Kingdom of Hawaii

Does anyone have any details on the uniforms worn by their armed forces prior to the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by American sugarcane plantation owners?

I know they had a Royal Guard and a police force in addition to some militia units. I am not sure if they had a navy or a regular army.

Hi ChrisF.
"Ceremonial Uniforms of the World" by Jack Cassin-Scott - ISBN 0 903792 03 6, contains a colour plate showing the 58 strong Hawaiian King's Guard in 1886. The uniform resembles the parade dress of the US Marines of the period - white cork helmet covered with white drill, brass spike and chin chain crossing the body of the helmet, bronze badge showing the Royal monogram with a crown above, dark blue single-breasted tunic with seven bronze buttons, dark blue stand-up collar, shoulder straps and cuffs (i.e. no facing colours), white leather belt with brass buckle, white gloves, white linen trousers. Officers wore double-breasted tunics with two rows of nine buttons, collar edged in gold lace, gold Austrian knots on sleeves, gold waist belt with two lines of blue, gold laced epaulettes with bullion fringes. The guardsmen were armed with Springfield rifles.

Besides the King's Guard the Hawaiian army included the Honolulu Rifles, the Mamalahoa Infantry, the Princes's Own Artillery and the Leleiohoku Guard Cavalry. However Cassin-Scott does not give any details of the dress of these units.

Here's the King's Guard from the Cassin-Scott book:

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Great thread, and one of my personal favourites.
Mainly because information on the Hawaiian military is so hard to find.
I have some pictures and will try to post them soon.
Whenever I can finally get back online.

I don't have a lot of information on them but here's one of a Guardsman from 1886

https://i.servimg.com/u/f32/12/22/09/10/hawgd810.gif
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Oops already been done.
This Guardsman is from 1882.
Note the Germanic style of cuffs. Pickelhaubes were also worn at some stage, but perhaps only by the Royal family and officers.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f32/12/22/09/10/hawgd811.gif
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Sean, you wouldent happen to have any details on rank insignia would you - especially in regards to the officers?

I did find a list of ranks; Pvt, Cpl (2 chevrons), Color Cpl (?), Sgt (3 chevrons), Ordnance Sgt (3 chevrons below star), 1st Sgt (3 chevrons below diamond), 2nd Lt (?), 1st Lt (?) and Captain (?).

Enlisted men wore white chevrons with black border. Officers I have no clue.

Sorry, I've got nothing on that.
Could be either Germanic in nature (twisted shoulder cords), given their early influence, or Amercian ( abbreviated epaulettes) due to their influence on the islands from the 1880s.
If I can find my 'Hawaii' file in the attic I'll have a look at the photocopies I've got, but I don't hold out a lot of hope.
I wish you luck in finding something.

NCO’s rank seems to follow the US army's uniforms of the 1880’s.
I’ve tried to find some info; it’s like finding snow in hell.

Aloha. Am currently writing and illustrating a book on the subject of the Kingdom's Military forces. It's a project I started over 20 years ago, tabled, and am now near completion. Spurred on now by Neil Dukas' work from 2004, "A Military History of Sovereign Hawaii", and some correspondence with him in recent weeks and days. Anyone have knowledge to share? Mahalo.

There's this link but I doubt if it has anything new for you, and the only other images are one of the band around 1889 [wikipedia] and modern day Americans in Hawaiian style uniforms.
http://warfarehistorian.blogspot.com/2012/08/odd-fighting-units-of-world-history.html

Thanks for the reply. Well, I can tell you that my research is far beyond any of the commonly found photos and essays on the internet. I was given all the data that Colonel Walter Judd had researched, before his passing in 2000. He was a driving force behind moving Iolani Barracks and the restoration of Iolani Palace in the 1970s, as well as founding the Hawaii National Guard's re-enactment Royal Guards Color Guard unit. He was also the grandson of Garritt Judd, a Minister of the Interior and also of Finance under Kalakaua, as well as holding ranks in the Hawaiian military forces.

So, anyway...as a hapa-haole myself (meaning part Hawaiian), and flying more than 30 years as an airline captain, with more than 10 years just LAX-HNL-OGG, I had 24 hours each trip to spend at museums, libraries, archives, and visiting collections and collectors. And as an illustrator, I've compiled information that will pictorially describe and answer many questions such as those posed here.

I have been a militaria collector for 40 years, officer dress helmets of all countries from 1815-1915, and am a graduate of a military college, and a very old Vietnam era B-52 pilot, who is trying to empty his bucket list.

Stay tuned, and maybe you'll get to buy my book....

Not really sure of the substance of this contribution, but I found an image of the King's Guard artillery in "their undress whites". I found it here, https://www.scribd.com/document/93061196/brief-hawaiian-military-history-rev2-082710.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thanks, LATT...I do include a description and illustration of that uniform in my book. Mahalo.

Cheers. Love to read it some time!

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The photo was "doctored" to show a feather plume and the uniform said to have been purchased in France.  The individuals are Major Henry Neilson and Lieutenant Paul Manini of the First Hawaiian Cavalry.  The helmets were more than likely American Dragoon helmets (with horsehair "tail" rather than feathers) and the shirt with plastron was often worn by state militia and referred to as a "fireman's" shirt.  Alexandro Liholiho (King Kamehameha IV) shot Nielson (the King's personal secretary) when he was suspected of having an affair with the Queen, Emma.  Neilson died from the injury 2 years later at the age of 38. Liholiho died at the age of 29 from chronic asthma.

