripe in any case appears to have
disappeared by 1820 and an officer's kilt,
probably of about that date, has the more usual
black one instead. This kilt also has noticeably
smaller checks than are worn today with five
vertical bands on the apron in contrast to his
modern counterpart's three. [8]
An Atkinson print of 1816 however depicting the 42nd at Waterloo still
shows the red stripe, but on balance it is most
likely that the switch to the undifferenced
Government sett was made during the
Peninsular War as a result of supply difficulties.
It is a little difficult to be precise about the
tartan worn by the 71st [originally raised during
the American War as the 73rd] before it was
deprived of its kilts. There is no doubt that it
was what is now called the 'McKenzie' tartan;
that is the government sett with two coloured
overstripes. Before 1790 they were buff and red
but an alteration to white and red was made
shortly afterwards, probably on the regiment's
return from India in 1798. The sett worn during
the period under discussion may therefore be
taken as being identical to that worn by the
78th. The problem however lies in establishing
how it was arranged.
The only real clue, albeit a rather less than
reliable one, is that in the brief period when the
kilt was restored to the regiment before its
amalgamation with the Royal Scots Fusiliers the
apron displayed four vertical bands with the
white overstripe laid on top and two vertical red
overstripes laid over the blue ground colour
between the first and second and third and
fourth white overstripes. Since the surviving
kilts from this period all have at least four
vertical bands this arrangement sounds
convincing.
Like the 71st this regiment, originally
raised during the American War as the 78th,
lost its kilts in 1809, but it had previously worn
the standard government sett.
The highlanders can be identified as members of the 73rd by the bastion lace and green
facings. The kilts are shown as green with a red overstripe. The sporrans are brown, as is the
envelope-style knapsack. The small white object beside the knapsack may be one of the
magazines which orders mention as being clipped on to the bayonet belt.
An Atkinson print of 1807 depicts
highlanders of a regiment which can be
identified as the 73rd by their green facings and
bastion lace. The print also very clearly shows a
red overstripe in the kilt, presumably inherited
from the 42nd. Atkinson is not as precise as
one would like and the sole front view [a sitting
soldier] is not very clear but he does show a
fairly dense network consistent with the usual
four or five vertical stripes on the front apron common at this period.
De-kilted in 1809 this regiment adopted
government sett trews with a white overstripe
when permitted to resume highland dress after
the Napoleonic Wars. Since this was its facing
colour it is in fact quite likely to have borne
this overstripe on its kilts prior to 1809.
De-kilted in 1809 there appears to be no
information available as to the tartan worn but
it was most probably the standard government
sett. There is no evidence that it bore the
yellow overstripe of the Gordons with whom the
regiment was amalgamated in 1881.
Like the 71st it had the 'McKenzie' tartan,
ie; the government sett with red and white
overstripes. As presently worn there are four
vertical bands overlaid with white overstripes
and a single red overstripe running down the
centre of the apron between the second and
third white ones. The size of' the checks is
therefore consistent with those of surviving
kilts belonging to other regiments from the
Napoleonic period and consequently there is no
reason to doubt that this arrangement prevailed
from the regiment's inception in 1793.
There has incidentally been some
spectilation as to why the 71st changed its red
and buff overstripes for changed to the present
arrangement of red and white ones on the
government pattern ground. The answer is most
likely that the 71st originally took the buff
from their facings and were followed in this by
the 78th. Although the latter regiment also,
notionally at least, had buff facings they were in
practice a creamy off-white colour.
Since both were 'McKenzie' regiments and
the white overstripe clearly had a more
attractive appearance than the rather dirty buff
one, the 71st may have required little
persuading to standardise the sett.
This tartan is at once the exception to (he
rule that all army setts were based On the
government one; the most intricate, Mid; the
one which has altered most drarnatiically in
appearance.
Although the sett has survived unchanged
and the arrangement displayed on the apron,
featuring live vertical bands, is unlikely to have
changed, the colour certainly has done so. As
worn at least from the First World War the
impression from a distance is of a russet colour,
not unlike autumn leaves.
This impression is created by the dense
network Of Fed overstripes and an occasional
yellow one. A piece of' tartan recently woven
to the original specification however has a
predominantly grass-green background. [9]
This is also confirmed in a painting by
David Cunliffe c.1853/54 which although
accurately recording the sett as worn at the
present day shows it at that time to have borne
a predominantly green rather than blue ground. [10]
De-kilted in 1809 the tartan worn by this
regiment presents a problem. It is described in
an order dated l6th May 1794 as being green
with black stripes. [11]
This rather vague reference has sometimes
been interpreted its something like the Mackay
of Sutherland sett, though the usual Government
sett seems more likely since at this period it had
a greenish blue rather than blue/black
appearance as at the present day.
The Gordons, and the Gordon Fericibles
raised shortly before, adopted the government
sett with a single yellow overstripe; one of'
three designs submitted to the Duke in April
1793 by his William Forsyth and Co. While the
same sett is still worn by the Gordon
Highlanders the overall appearance of' their-
kilts has altered very noticeably since the
Napoleonic Wars. At the present time O.R.s'
kilts display the now usual three vertical bands
on the apron while officers, having slightly larger
checks, display only two. In contrast the 1796
vintage kilt in the SUSM has four vertical bands
on the apron as does one worn c.1815 by
Lieutenant John Bramwell [12] and one
illustrated in a portrait of a Sergeant Major of
the regiment in 1816. [13]
It might be useful at this point to note that
the four vertical bands are, unlike the present
practice, slightly offset on the apron. When
viewed from the front the first band lies half a
check width in from the outside [fringed] edge
of the apron, and the fourth runs down the
opposite edge at the point where it joins the
pleated part of the kilt.
