Stable belt

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A stable belt is an item of uniform used in the armed forces of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.

Originally, stable belts were worn by cavalrymen in the working dress they used for cleaning the stables and tending to their horses, but in the 1950s they spread to all branches of the armed forces, adding a splash of colour and individuality to the drab khaki working uniforms. Initially they were resisted by many senior officers, who saw them as too individualistic, but they soon became accepted throughout the forces.

A stable belt is a wide webbing belt, usually a single solid colour or horizontally striped in two or more different colours. It is worn around the waist, either in the belt loops of trousers or a skirt or over a jersey. The original cavalry stable belts buckled at the side to avoid chafing the soldier's stomach as he bent down during stable work, but many stable belts are now clipped at the front, sometimes behind a metal belt plate (usually bearing the badge of the regiment), although a few regiments such as the Light Infantry clip their stable belts at the front with the original two leather straps. A large number of units, however, continue to use the traditional method of securing the belt using two leather straps and metal buckles at the left-hand side.

Today, every regiment and corps of the British Army has its own stable belt, often very colourful. The Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force also have their own. They are worn with most styles of informal dress, but not with formal (No.2 or No.1) dress. Stable belts are purchased by individual service personnel, not issued, so are theoretically neither regulation nor compulsory, but since virtually everyone does own one they are effectively uniform items.

Contents 1 United Kingdom 1.1 Cavalry/Armoured regiments 1.2 Infantry regiments (new system) 1.3 Corps 1.4 Training Units 1.5 Cadet Units 1.6 Other services 1.7 Former cavalry regiments 1.8 Former Yeomanry regiments 1.9 Infantry regiments (old system)/Former infantry regiments 1.10 Former volunteer infantry regiments 1.11 Former corps 2 External links

[edit] United Kingdom

Note that these belts are shown in cross section, the stripes actually being horizontal as worn, and are actually considerably wider than shown, although the stripes are shown in correct proportion. Where belts are asymmetrical, the left-hand side of the illustration is the uppermost as worn.

[edit] Cavalry/Armoured regiments

Life Guards		Blues and Royals
1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards		Royal Scots Dragoon Guards		Royal Dragoon Guards
Queen's Royal Hussars		9th/12th Royal Lancers		King's Royal Hussars
The Light Dragoons		Queen's Royal Lancers		Royal Tank Regiment
Royal Yeomanry		Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry		Royal Wessex Yeomanry
Queen's Own Yeomanry

[edit] Infantry regiments (new system)

Foot Guards		Royal Regiment of Scotland		Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment
		Government 1A Tartan
Duke of Lancaster's Regiment		Royal Regiment of Fusiliers		Royal Anglian Regiment
Yorkshire Regiment		Mercian Regiment (forms in August 2007)		Royal Welsh
Royal Irish Regiment		The Parachute Regiment		Royal Gurkha Rifles
The Rifles (forms in 2007)		Special Air Service		Royal Gibraltar Regiment

[edit] Corps

Royal Horse Artillery		Royal Artillery		Royal Engineers
Royal Corps of Signals		Army Air Corps		Royal Army Chaplains' Department
Royal Logistic Corps		Royal Army Medical Corps		Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
Adjutant General's Corps		Royal Army Veterinary Corps		Small Arms School Corps
Royal Army Dental Corps		Intelligence Corps		Army Physical Training Corps
Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps		Corps of Army Music		Queen's Gurkha Engineers
Queen's Gurkha Signals		Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment

[edit] Training Units

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Aberdeen Universities Officers Training Corps		Birmingham Universities Officers Training Corps		Bristol University Officers Training Corps
Cambridge University Officers Training Corps		City of Edinburgh Universities Officers Training Corps		East Midlands Universities Officers Training Corps
		Hunting Stewart Tartan
Exeter University Officers Training Corps		Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities Officers Training Corps		Leeds University Officers Training Corps
Liverpool University Officers Training Corps		Manchester and Salford Universities Officers Training Corps		Northumbrian Universities Officers Training Corps
Oxford University Officers Training Corps		Queen's University Officers Training Corps		Sheffield University Officers Training Corps
Southampton University Officers Training Corps		Tayforth Universities Officers Training Corps		University of London Officers Training Corps
		Hunting Stewart Tartan
University of Wales Officers Training Corps
[edit] Cadet Units
Army Section, Combined Cadet Force		Army Cadet Force
		;

