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DateOriginal Topic
10th March 2005Glengarry Caps and badges
By Carl Daeche
Can anyone help with the details of the checkered bands for the Scottish based regiments present in the AZW. The 21st 91st and 99th. I have details that the 21st band was red/white and green, the 99th red/white and yellow. But what about the 99th?

Can anyone also help with the Glengarry badge of the 60th rifles. Would have the badge used in 1879 been adorned with 'the Kings Royal Rifle Corps' - during Victorias Reign ?

Thanks to all.

Carl
DateReplies
10th March 2005Martin Everett
Carl,

You really need to consult 'Head-Dress Badges of the British Army - Volume One by Kipling and King.
10th March 2005Adrian Whiting
Carl,

Are you sure about the 99th being Scottish ? I thought the 99th were the Duke of Edinburghs Regt (Wiltshire). They certainly went on to become the 2nd Battalion of the Wiltshires. I appreciate the Scottish connection in the title, but had not appreciated that they were uniformed as a Scottish battalion.

I can confirm that the KRRC had that title throughout Queen Victoria's reign. They became the 60th - Kings Royal Rifle Corps in 1830. There would be no precedent for changing the title conferred by her uncle/predecessor who she succeeded, in much the same way that the Kings Troop RHA retains that title now I guess.

Adrian
11th March 2005Carl
Martin,

thanks yet another title i will have to look out for.

Adrian Hi,

Yes according to one of I Knights Osprey books the 99th though wearing the standard line frock and not the scottish coatee they did have a diced band on glengarry and cap. I can however find no details of colours or secondary provenence.

thanks for confirming the 60th I thought so but was not sure.

Can anyone help with the 99th?
Carl
11th March 2005John Young
Carl,

The 99th's correct designation in 1879 was 'The 99th Duke of Edinburgh's (Lanarkshire) Regiment - sounds pretty Scottish to me. However, the Sub District was No. 38 Brigade, which had it brigade depot in Devizes, Wiltshire. I fear that's was it causing Adrian's confusion.

I do have photograph of two officers of the 99th at the Hythe School of Musketry, one wearing his diced glengarry, the other a diced peaked forage cap. I can bring a copy of it to Chatham if that's any use to you?

John Y.
12th March 2005Adrian Whiting
Many thanks John - yes the Depot location and the fact that post 1881 the Regiment became the 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment, had made me wonder on its origins - however the Diehards are at The Wardrobe, Salisbury, again this year, so I will pay more careful attention to the lineage of the RGBWs, whilst they still exist as same !

Thanks

Adrian
12th March 2005Carl
Dear John,

thanks for the info and yes I would be grateful if you could bring them with you to Chatham. I will definately be there on the Saturday - as I have a stall for the ammo boxes - Any idea what colours the diced bands incorporated?

Cheers
Carl
14th March 2005John Young
Carl,

I've studied the photograph in some detail, and it is interesting as there are other Scottish units present in the image. The norm appears to be a band of red and white dicing - best described as a continous red cross on a white background.

The 99th officers' - Lt's Harford & Johnson - have the same but in the centre of the red cross there is another colour - the yellow which Ian Knight mentions in 'British Forces in Zululand.' The late Bill Carman in his 'Richard Simkin's Uniforms of the British Army - The Infantry Regiments' describes it as '...a diced border (with a yellow central square) was worn on the head-dresses ...'

I hope that helps?

John Y.