Included in the list of regiments ordered to
cease wearing the kilt in 1809 was the 94th
Foot; formerly the Scotch Brigade. This order
must have come as a considerable surprise since
the regiment was largely recruited in the
Edinburgh area and had never been a kilted
corps. The most likely explanation for their
inclusion in the order is quite simply that they
were listed in error for the 93rd, the youngest
of the highland regiments [raised as late as 1799].
The tartan worn by the regiment was and is
the universal government sett. It is presently
distinguished from the Black Watch in being of
a noticeably lighter colour. Whether such a
distinction existed in the Napoleonic period is
at best debatable since the Black Watch tartan
was itself much lighter at that time. Again, in
any case it is likely that the checks were smaller
and that the apron displayed four rather than
three vertical bands
Sometimes erroneously referred to as the
Strathspey regiment this unit, disbanded in
1795, had the usual government sett differenced
by a red overstripe. This is referred to in
correspondence concerning the drummers and is
also rather crudely depicted in a hand-coloured
version of the well known caricature of Sir
James Grant, by John Kay. A piece of
government sett tartan without the difference
was discovered in one of the regiment's
surviving knapsacks but probably dates to a later
period when they were sometimes used by the
Inverness Militia.
No details survive of the tartan worn by
this short-lived unit but its sister Fencible
regiment had the undifferenced government
sett so it presumably did likewise. [14]
Also disbanded in 1795 the 116th had two
yellow overstripes. These ran down either side
of the green bands, thus distinguishing the sett
from that worn by the Gordons with a single
yellow overstripe running down the middle.
Curiously this distinction is also repeated in the
officers' lace. The Gordons had a black line
running down the middle while the 116th's
officers had black lines running down either side
of the lace.
A set of bagpipes belonging to the regiment
displayed in the SUSM has bag cover made of
Gordon tartan, with the single overstripe, but it
may be a later replacement.
[1] Three and a half yards were allowed for the kilts in
the 97th [Inverness-shire] Regiment but sergeants in the old 71st were allowed four yards in 1775 - Bulloch p33
Other Kilt Articles:
71st [GLASGOW]
HIGHLANDERS
72nd
HIGHLANDERS
73rd HIGHLANDERS
Another of the regiments to be 'de-kilted' in
1809, this had originally been a second
battalion of the 42nd, raised during the
American War, and although adopting dark
green facings it retained a number of features of
its parent regiment's uniform.
74th [ARGYLE]
HIGHLANDERS
75th [STIRLINGSHIRE]
HIGHLANDERS
78th HIGHLANDERS [ROSS-SHIRE BUFFS]
79th [CAMERON] HIGHLANDERS
91st [ARGYLLSHIRE] HIGHLANDERS
92nd [GORDON] HIGHLANDERS
93rd [SUTHERLAND] HIGHLANDERS
97th [INVERNESS-SHIRE] HIGHLANDERS
109th [ABERDEENSHIRE] HIGHLANDERS
116th [PERTHSHIRE] HIGHLANDERS
NOTES
[2] At the time of writing it is displayed in the old part of
the museum amongst the collection of items
belonging to the Gordon Highlanders. Accession no.
1930-133
[3] I must at this point acknowledge the quite in valuable
advice of my mother, a time-served kilt maker of very many years experience.
[4] Henderson p12
[5] There does in fact appear to be some damage to the
SUSM kilt which can be attributed to an earlier use of pins. The holes have been patched, invariably from the inside, and it may well be that the buttons were an unofficial adaptation improvised when the problems caused by the pins became apparent.
[6] It might be noted that something of a paunch is in fact
an advantage since the circumference of the top edge of the kilt will be slightly smaller than the circumference of the paunch.
[7] Stewart Vol.1 p247 An objection to Stewart's
statement might be that both Morier's grenadier c1748/9 and the grenadier in the 1768 Clothing book are depicted with red stripes in their plaids. The sett with the red stripe had been introduced by Lord John Murray in 1745 at a time when the plaid was the normal order of dress and was known as 'The Colonel's Tartan'. Murray died in 1787 and it may well be that the 'Black Watch' tartan was reintroduced for the plaid by his successor.
[8] A composite uniform is displayed in the 'Story of
the Scottish Soldier' part of the SUSM in Edinburgh Castle Most items are correct for the
1815 period but the knife-pleated kilt is thought to date from the 1820s. In discussing the modern tartans worn by regiments I am following Thistleprint I 'British Army Tartan Kilts'
[Aberdeen 1987)
[9] A colour photograph of this reconstruction forms the
dust jacket of a recent biography of the founder of the unit, Allan Cameron of Erracht Maclean
'Indomitable Colonel' [London 1986]
[10] The painting has been reproduced most recently in
Military Illustrated no.33 p41
[11] See R. Wilkinson-Latham 'Scottish Military
Uniforms' [Newton Abbot 1975] p38
[12] Displayed in the National Army Museum
[13] JSAHR Vol.46 p127
[14] Hamilton Smith chart in SUSM
Back to Napoleonic Notes and Queries #4 Table of Contents
Back to Age of Napoleon List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines
© Copyright 1991 by Partizan Press.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com