regimental Glen dicing = metal sporran rim?

[TheBrus]

In regiments wearing diced glens, the pipers often wore solid bands. Drummers wore diced.

[Father Bill]

Other Ranks.

Officers, Sergeants and Other Ranks.

Regards

Chas

Thank you. If we have trouble with plain language across the ocean, you understand why initials are even more confusing.

[OC Richard]

In regiments wearing diced glens, the pipers often wore solid bands. Drummers wore diced.

To be quite precise, the pipers of all five kilted regiments wore plain glengarries. The rest of the regiment entire also wore plain glengarries in the 42nd Foot/Black Watch and the 79th Foot/Cameron Highlanders, while the rest of the regiment entire wore diced glengarries in the 93rd Foot/Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders and the 92nd Foot/Gordon Highlanders. (To give both the pre- and post-1881 titles.)

As we have seen the situation in the 78th Foot/Seaforth Highlanders is a bit more complex. In the pre-1881 78th Highlanders the regiment wore diced glengarries but the pipers AND bandsmen wore plain glengarries. The pre-1881 72nd Foot wore plain glengarries entire, but this regiment is not germain to the topic as they wore tartan trousers and thus didn't wear sporrans. The question is just exactly which battalions of the post-1881 Seaforth Highlanders wore plain glengarries, and when... did the 1st Battalion wear them for a while? I don't know.

[dea3369]

I have no idea of the truth of how these things arrived, I doubt that anyone does, but at a guess, it was down to the personal fadds and fancies of the then C. O.'s of the individual Regiments, who thought it was a good idea at the time.The British Army is littered with such examples.

More often than not, this is exactly what happens. Even here in the US Department of Defense, we've gone through uniform changes simply because some dude or dudette entertained an idea that it was time for a change. I remember the older members of our US Air Force squadron lamenting undershirts. First, some guy thought that a crew-neck white shirt showing from under the uniform blouse was horrible. New policy: V-neck shirts only. Several years laters, some general (or rumored that it was actually his wife) thought that chest hair was more horrendous. New policy: Crew-neck shirts only.

I'd even hazard a guess that commanding officers made such decisions based on what they already have. "I've got diced Glens and metal-cantle sporrans, so that's what we're wearing." Golden rule. Whoever has the gold, makes the rules.