Facing Colour - Great Britain

Great Britain

The standard red jacket ("redcoat") worn by British infantry soldiers made it difficult to distinguish between units when engaged in battle. The use of Colours assisted soldiers in rallying on a common point, and each Regiment had a flag, or Colour, in a specific shade so as to be easily distinguished. The lining of uniform jackets came to be made from material of the same regimental colours, and when the material was turned back, in the cuffs, lapels and tails of the jacket, the lining, or "facing" was exposed. Facings came to be used by most of the other western armies during the late 17th and early 18th century periods.

The tradition of associating particular colours with specific Regiments continued into the 20th century, even when the use of red jackets ceased in favour of khaki. These facings remained a part of ceremonial uniforms, and the practice was adopted by Commonwealth military units that adopted dress distinctions from affiliated units of the British Army.

In 1881 an attempt was made as an economy measure to standardise facing colours for British infantry regiments (other than the 4 rifle regiments who wore dark green uniforms) according to the following system:

• Guards and "Royal" Regiments (i.e. those with "Royal", "King's", "Queen's" or Prince Albert's name in the title) - Dark Blue.

• English & Welsh Regiments - White.

• Scots Regiments - Yellow.

• Irish Regiments - Green (In fact this meant only the Connaught Rangers. All other Irish Regiments were "Royal" and so had dark blue facings).

While this standardisation made the manufacturing and replacement of uniforms simpler, it proved unpopular amongst the army at large. Some regiments (e.g. The Buffs and Green Howards) derived their names or nicknames from the colour of their facings and the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (who had red facings) lost their claim to be the only truly red coated regiment in the British Army.

So widespread was opposition to the order, and so frequent the requests for special exceptions to be made, that the scheme in its original form was finally dropped and the historic colours were re-instated in a number of regiments, until full dress for the Army as a whole finally vanished with the coming of war in 1914. While many regiments did continue with their new 1881 facings, instances where reversion to traditional colours was approved included the Northumberland Fusiliers (white to Gosling green), the Manchester Regiment (white to Lincoln green), the Norfolk Regiment (white to yellow), the Essex Regiment (white to 'Pompadour Purple'), the Devonshire Regiment (white to Lincoln green), the Highland Light Infantry (yellow to buff), the Seaforth Highlanders (yellow to buff), the Prince of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment (white to grass green), the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (white to scarlet), the Duke of Edinburgh's Wiltshire Regiment (white to buff), the Suffolk Regiment (white to yellow), the Durham Light Infantry (white to dark green) and the Buffs (white to buff). Even after World War I this tendency to revert to historic facings continued, although by that time the scarlet uniforms were normally worn only by regimental bands and by officers in mess and levee dress. As examples the Norfolk Regiment regained its former yellow facings in 1925 and the North Staffordshire Regiment its pre-1881 black facings in 1937.