British Army uniform

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The British Army uniform developed along roughly the same lines as uniforms in other European armies. Its signature colour had become standardised as red for both foot and mounted units by the end of the seventeenth century, except for the Royal Horse Guards and Royal Artillery who wore dark blue; then khaki (for everyday wear) and blue (for parade) in the 1930s. Netherwear and equipment followed European fashion. Exotic costume, such as that of hussars and zouaves, was either embraced late and toned down, or not embraced at all.

The history of the British Army uniform is notable for an early and even eager embrace of camouflage in the form of khaki during the late nineteenth century. This reflected the exigencies of colonial war and the freedom allowed, and taken by, many of the officers who fought it. But it may also have had an aesthetic impulse. Armies in Europe were settling on mostly dark blue tunics and black equipment as a halfway house between display and practicality. This was not possible for the British army, wedded as it was to red tunics which in turn required white equipment to look pleasing. To become less conspicuous, the British army had no choice but to abandon red altogether on service.

British army uniforms currently exist in several grades, which are worn depending on the requirements of a unit or individual, ranging from ceremonial uniforms to combat dress. While there are officially fifteen different grades (or 'Numbers'), many of these are rarely worn or phased out altogether. Note that uniform distinctions can vary greatly from one Regiment or Corps to another, and the following descriptions are a generalisation.

Contents

[edit] Uniform Numbers

The British army numbers its uniforms for ease of instruction, as follows:

[edit] Full Dress

The most elaborate order of dress, it was withdrawn from general issue in 1914. The Household Division resumed wearing their scarlet full dress in 1920 but for the remainder of the Army, red coats were only authorised for wear by regimental bands and in mess dress or on certain limited social or ceremonial occasions. The reason for not generally reintroducing the distinctive full dress was primarily financial, as the scarlet cloth required expensive red cochineal dye.

Full dress is now rarely worn except by the Foot Guards and the Household Cavalry, to whom it is issued at public expense. The principal occasions on which full dress is to be worn by the household troops are: on ceremonial parades attended by a member of the Royal Family, by guards of honour, for public duties, in the Lord Mayor of the City of London's procession. In the Winter months, the scarlet tunics are replaced by Greatcoats.

In addition, all regular army bands are issued with one set of home service full dress. The patterns for the band uniforms are agreed by the regiment or corps, with the approval of the Army Dress Committee. They are generally a modified version of the pre-1914 uniforms. In the case of some units created since the First World War, such as the Army Air Corps, a uniform has been devised incorporating traditional and modern elements.

Full dress of the Household Cavalry: on the left the Blues and Royals, and on the right the Life Guards. Similar uniforms are worn by heavy cavalry regiments.

Soldiers of the Irish Guards on parade in full dress. In common with the other regiments of foot guards, a tall Bearskin is worn.

Line infantry full dress: drummers of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. The scarlet full dress tunic is of pre First World War pattern, while the headress is the dark blue cloth helmet introduced in 1878.

Goat major of the Royal Regiment of Wales. The regimental facings are grass green. The regiment replaced the dark blue home service helmet with a white foreign service version, to recall the headress worn at Rorke's Drift.

Full dress can also be issued in other instances, so long as it is provided from non-public funds or from an annual maintenance grant.[1]

[edit] Levée Dress

A special order of Full Dress primarily for wearing at levées and official balls. Probably not seen since levées were stopped on the outbreak of the Second World War.

[edit] No.1: Temperate ceremonial uniform

No.1 dress "blues" are only worn on ceremonial occasions, and, in some regiments, by the Duty Officer. The uniform is not generally issued, with the khaki No.2 dress replacing it as the main parade uniform.

For most regiments and corps No.1 dress consists of a dark blue tunic and trousers (or skirt) with a coloured peaked cap. Different units are distinguished by the colouring of the cap, piping on the tunic and of the welts or stripes on the trousers, as well as badges. There are some distinctions: for example, the tunic and trousers of The Rifles and Royal Gurkha Rifles are Rifle green, cavalry regiments wear shoulder chains in place of shoulder straps, and the overalls (trousers) of the King's Royal Hussars are crimson.

The Royal Regiment of Scotland has a completely different pattern of tunic known as a "doublet" in piper green, worn with a kilt in regimental tartan.

