| Lord Hill | 04 Feb 2017 2:50 a.m. PST |
The Osprey book on the British Footguards shows a plate depicting the 1st Guards wearing trousers tucked into gaiters. Before I begin converting masses of Perry plastics (Austrian legs, with British torsos), I wondered what TMP folk thought. Is there a source for this gaiter idea? Many thanks |
| 42flanker | 04 Feb 2017 4:11 a.m. PST |
Grey trousers and short gaiters were adopted for active service from c.1811, with an option of wearing white linen overalls instead "at the option of the Colonels or Commanding Officers." White breeches and knee-length gaiters remained the regulation netherwear. Tucking the trousers into the gaiters may have been a regimental/battalion practice among the 1st Foot Guards during the Belgian campaign in June 1815. It has been represented fairly often by illustrators. I can't recall seeing a contemporary picture but there must be a common source for this divergence from the common image.
Here's some examples, and not just for the 1st Foot Guards…
link link link link
It was very muddy that day, and the trousers were soldiers' property from the knee down!
warof1812.ca/trousers.htm drums1812.org/legware |
| Lord Hill | 04 Feb 2017 11:14 a.m. PST |
42flanker thank you very much – very interesting pics, and enough to convince me to go for it – gaiters for my 1st Guards it is! |
| 42flanker | 04 Feb 2017 12:00 p.m. PST |
Yes, you would seem to be in good company. Bryan Fosten should be reliable. |
 Artilleryman  | 04 Feb 2017 2:28 p.m. PST |
Trousers tucked into gaiters was an accepted practice, but for those planning to recreate the look, I suspect it would be the short gaiters going to mid-calf rather than the full. under the knee items. |
| Lord Hill | 04 Feb 2017 3:46 p.m. PST |
Too late Artilleryman, the Stanley knife has already been at work! |
| 42flanker | 04 Feb 2017 4:30 p.m. PST |
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| attilathepun47 | 04 Feb 2017 10:56 p.m. PST |
I think the practice of wearing trousers tucked into the short gaiters was an additional distinction of the light companies in Guards regiments. Also, there is a period illustration showing them in use by skirmishers outside Hougomont Chateau at Waterloo. |
| Artilleryman | 05 Feb 2017 6:34 a.m. PST |
I blame the Quartermaster. |
| Lord Hill | 05 Feb 2017 11:42 a.m. PST |
I blame the Quartermaster. Incidentally, I spent an afternoon looking through the Guards' quartermaster's books at their archive once. Highlights included a list of guardsmen who has lost their caps (shakos) at Waterloo, and who would thus need to pay for them! And also a request for indelible red ink from England to write the men's names on their clothing/equipment, as the ink they had in Belgium was running in the rain! |
| Artilleryman | 05 Feb 2017 1:56 p.m. PST |
I should have more sympathy. A family member was the QM of the 1st Dragoons 'The Royals' at Waterloo having been the RSM in the Peninsula. |
 deadhead | 05 Feb 2017 2:23 p.m. PST |
Beats mine. Same name as mine….distant relative…..older members remembered him. Commander Wheeler AFB , Pearl Harbour (Harbor) that morning. Bless him. It was not his fault. He packed the P40s together as he was told. Heck, it is a Sunday morning…….we'll sort it out tomorrow. (and the most precious thing was the pilots, not the almost obsolescent variants of their planes….the flyers largely survived of course) |
| Lord Hill | 05 Feb 2017 4:50 p.m. PST |
QM – 1st Dragoons – William Waddell? |
| Artilleryman | 06 Feb 2017 2:30 a.m. PST |
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paints brigs for the British fleet.