Stable belt

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Clip art of a pre-2007 Stable Belt of the Royal Air Force. Newer versions feature a decorative buckle instead of the simple loop.

A stable belt is an item of uniform used in the armed forces of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries. Stable belts or similar derivatives are also worn by the armed forced of other nations such as the Danish army, Homeguard and Air Force.

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. Stable belts are worn with most styles of informal dress, but not with full dress, service dress or mess dress. Stable belts are purchased by individual service personnel, not issued, so are theoretically neither regulation nor compulsory but since most people own one they are effectively uniform items in the Army.

[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

[edit] Infantry regiments

Foot Guards		Royal Regiment of Scotland		Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment
Duke of Lancaster's Regiment		Royal Regiment of Fusiliers		Royal Anglian Regiment
Yorkshire Regiment		Mercian Regiment		Royal Welsh
Royal Irish Regiment		The Parachute Regiment		Royal Gurkha Rifles
The Rifles		Special Air Service		Royal Gibraltar Regiment

[edit] Corps

[edit] Sub-units

[edit] Training units

[edit] Other services

[edit] Former cavalry regiments

[edit] Former Yeomanry regiments

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

[edit] Former infantry regiments

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders		Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment		Black Watch
Border Regiment		The Buffs		The Cameronians
				Douglas Tartan
Cheshire Regiment		Devonshire and Dorset Regiment		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		King's Own Royal Regiment
King's Own Scottish Borderers		King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry		King's Regiment
Leslie Tartan
King's Regiment (Liverpool)		King's Royal Rifle Corps		King's Shropshire Light Infantry
Lancashire Fusiliers		Lancashire Regiment		The Light Infantry
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		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 (West Surrey)		Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment		The Rifle Brigade
Royal Berkshire Regiment		Royal Fusiliers		Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment
Royal Green Jackets		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		Suffolk Regiment		Ulster Defence Regiment
Welch Regiment		West Yorkshire Regiment		Wiltshire Regiment
Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment		Worcestershire Regiment		York and Lancaster Regiment

[edit] Former volunteer infantry regiments

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

[edit] Former corps

[edit] Former training units

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Materiel Regulations for The Army, Volume 3, Pamphlet No.16, Optional items of dress, Ministry of Defence, London, 1995

[edit] External links

• Stable Belts
• Society of the Military Horse