The peaked cap is not worn by all regiments: berets are worn in lieu by the Royal Tank Regiment, Army Air Corps, Parachute Regiment, SAS and Intelligence Corps. Berets are also worn by other ranks of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the Royal Welsh in which feather hackles are displayed, recalling the plumes formerly worn on the full dress Busby. The Royal Regiment of Scotland wear a regimental Glengarry with cockfeathers taken from the former ceremonial uniform of the Royal Scots, the Royal Irish Regiment wear the Caubeen, while the Brigade of Gurkhas wear a round Kilmarnock cap.[2].

Officers may wear a waist sash of Crimson or Silver and Crimson Silk or a cross belt depending on the their Regimental Dress Regulations. Other ranks wear a white buff belt with a Regimental pattern locket, with a buff bayonet frog if carrying arms.

Personnel entitled to an issue of No.1 dress are listed in the Materiel Regulations for the Army.[3]

Various patterns of No.1 dress being worn at the presentation of new colours to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

Soldiers of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment in No.1 dress

A private of the Royal Regiment of Scotland wearing the Scottish version of No.1 dress.

Major-General Sir Evelyn John Webb-Carter in the No.1 dress uniform of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment[4]

[edit] No.2: Service dress (temperate parade uniform)

This uniform is worn for most formal duties by all units. No.2 dress consists, for most corps and regiments, of a khaki jacket, shirt and tie with trousers or a skirt. Head dress is the same as that worn with No.1 dress, with the exception of the Brigade of Gurkhas, who wear the Slouch hat and The Queen's Royal Hussars who wear their tent hat (the only head dress worn without a cap badge or other distinction). The Royal Regiment of Scotland wear a special pattern of jacket with a cut away front, worn with a regimental tartan kilt or trews. Coloured trousers are worn by some units: crimson by the King's Royal Hussars and dark green by the Royal Irish Regiment and Royal Dragoon Guards.

Officers are required to purchase their service dress, being provided with a Uniform Allowance to offset this and other uniform purchases. The pattern and material differs between Regiments: for instance the service dress of the Foot Guards and Honourable Artillery Company is darker that the 'standard', while the service dress worn by officers of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards is of "Bays" pattern cavalry twill.

Regimental distinctions worn on No.2 dress can include collar dogs (sometimes with coloured cloth backings), coloured lanyards worn on the shoulder, and arm badges. Regimental buttons are worn; for most units these are of gold or silver colour, with black buttons worn by The Rifles and Bronze by the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. Officers and Warrant Officers wear a leather Sam Browne belt (that of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards is of pig skin which is not to be highly polished) or a cross belt. Infantry Warrant Officers and SNCOs wear a red sash over the right shoulder to the hip and Soldiers wear a white or black plastic waist belt with a plate buckle displaying the regimental badge.

Every regular army soldier is issued with one suit of No.2 dress. In general, issue of this order of dress to units of the Territorial Army is limited to officers, warrant officers and sergeants, with pools of khaki uniforms being held for use by junior ranks for special occasions.[5]

No.2 dress jacket of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment

RSM of the Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom) in No.2 dress Uniform

[edit] No.3: Warm weather ceremonial uniform

The Minden Band of the Queen's Division wearing Number.3 pattern dress on parade in Cyprus, 2002.
The Minden Band of the Queen's Division wearing Number.3 pattern dress on parade in Cyprus, 2002.

No.3 dress is the warm weather equivalent of No. 1 dress worn in specified overseas stations. Formerly it comprised an all white high collared tunic and trousers worn with the coloured No.1 dress cap. Since the 1970s it has consisted of a white linen tunic, cut in a similar fashion to the No.1 dress jacket. Head dress, trousers, footwear and badges are generally as for No. 1 dress. Widely worn during the 1950s and 1960s (when Britain still maintained significant garrisons in tropical stations) this uniform is now usually restricted to military attaches and a few bands.

No.3 dress was issued temporarily, being withdrawn from the units on leaving the station. The band of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment is entitled to a permanent issue of No.3 dress.

[edit] No.4: Warm weather Service Dress (officers only)

Issued to officers on first posting to a warm weather area: the uniform is similar to No.2 dress but in a stone coloured polyester/wool worsted mix. No.4 dress may be worn on formal occasions when not on parade with troops.

