Original 92nd Kilt c1815

[figheadair]

I see the National Army Museum have now made available some pictures of Ensign John Bramwell's 92nd Reg’t (Gordon Highlanders) kilt. Box pleated kilt (22 pleats) with a series of ties and made from Wilsons of Bannockburn's material.



Bramwell was commissioned into the 92nd on 29th July 1813 and fought with the battalion at Quatre Bras on 16th June where he was severely wounded, his right leg being amputated. He was promoted Lieutenant 18th July 1815 and discharged on half pay in 1817. He died in 1876.

[Tarheel]

Thinking out loud on issues of math here. If Mr. Bramwell was in his 20's when his leg was amputated, and lived another 59 years, I am impressed with his resolve to collect his pension.

[The Q]

I've just looked it up, the battle of Quatre Bras was 1815, so he served for just short of 2 years before being injured 2 days before the battle of Waterloo.
That means he was promoted a month after he was disabled, But I would think there is a good chance his promotion was promulagted before then, if not they were being unusually generous for the military!!

[figheadair]

I've just looked it up, the battle of Quatre Bras was 1815, so he served for just short of 2 years before being injured 2 days before the battle of Waterloo.
That means he was promoted a month after he was disabled, But I would think there is a good chance his promotion was promulagted before then, if not they were being unusually generous for the military!!

At that date one still purchased a commission and promotion rather than it being automatic. Reading Wellington's comments on some of the officers under his command shows why we moved to merit based promotion. Purchase of commissions in the British Army.

[figheadair]

In 2011 I started a thread about what I took to be The Original Kilt Style. That hypothesis was turned on it's head but the discovery of Lt Bramwell's uniform which contains a piece of tartan similarly constructed to the Sutherland piece but Bramwell's uniform also includes his kilt. It is now obvious that what I took in isolation to be a proto-kilt is in fact a early form, perhaps the earliest form of the Fly Plaid. It's likely that the Sutherland Fly Plaid was also military (93rd Regt) and that this is the 92nd uniform represents what was the standard kilt and plaid arrangement when the belted plaid was set aside.

92nd Fly Plaid


Sutherland (93rd?) Fly Plaid