Royal Company of Archers - Uniforms

Uniforms

The Royal Company of Archers have the distinction of being the first military body of troops in the service of the British Crown who adopted tartan as a part of their uniform.

The original uniform of the corps appears to have been a "shooting" dress, consisting of a tartan, lined with white, trimmed with green and white ribbons; a white sash, with green tossels; and a blue bonnet, with a St. Andrew's cross, a tartan coat, with knee-breeches and white vest; and a "common uniform," the coat of which was "a green lapelled frock." Tartan was fashionable at the time as an expression of anti-Union and pro-Jacobite sentiment and many of the Company were known Jacobites.

From 1713 to 1746 a red tartan sett was used for uniform, but it has not been satisfactorily settled as to what sett of tartan this was, though it was intended to be patterned on that worn by Prince Charles Edward Stuart. After 36 following the Battle of Culloden the Act of Proscription passed by Parliament which “proscribed or banned the making or wearing of Tartan cloths" was repealed, and from 1783 tartans were worn again. However, in 1789 the red tartan sett was discarded for the Black Watch one. In 1734 the headgear worn by the corps was a flat bonnet, ornamented with green and white feathers. Until 1823 (and possibly later) the Royal Company of Archers still wore tartan.

Late in the 19th century when the Queen Victoria opened the Glasgow Exhibition, Her Majesty's Scottish Bodyguard wore their dark green tunics (formerly of the "Black Watch" tartan), with black braid facings and a narrow stripe of crimson velvet in the centre; shoulder wings and gauntleted cuffs similarly trimmed; dark green trousers with black and crimson stripe; a bow case worn as a sash, adorned with two arrows forming a St. Andrew's cross surmounted by a crown; a black leather waist-belt with richly chased gold clasp; a short, gilt-headed Roman sword, like an English bandsman's; Highland bonnet with thistle and one or more eagle feathers.

Their uniform until the Second World War, however has been a Court dress of green with gold embroidery, and cocked hat with a plume of dark cock's feathers. The officers' dress has gold embroidery, and their rank is indicated by two or, in the case of the captain, three, feathers being worn in the bonnet. The corps shooting dress is a dark-green tunic with crimson facings, shoulder-wings and gauntleted cuffs and dark-green trousers trimmed with black and crimson, a bow-case worn as a sash, of the same colour as the coat, black waistbelt with sword, Highland cap with thistle ornament and one or more eagle feathers, and a hunting knife. The weapon worn with this uniform is the sword.