When officers are taking part in parades and formations with other ranks in warm weather areas, they wear either No.3 or No.6 dress.

[edit] No.5: Desert combat dress

Desert combat clothing is listed as: hat, jacket and trousers DPM and is issued to soldiers posted to Cyprus and the Middle East.

Formerly Battle Dress was designated as No.5 dress. This order of dress was originally issued prior to the Second world war and became obsolete when replaced by No.2 Dress in 1962.

[edit] No.6: Warm weather parade uniform (bush jacket)

The "bush jacket" uniform (in Australia, this is known as the "safari uniform"). It consists of a tan bush-style 4-button jacket worn with or without a shirt and tie underneath and tan trousers. It is worn by all ranks for parades and formations (as with No. 2 Dress), unless No. 3 dress is worn, and by ORs for all other occasions.

[edit] No.7: Warm weather barrack dress

The tropical shirt-and-trousers uniform, consisting of a tan long-sleeve shirt worn with tan "battle dress" trousers (kilt or trews for Scottish regiments), stable belt and regimental headgear.

[edit] No.8: Temperate combat dress

DPM Combat jacket and trousers, temperate pattern. Worn by a Female Cadet Sergeant affilliated to the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment
DPM Combat jacket and trousers, temperate pattern. Worn by a Female Cadet Sergeant affilliated to the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment

DPM field jacket (smock) and trousers, worn with beret, helmet or camouflaged hat. The current system is known as Combat Soldier 95 (CS95)[6] system replaced previous the previous DPM No 8 and 9 Dress although older and specialist (eg., the DPM Parachute Smock and Smock Windproof DPM) or private purchase items are often worn. In recent years, the British Army has begun introducing Tactical Recognition Flashes - these are distinctive insignia worn on the arm of combat gear. TRFs denote the wearer's regiment or corps (or sub division thereof in the case of the AGC). The CS95 clothing system is designed to be lightweight, yet durable enough to be used throughout rigorous activities soldiers find themselves performing. It has also been designed with the idea that layers of clothing (referred to as onion skins) are much warmer and flexible than a singular thick layer. In addition to the shirt; a t-shirt, vest, combat jacket, shirt man's field ('Norgie'), or Gore-tex Fabric waterproof jacket is worn dependent on weather, along with various types of gloves, underwear, trousers, all-in-one suits etc.

The layering system for the CS95 uniform is (as of 2008):

  • Vest, mans, OG
  • Jacket, Combat, Lightweight, Woodland DP (Lightweight Shirt)
  • Trousers, Combat, Lightweight, Woddland DP (Combat trousers)
  • Liner, DPM, Thermal (Fleece)
  • Liner, DPM, MVP (Gore-Tex Fabric Jacket)
  • Jacket, DPM, Field (Combat Jacket)
  • Trousers, Mans, DPM, MVP (Gore-Tex Fabric Trousers)
  • UBACS (Under Body Armour Combat Shirt) A new issue item in Afghanistan. Made of coolmax fabric.

Working headress is nomally worn, which is typically a beret. The colour of the beret usually shows what type of regiment the wearer is from. The colours are as follows:

Troops from other services, regiments or corps on attachment to units with distinctive coloured berets often wear those berets (with their own cap badge). Colonels, brigadiers and generals usually continue to wear the beret of the regiment or corps to which they used to belong with the cap badge distinctive to their rank. The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the only remaining independent fusilier regiment, wears a feather hackle on the beret. Other ranks of the Royal Welsh also wear hackles.

The Royal Regiment of Scotland and Royal Irish Regiment, instead of the beret, wear the tam o'shanter and the caubeen respectively.

The beret will often be replaced with the Combat Helmet, covered in DPM material. However, in jungle conditions, the helmet is often replaced with a DPM bush hat - or equally in cold conditions, a DPM peaked hat (Cap, Extra Cold Weather), a rolled woollen tube known as a cap comforter, or other specialised head gear. When the British Army finds itself in peacekeeping roles, regimental headress is worn (where the tactical situation allows) in preference to the helmet or DPM hat, in order to appear less hostile to local civilians. This tactic was used in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and today can be seen in some areas of southern Iraq.

