ARMY DRESS REGULATIONS (ALL RANKS) Part 1 Introduction ...

[Pages:1202]ARMY DRESS REGULATIONS (ALL RANKS)

Ministry of Defence

PS12(A) January 2011

Part 1 Introduction, Glossary of Terms and Orders of Dress

Part 1

SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION

CONTENT

01.1. These revised Army Dress Regulations have been devised to form an amalgam of JSP 336 Vol 12 Part 3 Clothing Pamphlets 1-16 and Officers Dress Regulations - and will supersede both in April 2007. 01.2. They are designed to provide a ready access in electronic format, both on AEL and DII, to all features of Army dress regulations, except for clothing scales which can be found by link to DC IPT...Also, illustrations with requisite NSN numbers can be seen by access to DC IPT's Photo Library on the following link...

ARMY DRESS COMMITTEE - FUNCTIONS AND PROCEDURES

01.3. The Army Dress Committee considers all proposals affecting authorised orders of dress and embellishments for officers and soldiers and approves the wearing of new pattern clothing; no deviation from any authorised pattern of clothing is permitted. 01.4. Before any dress proposal is formulated to amend these regulations, either to change an existing item of dress or to seek approval for a new item, advice must first be sought from the Army Dress Committee Secretary. 01.5. Should any proposal involve a new design, or change to an existing design, of a badge, crest or logo, prior advice must first be obtained from some or all of the following Army dress advisers:

a. The College of Arms through PS12(A) and approval of the Inspector of Regimental Colours (see note at the end of this Section).

b. Def DPR(A) . c. The Army Historical Adviser and Assistant Adviser. d. The Corporate Analysis branch at MOD. 01.6. Other changes of design will normally involve prior help and advice from the Historical Advisers. 01.7. Once initial advice has been received on design aspects, where public money is involved the source of funding must be identified by the proposer which will normally require the production of a Business Case to Log Sp at HQ LAND as appropriate, and funding authority will form an integral part of the formal dress proposal and this should include the total numbers of officers and soldiers involved, by ranks, within authorised establishments. 01.8. The Dress Proposal, illustrated where necessary, would then be submitted to the Army Dress Committee Secretary at PS12(A) to include:

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a. The College of Arms through PS12(A) for badges and emblems for approval of the Regimental Inspector of Colours (see note at the end of this Section).

b. Agreement of the Colonel or Colonel Commandant of the regiment or corps, and of the honorary Colonel and Colonel-in-Chief, if appropriate.

c. The relevant chain of command. d. Agreement of other regiments or corps who may be affected. 01.9. The Army Dress Committee usually meets three times a year and any finalised dress proposal should reach the Army Dress Committee Secretary at PS12(A) at least three weeks prior to the meeting. Minor proposals, and any urgent special case proposal, may by considered Out of Committee and if approved would be ratified with Decision Number at the next full Committee meeting. 01.10. Army Dress Committee Minutes will contain a record of decisions and the relevant Decision Number will constitute the formal authority. Notes:

Inspector of Regimental Colours The office of Inspector of Regimental Colours was instituted in 1806 in order to regulate the design of the various Colours, Guidons, and Standards of the Army. Regulations for these had been laid down in 1768, but were widely ignored and designs left to the whim of individual Colonels. The first Inspector was George Nayler (1764-1831), York Herald, later Garter King of Arms. Since that time the office of Inspector has normally been held by Garter King of Arms. The present incumbent, Thomas Woodcock, was appointed in 2010. As the Army's heraldic adviser he is responsible for approving all new designs for Colours, Guidons, Standards, Cap Badges, Defence Agencies etc. The artwork for all new designs is prepared at the College of Arms by a heraldic artist, signed by the Inspector, and then submitted to The Queen, via the Ministry of Defence, for formal approval. Once The Queen has signed the painting, it is returned to the College for safe keeping.

