Wearing ex military issue and items

[piperalpha]

Is it generally seen as disrespectful to wear a sporran or another piece of highland attire that was issued to a regiment that’s no longer together. I see so many old sporran from the Gordon Highlanders, Seaforths, and other regiments that have been amalgamated. I would love to purchase one someday but I wouldn’t want to offend someone that served in one of the regiments.
There’s a decent number of civilian (goat and horsehair) sporrans that come up for sale. I might be better off purchasing one of them.

best regards
Ross

[Jock Scot]

I was told too many years ago to matter , that wearing attire from disbanded Regiments AND as long as no veteran that served in those Units is still alive, then including modest amounts of redundant military attire is acceptable at times.
People will see things differently, but I think, the advice I was given is still sound. Although, I do carry one of my long gone uncles’ Black Watch SD in my hose, but I ensure that St. Andrew and his cross are not visible.

[OC Richard]

In the Pipe Band world it's been a complicated thing.

When civilian Pipe Bands became popular in the second half of the 19th century they nearly always would either dress in civilian Evening Dress, or some version of military Full Dress.

The civilian military-style uniforms would often be difficult to distinguish from actual military uniforms.

For one thing the same firms, such as Thomas Gordon, would make identical doublets for both regimental and civilian use. (The only difference would be the buttons; the civilian doublets generally had a thistle on the button, while each regiment had its unique regimental button.)

Also the same firms would sell regimental-pattern collar badges and cap badges for civilian use, though civilian bands tended to use thistle or rampant lion collar badges rather than regimental patterns.

Beginning in the 1970s the vast majority of civilian Pipe Bands abandoned both military-style Full Dress and civilian Evening Dress and a new Pipe Band specific uniform emerged, and has remained by far the most popular Pipe Band dress to this day.

However some civilian Pipe Bands still maintain military-style Full Dress.

This band performs in front of the Royal Family every year at Braemar. Their uniform is quite a mix of a number of different regiments and includes some items which are specific to, and cherished by, particular regiments.

In the main their uniform follows that of the Gordon Highlanders, including the Gordon-specific cap badge, collar-badges, crossbelt badge, plaid brooch, black spat buttons, and "belled" flashes. However they wear the piper's feather bonnet and Red Hackle of the Black Watch, though oddly their bonnets have Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders dicing.

Charles, long the Colonel-in-Chief of the Gordon Highlanders, has seen this band every year for decades and seemingly has taken no umbrage to their wearing Gordons items nor their mixing of these items with things from other regiments.

[DCampbell16B]

Not to hijack the thread, but I've had a related question for a while. I have had an old Canadian forces khaki tam for years, which I only picked up because it fit me. If there were a civilian cap badge or nothing on it would it raise eyebrows? It sounds like maybe not, but I'm most likely to run Canadians if I was wearing it.

I also have one of those BW SD. I wore it for awhile until I found out what it was and quit that. I had others.

[piperalpha]

Not to hijack the thread, but I've had a related question for a while. I have had an old Canadian forces khaki tam for years, which I only picked up because it fit me. If there were a civilian cap badge or nothing on it would it raise eyebrows? It sounds like maybe not, but I'm most likely to run Canadians if I was wearing it.

I also have one of those BW SD. I wore it for awhile until I found out what it was and quit that. I had others.

Not hijacking it at all. I've never served so I cannot say whether it's appropriate or not.

[Father Bill]

I’m a priest. I’m not going to be impressed if a layman wears a black shirt with a white square at the collar. Parallel?

[piperalpha]

I was told too many years ago to matter , that wearing attire from disbanded Regiments AND as long no veteran that served in those Units is still alive, then including modest amounts of redundant military attire is acceptable at times.
People will see things differently, but I think, the advice I was given is still sound. Although, I do carry one of my long gone uncles’ Black Watch SD in my hose, but I ensure that St. Andrew and his cross are not visible.

I have an old silver Gordon Highlanders cap badge I wear on my glengarry for piping competitions. I've never had anyone comment on it. One of my teachers was pipe major of the first battalion band. I purchased it for a few reasons.. to remember him, PM G.S. McLennan is my favorite composers of pipe music and I've always liked the way stags look. I think I'll stick with civilian attire for the rest of my kit.