Illustration, Enlisted Royal Guards' uniform (L) & Officers' uniform (R).  (L) Enlisted Private and Non-Com.
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Honolulu Rifles Company of Military Historians Plate #647
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The problem for the king was that they were anything but the Kings Men, more like traitors and mutineers plotting to overthrow the King and aid an American occupation.
Here's what said to be an original artillery helmet.
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Where do you get that information?....about traitors and mutineers?  Funny how most of these men were volunteers whereas the traitors and mutineers were white businessmen, some of whom, who were also members of the Honolulu Rifles....not Hawaiians.  Loyalty to the Kings and Queen Liliuokalani were never in question to the very end of the Kingdom. 

Neil Dukas and I became familiar with each other's efforts in researching the Hawaiian military role of the Kingdom through our correspondence which continues to this day.  

The helmet photo is of Prussian/German style and manufacture.  The horsehair plume was black, but has faded to the bluish color shown..The helmet is of an Enlisted rank as evidenced by the "perlring" on the trichter rather than the stars of an Officer on their trichters.  See my illustrations, attached, from my book.

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There’s no solid single reference that I’ve managed to find, most of the history written at the time was sanitized, and written by the supporters of American intervention/invasion. Although many modern mentions tend to agree that the Rifles supported the planters and Foreigners, and were also pro intervention.
I would also personally call the rifles a para-military organization, and from their formation as what was really private club, they worked behind the scenes undermining the monarchy to help the planters take control.
The rifles commander Ashford, was arrested for the plot to overthrown both the Monarchy and Bayonet Constitution (Burlesque Conspiracy) and went into exile in the US.
Yes you’re not wrong, many Hawaiians loyalty was never in question, but I don’t believe you could say the same about the Rifles. The Queen also refused to put that loyalty to the test by risking their lives on what would be a pointless gesture.

The Committee for Safety (comprised of 6 Hawaiian Nationals, 1 British National, and 5 American Nationals). What county in the world would allow that?
That bias committee requested military aid under the pretext of public safety, and were actually the instigators of the take-over.
They were also hand in hand with the rifles, which was made up of white and pro Americans, Hawaiians from mixed marriages, or descendants of mixed marriages.
The ordinary Hawaiian wasn’t generally a member of the elitist social club of the rifles.

There’s one story of band members walking away in tears rather than playing the anthem, while the rifles welcomed the changed.
If you read any of the books of the period they claim it the new democracy was welcomed with open arms. It was, but not by the majority of Hawaiians.
The new democracy gave the sugar growers/foreigners more say than the majority of the Hawaiian population, many of whom were excluded from voting due to limitation set into the new constitution. A constitution that the Queen was about to remove in favour of a new constitution. One that would have limited the power of foreigners.

If you read ‘Constitutional History of Hawaii by Chambers,1860-1929,’ it paints a picture of how the sugar growers were saving the Hawaiian people, rather the reality of them taking control of their government, and robbing the Hawiians of their land and rights.
All with the aid/backing of the Honolulu Rifles, who faced off against the Queen’s troops taking sides with the invasion force.
Wouldn’t that alone in any other army be classed as treason?

The first link is the chambers book, the second link is by a university history student, which in my opinion gives quite a good breakdown of the events leading up to the takeover.
Not sure if you can still download the chambers book, it was years ago (several computers since and many lost books ago) since I had the Chambers book. Since then the Archive Org has removed many books from being free downloads to pay to view.

I not knocking the loyalty of the Hawaiians, the Rifles had a hidden agenda for taking control from the Crown, and worked fulfill it.
Sorry about the rant, let me know what you think.
Here’s a couple of links;
https://archive.org/details/constitutionalhi00chamrich/page/28/mode/2up
https://americanempire.ku.edu/uncategorized/the-u-s-in-hawaii/
https://ushistoryscene.com/article/aloha-hawaii/
https://www.thekingdomofhawaii.org/about-the-kingdom/history
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I don't think you get the big picture about my writing and illustrating of this book.  I spent years researching the archives of both the State Archives and the Hawaii State Public Library and met with the curators of the Bishop Museum and Library, the Iolani Palace collection (which I know few have ever seen since they do not, or at least then did not, share their artifacts with the Bishop Museum), along with meeting with father and son, Gordon and Don Metcalf at their shops in Honolulu and Maui, and the collections of collectors living in Hawaii.  This also involved reading fiche files of newspapers of the era, photographs of persons, parades and funerals, and translations of written records where they exist, along with at least a dozen society publications, in addition to any books you may have read.  This has been no light-hearted effort.  

With respect, your interpretations, assumptions, and knowledge of "the Kings' Men" doesn't begin to compare to my findings on the subject of the Kingdom's military units for the fifty years they existed. I also find it hard to imagine that someone living in England would find or have the same fervor for the subject than an individual with Hawaiian heritage and ancestry.... but thanks for your interest and input.