Kilt Ribbons

[Harold Cannon]

I have noticed that in the history of the kilt that kilt ribbons were an option on the front apron. I know that this is a holdover from the armed services when it was policy to have the kilt either pinned or tied shut. I was wondering why this tradition has faded into almost complete obscurity. I know of only one company in the recent past that has offered these. I believe that even they no longer offer the kilt ribbons. The two most famous examples of these ribbons that I can think of are of course the Black Watch and Sir Harry Lauder. I hope that someone could shed some light on this. Maybe Matt Newsome has or can find the history and reason for this disapearance.

red:

[macwilkin]

I have noticed that in the history of the kilt that kilt ribbons were an option on the front apron. I know that this is a holdover from the armed services when it was policy to have the kilt either pinned or tied shut. I was wondering why this tradition has faded into almost complete obscurity. I know of only one company in the recent past that has offered these. I believe that even they no longer offer the kilt ribbons. The two most famous examples of these ribbons that I can think of are of course the Black Watch and Sir Harry Lauder. I hope that someone could shed some light on this. Maybe Matt Newsome has or can find the history and reason for this disapearance.

red:

Kilt rosettes and panels were worn by officers and NCOs in several regiments -- the Calgary Highlanders, an allied regiment of the old Argyll & Sutherlands, has a brief article on the kilt panel on their web site:

http://www.calgaryhighlanders.com/kiltpanel.htm

The kilt rosette is still worn, to my knowledge, by the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Regards,

Todd

[Nervous Jock]

I've previously posted a bit of detail on the Rosettes (ribbons) worn by the Black Watch and now RRS so I've just cut and paste the detail here

The rosettes that are specific to The Black Watch, this one dates back to the 19th century. In those days Regimental Colonels had to purchase uniforms for their soldiers out of their own pockets and much money was spent trying to make their troops look as grand as possible.

In an attempt to save money at one point one Colonel decided that the overlap in the apron of a kilt was unnecessary and just a waste of material. Fine in principle but embarrassing in public having just purchased a new Regiments worth of kilts the Colonel was somewhat concerned that he was going to have to purchase a further regiments worth of kilts to solve the problem until a young officer in the unit suggested tying the front to the back with some green ribbon hence the rosettes were born. This is the reason the rosettes are somewhat less "grand" than those worn by the Argylls.

The Rosettes are only worn by Officers and SNCO's even though they are "very simple"

[Nervous Jock]

The kilt rosette is still worn, to my knowledge, by the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Regards,

Todd

RRS uniform with rosettes can be found here

http://www2.army.mod.uk/infantry/reg...ress/index.htm

[macwilkin]

RRS uniform with rosettes can be found here

http://www2.army.mod.uk/infantry/reg...ress/index.htm

Thanks, Jock -- I couldn't find that link last night! I'll bookmark it now.

T.

[Nervous Jock]

Thanks, Jock -- I couldn't find that link last night! I'll bookmark it now.

T.

There is a problem with the Army website at the moment, if anyone has links already bookmarked they won't work unless you add a "2" after the WWW (you'll see where in the example above).This is because the site is apparently being "upgraded" even with the "2" added the links may only be available till Sept 08