Pipers doublets

I have a reference which says the Pipers of the Black Watch wore red/scarlet doublets until 1959 when they switched to green. Is this true? Any comments on this would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Terry Barton

Hi Terry - the pipers of the Black Watch and the other Highland regiments wore dark green ("piper green") doublets from at least 1854 (when they were officially allowed on the establishment). Through the 18th century and the Napoleonic Wars pipers had worn the red doublets of the remainder of the regiment - possibly because they were officially recorded as colonels' orderlies or some such euphemism. Until 1914 scarlet doublets were worn as full dress by all ranks of the Black Watch including the band, but not the pipers who retained their by then historic piper green. This has continued to be the case until the present day amalgamated Royal Regiment of Scotland. Your source may be confusing pipers with bandsmen (including drummers) - the BW band has post-1914 worn khaki, scarlet (between the Wars) and piper green doublets when the latter became the universal No. 1 dress of the Highland regiments after 1947. By the 1990s BW bandsmen were being seen in scarlet again for special occasions but more commonly in khaki number 2 dress. Pipers however retained their green doublets for full dress throughout the entire period from the 1850s on and never reverted to red.

Hope this helps.

One small point, I may be wrong but I thought that highland No1 dress was blue as with the rest of the army until about 1980 when it was changed to piper green?

Martin

Highland coatees were piper green, and worn by highland regiments, whilst the doublet worn by the lowland regiments was dark blue. This form of jacket was introduced in the early 1950s

My mistake it was the lowlanders that changed colour.

Martin

The colour has now changed to Archer Green (a darker and less rich shade) leaving only the Irish Guards and Royal Irish Regiment in Piper Green.

Note that the latest round of British Army cuts (announced 5 July 2012) are to see the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders reduced to a "public duties" company sized unit to carry out ceremonial duties in Scotland. It will be interesting to see what form of dress uniform this miniaturized kilted version of the Guards in London will adopt - revert to scarlet or Archer or Piper green?

And what will happen if Scotland votes to go independent in 2014? The Scottish nationalists reportedly favor the formation of a new Scottish Army based on the Scots Guards and the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The (present) British Army considers this unworkable. The only precedent within the UK was the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 and then all of the southern Irish infantry regiments in the British Army were quietly disbanded.

Either way kilts, doublets, sporrans, claymores and bagpipes should survive on at least one side of the border.

buistR wrote:Note that the latest round of British Army cuts (announced 5 July 2012) are to see the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders reduced to a "public duties" company sized unit to carry out ceremonial duties in Scotland. It will be interesting to see what form of dress uniform this miniaturized kilted version of the Guards in London will adopt - revert to scarlet or Archer or Piper green?

And what will happen if Scotland votes to go independent in 2014? The Scottish nationalists reportedly favor the formation of a new Scottish Army based on the Scots Guards and the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The (present) British Army considers this unworkable. The only precedent within the UK was the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 and then all of the southern Irish infantry regiments in the British Army were quietly disbanded.

Either way kilts, doublets, sporrans, claymores and bagpipes should survive on at least one side of the border.

Generally speaking only about 35-45% of Scots support independence. It's quite likely that the referendum will fail and the SNP knows this.

Ive also heard Alex Salmond say that he would "tolerate" a joint British-Scottish military. The SNP has also proposed keeping defense & foreign affairs with the British government along with keeping the Pound Sterling and British citizenship as a means of getting more support for independence - but then that isent really independence

But if they were indidpendant they wouldn't be able to blame the English for everything that goes wrong!

Maybe they just don't want to lose the Billians paid to Scotland via the Barrnett Formula.