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SECTION 2 - THE PRINCIPLES OF BRITISH ARMY UNIFORM

(re Regular Army only, except where otherwise noted) 01.11. The British Army has enjoyed historical continuity to a unique degree. In over 300 years it has acquired a fine and much admired heritage that includes its insignia and formal uniforms; a few features, such as the red/scarlet uniform colour, actually date back to the beginning. 01.12. Like the British constitution, the field of uniforms and insignia has unwritten conventions without which such things become meaningless and, at the very least, lose their prestige. 01.13. The following paragraphs clarify some of the underlying principles sanctioned by history. Although in a few instances these rules have been breached, they remain valid in principle: exceptions are not listed here unless they are significant and provide a real precedent.

KEY SIGNIFICANCE OF FULL DRESS

01.14. In the range of orders of dress, descending from the grandest (Full Dress) to the most prosaic (Combat Dress with helmet), there is a steady thinning out of regimental features. In dress terms the personality of the regiment or corps is most massively present in Full Dress: this is the key. Ultimately it dictates the special details displayed in the other orders of dress. 01.15. For many regiments and corps continuity is undisturbed, so all details, including Full Dress, are long established. For those created or amalgamated since 1939, too, the details of Full Dress are mostly very obvious. In fact, where regiments of similar category amalgamate, it is mainly just a question of choosing insignia. In all other cases an outline of Full Dress can be inferred from the unit's antecedents and functions and from Army history. In many such instances the uniform has already been formally settled (for their Bands) in this way. 01.16. Thus with an actual (or notional) Full Dress borne in mind, virtually all other uniform matters become clear, including colours of mess jacket; trouser stripes; the potential wearing of spurs; of a sash (if infantry); accoutrements; shoulder chains or shoulder cords in No. 1 Dress: colours of No. 1 Dress cap; pattern of sword etc. In some cases such characteristics may amount to a "package".

UNIFORMITY

01.17. In general the basic colouring of a given uniform is the same for all ranks of a unit, however greatly the embellishment may vary with rank or appointment. Thus, in Full Dress, the body colour, any facing colour, the button colour and colour of plume, if any, will be the same for officers, NCOs and soldiers. 01.18. However, within the same unit and in the same order of dress, uniform of differing colour can

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be logically granted; Pipers should and Farriers (now only in LG) could wear a special colour. Special uniform for Musicians largely waned but smaller features such as plumes of distinctive colour etc. are historically appropriate, particularly for cavalry Musicians and Trumpeters. Drummers' distinctions are in a slightly different category as these long ago ceased to involve wearing different colour.

REGIMENTAL UNIFORM COLOUR - FULL DRESS AND MESS DRESS

Throughout these notes, the obvious exceptions of the three regiments with special colour trousers (RDG, KRH. and R.Irish) are left aside, as are kilts and trews. "Unit" is used here to mean a regiment or a corps; and the term "regimental" may refer to either. 01.19. Apart from the RA in blue, historically the great bulk of the army wore red (scarlet for officers and sergeants) but Light Dragoons (later Hussars and Lancers) led to a new element in blue. Similarly the advent of RIFLES involved green uniforms. New departmental corps were later steadily added, swelling the once limited numbers wearing blue. In the 1920s the Royal Signals logically followed the RE into scarlet and more recently the AGC was also granted scarlet. The colour for Generals, most army Staff officers, LG, normal heavy cavalry, RE, Foot Guards and Line Infantry in Full Dress remains scarlet. The slightly deeper red worn by the soldiers had given way to scarlet c. 1870, when improved technology made this economically possible. 01.20. Thus each regiment and corps historically had its allotted "uniform colour", which was the body colour for its Full Dress (and also for officers' stable and shell jackets when these evolved and, at first, for the late Victorian working "frock"). In the Regular Army, the colour is only scarlet, dark blue or Rifle green. When stable and shell jackets came to be used as mess jackets, the colour of course remained the same as the Full Dress, and this is an important principle. 01.21. The only valid exceptions have arisen when two regiments with differing "uniform colour" amalgamated, in which case one antecedent colour could reasonably be taken for Full Dress and the other for the mess jacket. 01.22. Historically waistcoats had long been white. When Mess Dress emerged, based on the short jacket, the mess vest worn with that was normally either of the jacket colour or of the facing colour or it could be of the washable white variety. Today, following amalgamations, a further logical alternative could be the facing colour of any antecedent unit. 01.23. The texture of the woollen cloth for full dress tunics and, until recently, for all frock coats, is traditionally akin to superfine or doeskin materials and almost reminiscent of suede: it is dense and smooth but not unduly thick. For temperate mess jackets and waistcoats, the texture is usually of similar smooth appearance although the cloth, while still substantial, could be thinner. 01.24. Aside from regiments with a RIFLES background (and the special exceptions already mentioned), all dress trousers and overalls throughout the Regular Army are dark blue. Such overalls

