British 73rd Regiment 1814 Uniform

[Terry37]

I am still putting together the figures for my Walmoden Corps and also want to add the British 73rd Regiment. My understanding is that they were a Scottish regiment with pale yellow facings, but did not wear the kilt. I am trying to find out if they wore trews or just gray overalls, and if trews what tartan?

I am also interested to know if they wore some kind of bonnet or just the standard Belgic shako?

Any help or reference is greatly appreciated.

Terry

[AdamPHayes]

My copy of Franklin has the 73rd in dark green facings. No Highland distinctions after 1809.

[carlos marighela]

Pretty much everyone suggests dark green  or blue-green as the facing colour, save for the NAM which has an officer's coatee purported to be from the 73rd with pale yellow cuffs. I suspect that this is in error.

Highland distinctions removed in 1809, so standard line infantry kit including period appropriate shako.

[Iain R]

As Carlos points out, they lost their Highland status and were simply another line regiment, no Scottish uniform distinctions; in fact half the Highland regiments actually lost theirs due to recruiting difficulties. During the Napoleonic period, the only units retaining their "Highland" status (and thus any uniform distinctions visible on a wargames figure) were the 42nd, 78th, 79th, 92nd and 93rd in Highland dress and the 71st in standard light infantry kit with the addition of a diced Kilmarnock bonnet blocked up to resemble a shako, and sergeants and officers wearing their sashes over the shoulder, Highland style.

All other Scots regiments, the 1st, 21st, 26th, 70th, 72nd, 73rd, 74th, 75th, 90th, 91st and 94th were, in terms of looks (we won't get into recruiting demographics here), English regiments. Some would later regain Highland staus, others would be re-designated to an English county, and for the others (i.e. the Lowland regiments, who would've traditionally resented any attempts at "Highlandisation") they would only gain any form of Scottish distinction with the Victorian obsession with anything Scottish.

[CapnJim]

It is said that the 93rd wore trews at New Orleans..  Previous to that, they apparently wore kilts.  After getting thrashed at NE, they swore never to wear trews again...

[carlos marighela]

David Niven, prior to commissioning from Sandhurst, claimed to have put his one of his regimental preferences as 'anyone but the Highland Light Infantry', the HLI being the one 'Highland' regiment* to wear trews rather than the kilt at the time. Naturally, upon commissioning, he was posted to the HLI. 



*Given you can accept that Glasgow is part of the Highlands that is.

[Iain R]

*Given you can accept that Glasgow is part of the Highlands that is.

Here's how it works. While originally raised as a Highland corps (MacLeods's 73rd), the whole "Glasgow Highland" thing doesn't actually infer that Glasgow is part of the Highlands; by the time of the Napoleonic Wars, the actual Highlands was running rather short of military age men to fill the number of Highland regiments that had been raised in the preceeding 50 years (i.e. before the worst excesses of the Clearances), and many of them had migrated down to the cities- Glasgow in particular being a refuge of dispossessed Highlanders, a fact still reflected today in many ways. As such, one could appeal to the martial pride of many of these men to fill the ranks of a marching regiment by playing on their identity and that they were being recruited as Highlanders in the ways of their fathers, rather than unemployed weavers and drovers. This is why Glasgow actually spawned two regiments- the 71st (Glasgow Highland) and the somewhat less storied 70th (Glasgow Lowland), which flitted between a Glasgow and Surrey(!) appellation, depending on the vagaries of recruitment...

[carlos marighela]

My best mate and best man's father was in the HLI. Most of his colleagues, like him,  were from those idyllic highland locales oft depicted on shortbread and toffee tins... like the Gorbals and Easterhouse. 

[Iain R]

Indeed, things were rather different by then. The HLI Depot in Maryhill was the furthest north my grandfather had been when he joined them in 1945; he and his brother, a pre-war regular in the same regiment, hailed from Dennistoun...

[Terry37]

Thank you everyone for the great replies. OK then, standard British line dress with dark green facings.  The mention of a blue tint in the green makes wonder if it might have been sea green or possibly steel green, both facing colors used in the British army. On 15 MM I doubt it will matter too much once the shading is added.

Thank you all again, very much appreciated!

Terry