History of British military uniforms

02-08-2022

The color red was the uniform color adopted by the first standing regiment of the British Army, the Yeoman of the Guard, the Beefeaters, during the reign of Henry VIII. In 1645 this color was adopted when the first standing army was formed. Red was not used to hide blood stains. Rather, each army adopted certain colors as its national colors. French soldiers tended to wear blue; the Russians wore green; The British wore red.

With the infantry wearing bright red, with white cross belts and shiny brass, weren’t they easier targets? However, in the 1860s, battle tactics were very different from those applied today. Before 1866, British long guns were muzzleloaders. To load these weapons a soldier was required to:

1) Stand up to load a powder charge and shoot it in the muzzle.

2) get too close to the enemy to hit him, due to the inaccuracy of the musket.

3) stand together to shoot volleyball.

It was the number of shells that mattered, not the camouflage.

However, in 1867, war and times were changing. With the advent of breech-loading rifles in the British Army in 1866, the
the quality of small arms changed considerably. faster fire rates,
Starting with a much more accurate weapon, which could be loaded in the prone position, the Army’s tactical doctrine gradually began to change. The change in tactics was not as rapid as it might have been because during the latter half of the 19th century, the British Army did not fight a similarly equipped modern army. In essence, the tactics used made sense with the old style of firearms; tactics had yet to evolve to take advantage of newer weapons.

It was surprising that the lessons of the new weapons recently
demonstrated in the American Civil War (1861-1865) were not absorbed by the British. Although most European nations had observers on both sides, lessons that should have been learned were discarded as this war was seen as an isolated case determined by a geography unlike any other in Europe. Furthermore, it was considered an ‘unseemly fight between undisciplined armies’.

It wasn’t until the late 1800s that a khaki uniform was issued, with the British Army finally realizing that drab colored uniforms provided better camouflage in response to more accurate and faster firearms using smokeless powder. Once again, tactics continued to lag and it took the carnage of World War I to convince the authorities that it was necessary to seek cover and stay hidden rather than stand in battle formations.

women’s uniform

The women of the garrison had a less authorized uniform but one that conformed to the class structure and social order of the time. The wives of the men in the ranks wore a simple cotton dress with an apron and a hairpiece called a ‘net’. His shoes were made of smooth leather common at the time. It was a stark contrast to the more ornate dress worn by an officer’s wife, in keeping with her position as an upper-class citizen.

Similarly, civilians employed by the Army of 1867 had their own type of clothing that designated their role within the Army. The schoolmaster wore a knee-length black frock coat, while the female teacher wore a skirt, blouse and jacket cut in a style known as a ‘zouave’ jacket, similar to the uniforms worn by the ‘zouave’ units that served in the US Army. Civil war.

More at http://www.army-surplus.org.uk

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