Regimental tartans and pleating styles

[Macman]

The Royal Scots.

Our local reserve regiment, The Canadian Scottish, wears their's the same way. They were formerly an allied regiment with The Royal Scots.

[OC Richard]

I remember that officers of Queens Own Cameron Highlanders wore knife-pleated kilts, and pipers, ORs and NCOs - box-pleated kilts of Cameron of Erracht tartan.

Interesting!

Of course Officers privately purchased their kit, so anything might be possible.

I saw a nice colour photo of a group of Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Officers, and all of their kilt panels were different: different colour thread, slight variation in the design, etc. Quite possibly no two were made by the same tailor.

[Troglodyte]

The sett size for officers, NCOs and other ranks varied slightly, also.

I understand that although the A&SH and Black Watch both wear essentially the same tartan, the size of the sett used distinguishes the regiments, and the pleating policy is different. The A&SH pleat to show the green, and BW show the blue.

As many of the Scottish regiments were taken out of the kilt at different stages, and then had it reintroduced, other style changes must also have occurred.

[OC Richard]

I understand that although the A&SH and Black Watch both wear essentially the same tartan, the size of the sett used distinguishes the regiments, and the pleating policy is different. The A&SH pleat to show the green, and BW show the blue.

I have an old book which has three colour photos, labelled as follows:

-A&SH and BW, Other Ranks
-BW Officers
-A&SH Officers

and in those photos the ORs' tartan is down the middle, while the Officers' BW tartan has a darker green than the ORs' and the Officers' A&SH tartan has a lighter green than the ORs'.

I don't know if this is true, or how accurate the photos are.

In any case here's the rear of a BW kilt, presumably ORs'. Note how it's pleated to the blue, the pleats appear to alternate between having a pair of black lines, and not, which would be the normal byproduct of pleating to the centre of the blue block.



Here's a never-issued ORs' BW kilt by Thomas Gordon & Sons



The label, measurements in inches, "Kilt No.1"



Here's an A&SH ORs' kilt.



Another A&SH ORs' kilt, by Thomas Gordon & Sons, never issued. Note that each pleat is pleated to the black line in the green band.



This label is in inches and the kilt was originally printed as "No. 1" but an "A" and "E" were later added.



This label is in metric and the kilt is printed as "No. 1A"



Possibly an Officers' kilt, clearly the fabric has the lighter green. (Sergeants also wore the panel.)



This kilt has the panel but is made from the darker ORs' cloth. A Sergeant's kilt?