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or trousers, with the striping described below, are worn in Full Dress, frock coat, Mess Dress and No. 1 Dress; and similar netherwear is also worn with tropical white jackets.

FACINGS

01.25. Historically the facing colour was a key element of a regiment's identity, particularly in the infantry, distinguishing one red-coated regiment from another in their uniform and also in the Colours they carried. So significant were facing colours that for several regiments the colour inspired a nickname (such as "The Pompadours") or even a formal title (The Buffs, The Green Howards etc.). Some colours were subtle, such as the Gosling Green of the Northumberland Fusiliers and some were surprising, such as the scarlet facings that only DWR retained on scarlet tunics. 01.26. Hussars had no facings as such (although two regiments had coloured collars) but the facing colour features on the Full Dress tunics of all other regiments and corps, invariably on the collar and nearly always on the cuffs. Sometimes there is matching piping but not for Generals and Army Staff, Foot Guards or Line Infantry, whose piping is white. Any cloth shoulder straps, too, are normally of the facing colour although Line Infantry Drummers' wings are scarlet. 01.27. Facings are also a feature of Mess Dress, particularly displayed on the cuffs and on the jacket collar but less consistently on the latter in the case of roll collar jackets. Shoulder straps can be of facing colour and so can the mess waistcoat. 01.28. On scarlet tunics, it was normal, and mandatory for Line Infantry, that Royal regiments should have dark blue facings, the resulting scarlet and blue being in line with the Royal livery colours. The blue is extremely dark, unlike the popular conception of "royal blue". Occasional dispensation has been granted for a cherished former facing colour if it had had long use before the Royal status was acquired. 01.29. Velvet facings, also worn by the several Body Guards, are available only to the following: The Life Guards; Dragoon Guards (not worn by all the regiments); RE; RTR and RLC. Velvet facings were also formerly worn by the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment and by RB.

BUTTON AND LACE COLOUR.

01.30. As well as the Uniform Colour and the Facing Colour, regiments had an approved metal colour, gold or silver, for the officers' buttons: their metallic lace and almost all metal fittings always had to match these. 01.31. A most important rule was established in 1830 whereby the "button colour" for the entire Regular Army had to be gold, except for black buttons for RIFLES (who duly had matching black braid and cord etc.). Silver was to be quite widely worn in the Auxiliary (now Territorial) forces and was adopted for the Lieutenancy.

