Tam o'shanter (hat)
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- This article is about the hat called a 'tam o' shanter'. For the poem by Robert Burns, see Tam o' Shanter (Burns poem).
A tam o'shanter is a Scottish bonnet worn by men which was named after the character Tam o' Shanter in the poem of that name by Robert Burns. The bonnet is made of wool with a toorie (pompon) in the centre, and the crown is about twice the diameter of the head. Originally they were only made in blue because of the lack of chemical dyes, and were called Bluebonnets. They are now available in plain colours or in different tartans.
A form of Tam o' Shanter called the "General Service Cap" was worn during World War II by the infantry regiments of the British and Canadian armies instead of berets (which were made standard in the postwar years). They were plain khaki in colour and were stiffer than civilian tam o'shanters. Today, the Scottish Division and some regiments of the Canadian Forces continue to wear the Tam o' Shanter (abbreviated to TOS) as their principal headdress, it has a narrower, flat crown, with Highland battalions shaping theirs sloping down from back to front and the Lowland battalions wearing theirs with the excess material pulled to the right side, similar to a beret.
The different battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland identify themselves by wearing distinctively coloured hackles on their tam o'shanters, and soldiers of The Black Watch of Canada wear a red hackle on both their duty tam o'shanters and dress balmorals.
Some regiments of the Canadian Army wear different coloured toories: the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada have traditionally worn dark green; The North Nova Scotia Highlanders wore red toories during the Second World War; and the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders wore blue. Most regiments wear a khaki toorie, matching the hat.
In many regiments, it is traditional for soldiers to wear a tam o'shanter, while officers (and in some cases senior non-commissioned officers) wear the Balmoral or Glengarry instead.
[edit] Trivia
- In the opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) joyfully throws her tam o'shanter cap up in the air. A statue of Mary throwing the cap was dedicated in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May 2002.
- The tam o'shanter hat was popular among women in the British Women's Suffrage movement. The ladies would dress in costume with "votes for women" sashes and big white hats as they went around handing out flyers and occasionally throwing stones through the windows of empty buildings.
- Queen's University in Kingston, ON, Canada has a tradition of providing every first-year student with a tam when they first enter the university. Each faculty has its own coloured pompom on the top. This tradition reflects the school's Scottish origins.