[edit] Other services

Royal Navy		Royal Marines		Royal Air Force

[edit] Former cavalry regiments

Royal Horse Guards
1st King's Dragoon Guards		Queen's Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards)		3rd Carabiniers
4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards		5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards
Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons)		Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons)		3rd The King's Own Hussars
4th Queen's Own Hussars		7th Queen's Own Hussars		8th King's Royal Irish Hussars
9th Queen's Royal Lancers		10th Royal Hussars		11th Hussars
12th Royal Lancers		13th/18th Royal Hussars		14th/20th King's Hussars
15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars		16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers		17th/21st Lancers
Queen's Own Hussars		Queen's Royal Irish Hussars		Royal Hussars

[edit] Former Yeomanry regiments

Many of these belts are still worn by sub-units.

Middlesex Yeomanry		Royal Gloucestershire Hussars		Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry

[edit] Infantry regiments (old system)/Former infantry regiments

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders		Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment		Black Watch
Government 1A Tartan
Border Regiment		The Buffs		The Cameronians
Cheshire Regiment (in existence until August 2007)		Devonshire and Dorset Regiment (in existence until 2007)		Devonshire Regiment
Dorset Regiment		Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry		7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles
Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment		Duke of Wellington's Regiment		Durham Light Infantry
1st East Anglian Regiment		2nd East Anglian Regiment		3rd East Anglian Regiment
East Lancashire Regiment		East Surrey Regiment		East Yorkshire Regiment
Essex Regiment		Gloucestershire Regiment		Gordon Highlanders
				Gordon Tartan
Green Howards		The Highlanders		Highland Light Infantry
		Gordon Tartan
2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles		King's Own Royal Border Regiment (in existence until July 2006)		King's Own Royal Regiment
King's Own Scottish Borderers		King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry		King's Regiment (in existence until July 2006)
Leslie Tartan
King's Regiment (Liverpool)		King's Royal Rifle Corps		King's Shropshire Light Infantry
Lancashire Fusiliers		Lancashire Regiment		The Light Infantry (in existence until 2007)
Loyal Regiment		Manchester Regiment		Middlesex Regiment
Northamptonshire Regiment		North Staffordshire Regiment		Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire		10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles		6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles
Queen's Lancashire Regiment (in existence until July 2006)		Queen's Own Buffs		Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
Queen's Own Highlanders		Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment		Queen's Regiment
MacKenzie Tartan
Queen's Royal Regiment		Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment		The Rifle Brigade
Royal Berkshire Regiment		Royal Fusiliers		Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (in existence until 2007)
Royal Green Jackets (in existence until 2007)		Royal Hampshire Regiment		Royal Highland Fusiliers
				MacKenzie Tartan
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers		Royal Irish Fusiliers		Royal Irish Rangers
Royal Leicestershire Regiment		Royal Lincolnshire Regiment		Royal Norfolk Regiment
Royal Northumberland Fusiliers		Royal Regiment of Wales		Royal Scots
				Hunting Stewart Tartan
Royal Scots Fusiliers		Royal Sussex Regiment		Royal Ulster Rifles
Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers		Royal Welch Fusiliers		Seaforth Highlanders
Sherwood Foresters		Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry		Somerset Light Infantry
South Lancashire Regiment		South Staffordshire Regiment		South Wales Borderers
Staffordshire Regiment (in existence until August 2007)		Suffolk Regiment		Ulster Defence Regiment
Welch Regiment		West Yorkshire Regiment		Wiltshire Regiment
Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (in existence until August 2007)		Worcestershire Regiment		York and Lancaster Regiment

[edit] Former volunteer infantry regiments

These stable belts may still be worn by sub-units.

London Scottish		Mercian Volunteers		Yorkshire Volunteers

[edit] Former corps

Adjutant General's Corps (First Pattern)		Army Catering Corps		Army Fire Service
Royal Army Ordnance Corps		Royal Army Pay Corps		Royal Corps of Transport
Royal Pioneer Corps		Women's Royal Army Corps

[edit] External links

• Stable Belts
• Society of the Military Horse