Royal Scots

[Belisarius]

Gentlemen , a question arose  last week, when one of the members of our club posted pics of his latest unit, 1st Regt. of Foot ( Royal Scots ) for a Waterlo project nearing conclusion. On first seeing them sporting blue piped white wings and with their blue flag I took them for Guards. I,d have bet money that all line Regts had red wings piped white and the blue wings were restricted to the Guards Regts. However to my surprise I found a reference in the book Waterloo Men by Phillip Haythornthwaite which gives the 1st of Foot blue wings , I enclose a pic of same. Now the question is was this a regimental distinction ? If so when did it come into effect as I have references which say they had red wings in the A .W . Independance  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Iain R]

Blue wings were distinction of all(?) "Royal" regiments, rather than just a regimental affectation of the 1st.

The Osprey "British Redcoat 1793- 1815" has more details and a full colour plate of a "Royal" with more info if you're interested, hope this is of use.

[Belisarius]

Ian thanks for your prompt reply but i,m afraid  , " Royal "  i.e. blue faced regiments flank companies did not have blue wings. I have plenty of examples of them and all have red wings faced white , i enclose a pic .  It was my understanding that all Line regts had red faced white wings hence my question about the Royal Scots who were nicknamed Pontsius Pilates Bodyguard. I c,ant put my hand on the Osprey book you mentioned at the moment , but while looking for it I,ve came upon " Wellington,s Army recreated in colour photographs " by Neil Leonard published by Windrow and Greene , and on page 20 it gives " the padded flank company wings , are in blue rather than red - another regimental distinction , shared only with the Guards ". These regimental distinctions were highly prized and defended, observe the Royal Welch Fusiliers wearing black tapes on the back of their collars - a hangover from when their hair was clubbed and powdered, or the Gloucsters wearing two cap badges , one fore and aft on their headgear. I would be interested to learn when the 1st Foot gained this signal distinction and why and how it came about. Any old soldiers or military buffs ,out there who could shed some light on it ?

[Plutarch64]

I have just checked my copy of Franklin's British Napoleonic Uniforms, and he states in the text that the wings of the flank companies were changed to blue after 1805. There were apparently quite a few other changes to their uniform across 1805 and 1806, such as the removal of the blue worm or border down the front of the jacket and to the lace and button arrangements, but no explanation as to why the wings went to blue.

[Iain R]

Ian thanks for your prompt reply but i,m afraid  , " Royal "  i.e. blue faced regiments flank companies did not have blue wings.

Yer, sorry for the duff info (wasn't 100% sure, hence the question mark, and on checking the Osprey book, it simply stated that the "Royals" shared this distinction with the FGs, so assumed I'd been right and that they all shared them...) the same book also points out that as a "Royal" regt, they wore their own regimental shako plate; from the wording I'd assume this was not unique to the 1st and that the other Royal regts would allso bear this distinction?

As for reasoning behind it, it could just be that as they were the "senior" infantry regt, they adopted it to distinguish themselves from other lesser mortals, including the other "Royal" regts ("We were Royal first" / first among equals sort of thing)...

[IronDuke596]

Re Chartrands "A Scarlet Coat" p 63 "Wings of the flank companies blue since 1806 (WO 3/38) by special permission." However, no reason is given for the "special permission".