Until Properly Relieved

[pecunium]

Until Properly Relieved, originally uploaded by pecunium.

This was, "backstage" at Ft. George, which is both an historical monument (built after the Battle of Culloden, to keep the French from being able to support a future rising of the clans), and a working installation.

He was just coming off a trick on guard duty, in the public eye. I believe he's fishing for a cigarette

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Y'know, being on guard post is hard enough without the bearskin hat and the largely useless weapon. I feel for those guys.

It does certainly remind me of the fifth general order.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It was supposed to: For us it's General Order No. 1: 1. I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved.

As for usefull... the only real risk is an obnoxious tourist. Like the Swiss Guards at the Vatican... more modern stuff is ready to hand, just out of sight.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

My semi-informed guess is that the guy is a reenactor, not a current British soldier. It's not unknown for the Army to put on displays with period uniforms, but it's not at all likely for ceremonial guard duty. For that, it might be a quite traditional dress uniform, but the current rifle.

This, on the other hand, is not much later than the early Nineteenth Century, and some of the cut of the uniform looks to pre-date the Napoleonic Wars. If I've Googled right, while the tartan looks right for The Black Watch, the facings don't look quite right. The 42nd became a "Royal" Regiment in 1758, giving it blue facings. Before that the facings were buff, but the yellow doesn't look quite right. (The 10th Foot did have yellow facings, and that uniform does have the same look of yellow.)

And the soldier is from the Grenadier Company. The wings and the white belts are a clear enough distinction.

(But see the history of the 73rd Regiment of Foot for a complicated series of connections with the Black Watch)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Your semi-informed guess is incorrect. He is a member of The Highland Regiments, who are responsible for manning Ft. George, which is still functioning. As with the "Old Guard" of the US Army's 3ID, they have public duties in period uniforms.

I don't know if they get training in the manual of arms for the weapons (the Old Guard does), but he is on active service.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

That musket is different enough from the current generation that they'd pretty well have to learn some specific drill. Might not be fully from a period drillbook. I've seen references to British Army drill changing from a column of threes to a column of fours at some time in the 1930s, and I doubt there's be any point in tracking that sort of change.

Also, there were some major changes in the basic style of drill. The prominent foot stamping you see at parades such as Trooping the Colour didn't appear until the 1920s, and the swing of the soldier's arm was also a 20th Century introduction.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I think (from descriptions, the stamp is adopted from the Royal Marines; who were famoush for the, "Stomp, and clash of muskets" when piping someone aboard, so the implication was they beat the butt, and the foot.

I know that, no matter how I tried to pick it up when I was drilling with the Territorial Army, it was so simple that (like the jitterbug) it plum evaded me. The Canadians, however, did adopt it; making me the only one in ranks who didn't do it.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

You know a heck of a lot more than I do about the uniform details, that's for sure. Speaking of the 73rd, did you see Sharpe's Eagle in the Sharpe's Rifles TV series?