Some Regiments and Corps wear a stable belt in No 8 dress whilist others restrict its use to Nos 13 and 14 Dress. The stable belt is a wide belt, made of a tough fabric. It is fastened with a set of buckles on the wearer's left hand side (in some units to their front), or with a metal plate at the front bearing regimental or formation insignia. The fabric of the belt itself is in regimental colours, either a single colour or striped along its length. The stable belt dates back to a time when soldiers in cavalry units wore similar belts to carry necessary equipment for looking after the horses. It has since become much more formalised and not restricted to cavalry units.

On exercises and operations the stable belt replaced with a plain green field belt. Synthetic Personal Load Carrying Equipment carrying equipment has replaced webbing. This has numerous components which can be assembled to meet the soldier's requirements and preference.

The woollen pullover (jumper, sweater or Wolly Pully) has been used for several decades, however despite its popularity (It has also been adopted by police services, and by many foreign military forces including the US Marine Corps) in the CS95 system it has been replaced by a 'Liner, thermal', which is not intended to be worn as an outer garment.

[edit] No.9: Tropical Combat Dress

No.9 dress is no longer provisioned, being replaced by a version of No.8 dress. Identical to the No. 8 DPM, except it is made of lighter weight rip-stop cotton and is patterned for either the jungle or desert environments (unlike the U.S. Army, which has the specialized Army Combat Uniform for all non-polar environments, the British Army still has separate patterns for each region of the world).

[edit] No.10: Temperate mess dress

Short Jacket, with which men wear trousers (/overalls) or a kilt, and women a long skirt. Normally worn by the rank of Sergeant upwards for formal functions, its colours can vary greatly from unit to unit but generally match the traditional full dress of the regiment or corps. Thus jackets can be scarlet, dark blue or green with lapels and waistcoats in regimental colours.

[edit] No.11: Warm weather mess dress

A white jacket is substituted for the coloured one of temperate mess dress. Waistcoats are not worn.

[edit] No.12: Protective clothing

Formerly Olive green shirt and trousers, it has been replaced with smart Combat Dress: ironed shirt and trousers worn with beret and stable belt (identical to that of No. 7 Dress). The current uniform worn by soldiers most of the time, it is to be supplemented by the new Barrack Dress.

[edit] No.13: Temperate barrack dress

Trousers and shirt from No.2 dress with pullover and stable belt. Some Regiments officers and WOs may wear coloured pullovers in place of the green pattern, The following regimental patterns and colours are authorised:[7]

The pullover is used in other colours by the other services (navy blue for the Royal Navy, and blue-grey for the Royal Air Force).

A regimental pattern coloured side hat (officially described as a cap field service) may be worn at the commanding officer's discretion. It is intended that this order of dress will be replaced by a more practical olive green uniform.

[edit] No.14: Shirt Sleeve Order

As for No.13, but with the shirt sleeves rolled up to above elbow level. The pullover is not worn.

[edit] No.15: Blue Patrols

An undress uniform worn on semi-formal occasions by officers and Regimental Sergeant Majors of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. No 15 dress consists of a blue patrol jacket, tartan trews and glengarry head dress.[8]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Defence Supply Chain Manual JSP 336 (3rd Edition), Volume 12, Part 3, Pamphlet 12: Full Dress (Ministry of Defence)
  2. ^ http://www.ams.mod.uk/content/docs/jsp336/3rd_ed/vol12/pt3/pam15/s5aa.doc
  3. ^ The Defence Supply Chain Manual JSP 336 (3rd Edition), Volume 12, Part 3, Pamphlet 8, No.1 and No.3 dress (all ranks)
  4. ^ He is wearing Colonel's (not Maj Gen's) Rank as he is in his uniform as the Colonel of The Regiment
  5. ^ The Defence Supply Chain Manual, JSP 336 (3rd Edition), Volume 12, Pamphlet 7, Clothing regulations and scales Territorial Army (all ranks)
  6. ^ |THE DEFENCE SUPPLY CHAIN MANUAL JSP 336 (3rd Edition) VOLUME 12 PART 3 PAMPHLET 5 SECTION 4 COMBAT SOLDIER 95 (CS 95) Dated 1 Sep 2004
  7. ^ Material Regulations for the Army, Volume 3, Pamphlet 16, Optional Items of Dress (Note that Mat Regs have now been replaced by JSP336 so this reference is no longer current)
  8. ^ Royal Regiment of Scotland Dress Regulations, accessed April 28, 2008