"British Grenadiers and Facial Hair" Topic

Hey gang, im sure this has been discussed before but I was wondering if British grenadiers were restricted from having mustaches or beards? Anyone know?
thanks!!

It was not common at all.
I strongly suspect that this was a matter "As the Colonel shall direct". I have seen very few portraits of the period where ANYONE had facial hair.

My guess is that it was not in any official Warrants, but the Colonels universally would not allow them. They did not look "smart".

I had a moustache for years, and it always looked like rats chewed off half of it.
Any sergeant would have told me to shave the damn thing off, and you can not have half the company with moustaches and half without.

I did the beard-moustache combo for awhile. It made me look about 10 years older. The 'stache by itself was not a good look for me.

In the Napoleonic period the only British infantry unit permitted to have moustaches was the 2nd Light Battalion of the King's German Legion. I would not be surprised if there had been a regulation prior to the Napoleonic era forbidding facial hair in the army.

The orderly books have entrys ordering the men to shave, or reminding the officers to have them shave every 3rd day, even during campaign. Even Highlanders of the period were clean shaven. (many Highland reenactors disagree however)To the best of my limited knowledge moustaches wore worn only by the Germans.

During the AWI period, no British troops were allowed to have any facial hair (beyond temporary natural growth on campaign). Even pictures of pioneers from this period show them clean-shaven.

As suggested, this changed during the Napoleonic period with those light dragoon regiments affecting hussar dress – and then later some of the KGL units – acquiring moustaches; pioneers appear to have started sporting full beards during this time, as well. Towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars, sideburns started to become more prominent, following the civilian fashion of the day.

thanks guys!

Supercilious,
I don't have the references in front of me but isn't there a famous painting of Grenadiers at one of the Mahratta war sieges sporting moustachioes ?
Or are you classing that as the Napoleonic period :-) ?
EC

Not Napoleonic; but French Revolutionary War, certainly.

I believe you're thinking of Robert Home's painting "The Death of Colonel Moorhouse at the storming of the Pettah Gate of Banagalore" (1791). IIRC it's hanging in the NAM gallery and we have gamed together in its shadow!

The grenadiers are from the 36th Foot (oddly, they also seem to have red-over-white plumes) and appear as one of the colour plates in Philip Haythornthwaite's "Uniforms of the French Revolutionary Wars". From the style of the moustaches, do you think that this could be an early example of British troops on the Indian Subcontinent adopting local hairstyles in order to gain kudos with the indigenous population?

There was an AWI link – the senior British generals included Cornwallis; Archibald Campbell, CO of the 71st and hero of the siege of Savannah; and William Me(a)dows of "Grenadiers, put on your caps" fame (and who, I found out recently, had something in common with Jerry Lee Lewis).

First post

A whole bunch of people have been studying the hair question in the 10th since 1968 when HM 10th Regt of Foot was formed. The conclusion is choose: facial hair or the 10th. No hair in 1775.

Check out some pics and our schedule of events at redcoat.org

When was the painting actually done (usually first question I ask about a painting), as ofteh they refleact that time, not when the event occurred.

Same year as the battle.

German/Hessian Grenadiers would have had moustaches but none for the Brits except maybe the odd backwoodsman…

The first question I would ask is was the artist present at the battle…Currier and Ives produced more than two hundred contemporary prints of the American Civil War for example, but the prints bear little if any relation to reality.

Ives served during the war as a captain in the New York State National Guard, mostly on recruiting duty, while neither Currier nor anyone else highly placed in the company participated in, or even witnessed, a battle.

link

Beards are worn only by the criminal, the indigent and the insane. Which is why so many AWI, SYW, Napoleonic re-enactors wear 'em!

It was not in style with Englishmen to wear facial hair. Only French and Hessian Grenadiers should wear any(mustache). Was considered a foreign culture thing.

There's a good reason too, and it has nothing to do with fashion – bushy beards make excellent kindling when you are stood in ranks firing flintlock muskets :)

Note how close to the face the powder flash from the pan is, and the two guys in the rear rank are leaning over your should to shoot….

Facial hair was NOT in style in that period.
Now,OTOH ,BAD reenactors…
Some of us more authentic reenactors have been fighting this fight for many years. Certain reenactor organizations seemed to have turned a blind eye towards the issue,lest they lose membership,or offend somebody..
Meanwhile,authenticity suffers…

And I'm not even going to the issue of Women in the ranks…

Bob