Military Kilts in the 1850s

[Lachlan09]

I read that book many years ago in paperback. Good read.

The OP's comments remind me of problems of military kilt-wearing in other eras.

Mosquitoes – The pestilent West Indies were almost a death-sentence to 18th Century British troops, so that by the 1790’s, Highland troops, when stationed there, were issued white cotton trousers to replace their kilts. Likewise, the 91st Regt of Foot (Argyllshire Highlanders) put aside their kilts and wore trews for the 1809 Walcheren (Holland) Expedition, being a malarial area. The 93rd Regt. of Foot (Sutherland Highlanders) replaced their kilts with trews for the 1814/15 New Orleans Expedition for the same reason.

Cold Weather – the men wouldn’t be crying just because their knees were cold. The Crimea was an extremely cold, bleak place in winter and the army was based outdoors all the time, particularly in the winter of 1854, when many men had to sleep in the open air of the bleak, windy terrain or in inadequate tents, then take their turn in the wet, muddy trenches around Sevastapol. During this time, kilts got wet and froze. The hard tartan material of that time became like sheets of metal, the hems severely chafing and even cutting the men’s knees. When Queen Victoria inspected a detachment of the 93rd’s at Balmoral in 1871, she saw how raw the men’s knees were and instigated a change to soft tartan material, used ever since for army kilts.

Mud, wet and cold – The effect of this miserable combination came to the fore in the Great War, when thousands of kilted men had to endure personal miseries of static duties in damp, muddy trenches and funk-holes, wet and cloying, muddy kilts which made them heavy and unpleasant, lice and their eggs colonizing the dark warmth of the deepest pleat recesses, kilts getting dangerously hooked on the barbed-wire (a fact noticed by German observers who picked them off as they struggled and noted, after attacks, the many dead kilties caught in the wire). From Winter 1916, British kilted troops on the Western Front were issued trousers and puttees for wear in the depths of winter, as instructed by official orders.

Heat – another enemy of kilted soldiers. At the battle of Magersfontein, December 1899 (during the 2nd Boer War), the Highland Brigade was decimated out in an open plain, then pinned down by accurate Boer sniper fire. As the Highlanders lay hugging the ground, unable to advance or withdraw, the sun beat down on them and caused severe sun-burn and blistering on the unprotected, vulnerable backs of the men’s knees.