"71st Highland light and their shako" Topic

Hello everybody,

I have a question concerning the green tuft on the shako of the 71st Highland light infantry after 1809. They are supposed to have blue bonnet covers over their shakos, hence the blue colour of the shako and the dicing…right?
I have now found two variants of wearing the green tuft.

1) regular light infantry, mounted at the front

2) as a pompom shape at the centre of the top of the shako, which makes sense if it is in fact a bonnet cover pulled down on a shako.

Does anyone have additional information on this obscure subject?

Cheers

Eric

Eric

An article in "Military Illustrated" #25 'British Infantry Regts. in the Waterloo Campaign' by Fosten and Haythornthwaite says the following:
'Headdress , blue Highland bonnet, diced lower band , blocked into shape of light infantry shako, bugle badge, red or green pom-pom on top, green plume often shown at front, officers wore ordinary light infantry shako.'

C.C.P.Lawson "The Uniforms Of The British Army" Vol.V says:
'The 71st were to be transformed into light infantry, but on protesting were permitted to retain Highland title and as a head-dress 'the bonnet cocked', in their case to resemble the cap of the light infantry,' 'the bonnet therefore was made of knitted material with a diced border. It is stated to have had a green tuft but Norblin in his sketch of 1815, the only contemporary drawing, shows a green pom-pom'

Lawson includes two sketches of the 71st, both wearing light inf. shaped 'shako' with peak, diced band, bugle badge and pom-pom on top.

Cliff

In "Sauchiehall" Street in Glasgow there is a Museum of, I think, the H.L.I. (Highland Light Infantry), where I remember seeing exactly this kind of headgear, a dark blue, knitted woollen bonnet, including the diced band, pulled over a (rather low) shako; I do recall there was the characteristic Bugle-Horn badge, but can't be definite about any plume or tuft &c. Usually, a bonnet would have a red "tourie" in the centre.

("Sauchiehall" would originally have been "Sauchie Haugh", a low-lying area, often near a river, with Willow trees; cf. the mediaeval battle of Sauchie Burn).

Thank you both for the very interesting information. It is always more interesting when one gets that bit of extra meat on the bones so to speak.

Btw I looked up Saucie Burn, and it appears to be one of the larger battles on British soil (numbers wise), and yet I never heard of it (well, not being brough up in the UK might have something to do with it).

Is Lawson still available in print, and is his research still valid today?

Cheers

Eric

I plan to paint some Victrix light infantry up as these guys….obviously it will be difficult to make then look exactly authentic but I will go for the checkered band around a dark blue shako with a green tuff? Its about the best I can do.

Re. your not having heard of the Battle of Sauchie Burn, I think a more likely reason is that it was an internecine Scottish one. As is the case in many colonised countries, even to Scottish people their own history and culture is mediated by the dominant interest group; that is, the interests of the British State demand that its distinctive and diverse constituent parts are kept as ignorant of their own history &c as may be.

Anyway, good luck with the research and painting!

Robert "the 'Other'" (cf Edward Said)

I also plan to do some Victrix light infantry as the 71st. I am thinking of using the bodies of Highland officers and torsos of Highland sergeants to get the correct sash, and of course a coupple of pipers in highland uniform.

What tartan would a piper in the 71st have?

Thank you for all your help.

Cheers!

Eric

He'd have grey overalls, probably! If you want, you could paint him in "Government Tartan", i.e. the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment or "Black Watch", though I'm not sure what the 71st would have. Don't think it would be the red, "Royal Stuart", at that time, or whether the piper would be wearing the kilt at all.

Thank you Robert. I will have to call you "Robert the Erudite" in future.

I have seen a print, by W.B. White (?), showing the 71st at Vittoria with a kilted piper. I don't know wether that is an anachronism, because one soldier appears to be wearing a belgic shako. The problem is that the print is in black and white (it is in Ian Fletcher's Wellington's Regiments on page 172). so I can't tell what tartan it is.

Mind you, pipers were (as far as I recall) hired and paid for by the colonel, so perhaps they could have worn whatever he liked? Thanks for the very optimistic "erudite" bit (I know a wee bit about Scottish and Irish material, that's all); apropos, in the Lowlands around the turn of the century, the Kilt – we NEVER say "kilts" – would have been regarded as the dress of a barbarian, though no doubt the reputation of the Highland Regiments during the Wars would have contributed to its growing popularity (and Walter Scott certainly exploited this when George IV came to Edinburgh in ?1822, dressed up in voluminous yards of tartan)

I think the pipers might be in MacKenzie tartan as the regiment was raised in 1777 by John MacKenzie, Lord MacLeod as the 73rd Foot. The first 'clan'regiment to be raised. They proudly wore the MacKenzie tartan. Re-numbered in 1786. They changed to light infantry in 1808-09. (Regiments of Foot, H.L.Wickes, Osprey, 1974)