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01.32. The gold rule remained intact until after World War II. Today there are a very few exceptions. 01.33. The option for Pipers to be assigned white metal buttons is linked with their historical status and does not breach the rule: nor does the tactical bronzing of Service Dress (No. 2 Dress) buttons, mainly on officers' uniforms, or the use of khaki plastic Royal Arms buttons. 01.34. The rule that Shoulder Belt Plates and Waistbelt Plates etc should match the button colour does not prevent the officers' usual extensive ornamentation of the opposite metal on the face of such plates: it is the background metal colour that counts. It remains a cardinal rule that waistbelt plates and clasps, and also metal shoulder-titles, should match the metal buttons. Even the metal furniture on Sam Browne belts normally conforms with the formal gilt or silver button colour. 01.35. One particular exception is that ornaments of light cavalry style on a cavalry officer's pouch belt are traditionally silver although on a gold-laced belt (and sometimes vice versa in Yeomanry). Also the entire pouch flap is often silver, usually bearing a gilt cypher etc. 01.36. It is standard practice for ornaments mounted on metal to be of the opposite metal colour. There was also a classic rule that on gold shoulder cords (worn also in No. 1 Dress Ceremonial) rank badges should be basically silver colour but, for most units, gilt when on plain blue shoulder straps, for example. However, gold-laced shoulder straps (as on the mess jackets of Generals and Staff) and gold embroidered ones (as on Foot Guards officers' Full Dress) were treated like gold shoulder cords and so bore rank badges in silver embroidery to contrast. 01.37. For actual cap and collar badges there is great freedom of choice between bimetal (gilt and silver), all-gilt or all-silver colour. In khaki uniform they, like other metal insignia, may be bronzed, particularly for officers, the correct bronze colour being shades of brown, distinctly short of black except for Chaplains and RIFLES. 01.38. In the case of helmet plates, such as the large star plates on the blue cloth helmets of Line Infantry, as widely worn by Bands etc, these are essentially just a standard pattern mount and always match the gilt colour of the other helmet fittings: the actual regimental devices are the small details, of whatever metal and/or colour, mounted within that gilt surround. Not being a badge, such full size helmet plates cannot correctly have a shaped, coloured backing but are fitted directly onto the helmet. 01.39. Where a coloured cloth backing is authorised for a badge, its shape should conform closely with the badge and the cloth border thus formed should be quite narrow, except when the badge is on a rectangular patch, as worn on a beret.

PLUME COLOUR

01.40. A wide variety of plume colours was adopted by units but the nearest to a national colouring would possibly be white over red. The drooping swan's feather plumes of Generals and Staff

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officers continue in that colouring. Other conventional colours have included white for Artillery and for Grenadiers and green for Light Infantry and, at one period, black for the helmets of heavy cavalry.

SASH COLOUR.

01.41. A very old convention in military uniform that was once observed in many countries was the establishment of a national sash colour, which was often that of its sovereign's dynasty. Among continuing examples, the Dutch sash colour is orange, the Italian sash is blue and the British red, interpreted as crimson for officers but scarlet for Sergeants. The possible presence of gold (or silver) stripes or fringe on British sashes does not undermine the national colour, which even extends to barrel sashes (see Glossary) and Lancer girdles. On the latter, the gold (for officers but yellow equivalent for the soldiers) covers the greatest area, as it does on Generals' sashes. 01.42. On a conventional military sash no ornamentation other than stripes or fringe is appropriate, although by very old custom the special sashes worn in State Dress by Foot Guards Drum Majors are fastened with an ornamental pin. 01.43. The sash is one of the oldest potential features of military uniform and of great importance historically.

SIDESEAM STRIPING.

01.44. The great majority of units have the sideseams of their blue trousers embellished with scarlet, Cavalry of the Line being an old exception. 01.45. Like many other details, striping essentially follows Full Dress precedent (invariably so regarding colour) but the striping in No. 1 Dress differs in just one important instance from that in Full Dress: all ranks of Line Infantry historically wore the same ? inch scarlet welt (see Glossary) as Guardsmen do today but in No. 1 Dress they have a 1 inch stripe instead. However, in Mess Dress the distinctive welt is still worn by their officers on overalls, and the same welt remains a feature for all ranks when Full Dress is worn. 01.46. A further large element of the army used to wear the classic 1? inch scarlet stripe, namely: RA, AAC, REME, AGC, Army Staff officers and now also the RRF, a unique exception among Line Infantry. Uniquely APTC wore 1 ? in. Slightly wider scarlet stripes (2 in.) were worn by RE, Royal Signals and both the corresponding Gurkha corps and by Foot Guards officers. Since 2009, all these varieties of broad stripes have been rationalised at 17/8in. 01.47. Generals wear an even wider stripe (2? inch); and the Blues and Royals wear almost 3 in., the Life Guards, of course, having the remarkable twin wide scarlet stripes with matching welt between. 01.48. The typical wide bright yellow stripe of the heavy cavalry has gone as a result of

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