Show us your Vintage Kilt Photos

[OC Richard]

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Hi all. A picture of my great great grandfather John Peter Grant from Perthshire, Scotland. He was in the 79th Regiment of Foot from 1859 to 1869... If anyone has knowledge of the ceremonial dress he is wearing, I'd love to know.

That's a fantastic photo there! I have a photo of my great-great-grandfather, a Civil War soldier, and I cherish it.

About his costume, it certainly isn't the uniform either of pipers or of soldiers of the 79th Foot (Cameron Highlanders). Thing about the piper's uniform of the Cameron Highlanders: it was adopted in the 1840s and never really changed. Up till the formation of The Highlanders in the 1990s the uniform was essentially the same.

Here is William Fraser, a piper of the 79th, very clearly showing the distinctive waistbelt and crossbelt hardware, sporran, etc



Your great-great-grandfather's costume stikes me as more or less typical civilian Highland costume of the period. However we must keep in mind that at that time there were a number of military pipe band uniforms which did not survive the 1881 Army reforms, such as the dress of the pipers of the 78th Foot, here seen in 1860



and the dress of the pipers of the 91st Foot, here seen in 1864. Note how similar the sporran is to your great-great-grandfather's



But all in all, I think his costume is a civilian one.

[creagdhubh]

Very interesting!

[saxandpipes]

Here are 2 photos of a couple of my great grand uncles (the brothers of my great grandmother).





Can anyone identify the uniforms?

Cheers,

Michael

[OC Richard]

A very interesting "kit" there. It appears to me to be a mix of civilian and military items. For example, the crossbelt is a Black Watch regimental pipers' crossbelt. What makes it look a bit odd is that the keeper had been slid all the way down so that it's resting on the tip, but anyhow it's clearly a BW crossbelt with both badges intact. (Yes the lower badge looks like a Cameron Highlanders badge, but it's the badge worn on the BW crossbelts). And the tartan appears to be Royal Stewart, worn by BW pipers.

The waistbelt buckle, I don't know, it could be Camerons, though as you can see in the photo I posted above that the Camerons pipers wore a distinctive oval buckle. The Other Ranks of the Camerons did wear a buckle like that, more or less.

But he couldn't be a Black Watch piper, as the sporran, plaid brooch, cap feathers, and spats aren't right, and in fact look like typical civilian items. But you never know! There were so many Volunteer and Militia and Dominions battalions that one can never say for sure.

Here's an old album cover which clearly shows the crossbelt, sporran, plaid brooch, and squared-off spats of the Black Watch pipers. As you can see the fellow in the vintage photo is wearing the identical crossbelt.

[swellal]

L to R: Pipe Major John "Jock" MacDougall, RSM Jordan MC DSM, Bandmaster Reg Hinchey

BoldHighlander, the 21st Battalion photos that you have posted here have all come from my 21st Battalion website. I have no problem with you using them other than giving proper credit and supplying a link to the source http://www.21stbattalion.ca Could you please edit your posts to include that.

Thank you

[Steve Ashton]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I need to say this again because apparently my first warning is too far back in this thread for most people to take the time to read.

And I cannot stress this strongly enough.

If you do not own the photos -
If you do not have the permission of the owner -

Do not post them here.

Do not just pull photos off the web. This is the same sort of thing we accuse some Kilt sellers of doing.

Respect for intellectual property rights and for property of others must be paramount.

If you want to join this thread and post a photo, you must include the provenance of the photo. Give credit where credit is due.

Any photo posted to this thread without a statement of ownership or credit line to the owner will be subject to removal.

[swellal]

I don't want the photos in question removed, but I would appreciate a credit added.

[cessna152towser]

The Poster of the photos has now been contacted by the staff and asked to agree to edit his post.

[ScotFree]

I saw this yesterday whilst wandering through the photo collection at the Chicago Art Institute, I ran across this little snap of a young kilted lad. According to the eminently understandable policy, I verified with my buddy the Assistant Curator of bric-a-brack (or whatever his official title is) and said posting it here would be within the policy on photography of the museum's permanent collection.

For your viewing pleasure ...



Sorry, I didn't notice until just now that my reflection off the glass got caught in the photo.

[OC Richard]

Just got a couple more vintage postcards, first of the Four Princes



then of a man of an unknown regiment, appears to be from the 1860s



Another old post card arrived yesterday! No name or date, but the postage required is a halfpenny!

Anyhow four unidentified pipers. This photo rewards careful study.