Argyll or not?

[OC Richard]

hmmm.... another poser from Ebay... this photo is on auction, but I'm at a loss to figure out just what it is



He appears to be a soldier, but is he? Or is it a "dress-up" photo?

He seems to have the bearing and deportment of a military man. It would be strange for a photo studio to have a khaki tunic and spats on hand, as they usually go for the showy stuff.

However, in genuine photos of soldiers everything goes together, while in dress-up photos there's always a mix of things, either civilian and military items mixed and/or military items from various regiments mixed.

This man is obviously wearing the "swinging six" of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, and his kilt might be Sutherland too.

But what about his Glengarry? Why no dicing? And why the dark hose-tops? Both things would indicate a piper, but the pipers wear a different pattern of sporran. If I could only see his cap-badge better.

Here's a indisputably genuine photo of an Argyll where you can see the expected consistent items of dress: sporran, red & white diced Glengarry, red & white diced hosetops, etc.



Here's the typical "play dress-up" sort of photo with the bizarre mix of civilian and military, and of various regiments worn together. This is the most interesting of this sort I've come across




The photo in question, at the top of this post, is neither a typical "play dress-up" photo nor one that shows the consistent dress expected in a genuine military photo. So what is it?

Of course in WWI there was a vast number of battalions, in Scotland and overseas, allied to the traditional parent regiments, and it's possible that there was one that wore some elements of the Argylls' uniform mixed with plain Glengarries and dark hose.

Here's another interesting photo which appears to show genuine soldiers and their dress is a bit puzzling






And this fellow... what regiment?

[figheadair]

I'll have a think about the first one but the last looks to be somewhere warm judging by the backdrop, foilage etc. South Africa perhaps or one of the British (now rather than Empire) territories, Bermuda, St. Lucia etc?

[Lorna]

I don't have any information or opinion on the photograph in question but oftentimes during wartime, regiments had to make do with supplies there were at hand. An example of this (although they were not a kilted regiment) would be The Royal Regiment of Newfoundland aka The Blue Puttees.

Here is an excerpt from a script from the 1992 documentary The Blue Puttees Produced by: H. Clifford Chadderton, For: The War Amps of Canada.

"We want to tell the story from the stand-point of the rest of Canada. When this regiment was formed, it was formed from absolute scratch! There was no militia in Newfoundland, which was a colony of Great Britain at that time. There was no military district. There were no military stores. But what happened was this...

The Great Britain declared war in early August of 1914. A message came through to the governor of this colony saying that, "the empire was at war". And almost immediately the governor wired back saying, "I think we can raise 500 troops". Raise them from what?!And that tells the whole story. This regiment was raised from scratch. The uniforms were almost homespun, but they were khaki. But when the time came to make the puttee - now a puttee is a strip of cloth that goes around a soldier's calf, like a legging- they could not find any more khaki broadcloth. So from some place, they scrounged blue broadcloth, and from that they made the puttees.

Here is a link to the script if anyone would like to read more:http://www.waramps.ca/uploadedFiles/...uttees_1hr.pdf

[eagle43172]

Richard, you've got me thinking and this early on Sunday morning that's not easy.
As the photo has a distinctly WWI look to it, I would opine that the young soldier is a member of a New Army battalion (whose uniform allotment was spotty in the beginning; diced glengarrys not issued or the the sporran could have been passed around for the photo. Or he's a member of a Territorial unit that affiliated with the Argyll's but never issued full dress kit. Mind you this is only a guess. I'm going to have to research this.