Elegance or Comfort: Breeches and Trousers in the British Army, 1803-1815
by Robert Henderson

29th Regiment of Foot in 1812.  Gaiters buttoned over Breeches
 as per Regimental Standing Orders (see footnote 10) (Anne SK Brown Collection)

Knee Breeches

            At the opening of the Napoleonic Wars, part of the formal dress of the British infantrymen[1] included a pair of white woollen breeches with tall black wool gaiters that ended just below the knee and covered the shoe.[2]  The idea of the gaiters was “to prevent the dirt and gravel from getting into the shoes, thereby galling the soldier’s feet upon a march”.[3]  These gaiters had a back seam that was adjusted by the regimental tailor to achieve the tightest fit.  They were sometimes lined with linen in around the shoe area,[4] and had a tongue piece that covered the shoe so the laces could not be seen.[5]    The gaiter had a black calf skin strap that went under the shoe to keep the gaiter in place.  Original officer and civilian examples do have a button or buckle adjustment for the strap but there is no evidence indicating soldier’s gaiters had this feature.[6]  The number of small metal gaiter buttons varied with the height of the soldier and ranged from ten to fifteen.

             By the 19^th century each pair of breeches was unlined except in the waistband, had a fall or drop front opening, and a small pocket in the waistband.[7]  Sergeant’s breeches were made of better materials than the other ranks and cost twice as much to manufacture.[8]   As fashion changed and waistlines rose, the fall front moved up onto the torso to such a degree that the soldier could no longer just open his fall to urinate.   Instead his breeches had to be dropped and his long linen or flannel shirt lifted.   Initially each pair of breeches finished below the knees with five regimental pewter buttons on each side.  While the waistlines rose, the breeches knee closure lengthened in the opposite direction to end mid-calf.   

The above image shows the evolution of the breeches in the Royal Navy between 1795 and 1805.  This is what was happening in the Army as well.  (originals in the National Marine Museum)

From 1784 to just after 1803, a button was mounted in the rear of each leg to help hold up the gaiters and stop gapping between the gaiters and the breeches.[9]  Likely because of lengthening of the breeches caused the gaiters to overlap them significantly, the rear button was dispensed with by 1810.   After this the tall wool gaiters were then buttoned over the bottom of the breeches to cover most of the buttons and knee band, leaving only one or two buttons exposed.[10]    The shear tightness of the gaiter to the breeches likely served to hold the black gaiter in place.  Unfortunately it was reported that the tightness also caused sores on the calf and around the knee of the soldier.[11]  The pains of military elegance.

             In order to keep the breeches white, a whitish solution called pipeclay was sponged onto them (similar to modern-day shoe whitener).  When the pipeclay dried,  powder was left mixed amongst the wool fibres of the cloth.   If a soldier slapped his leg, a cloud of powder would ensue.[12]   Soldiers sometimes would colour their breeches while [13]wearing them.  This was frowned upon by military officials and orders were often issued that decreed that any soldier caught in wet clothes was to be confined and “punished with the utmost severity”.[14]   The exact reason behind this harsh order is not known but it may be linked to a possible health concern from wearing wet clothes or that the pipeclay dried out and damaged the soldier’s skin.  A ball of pipeclay was instead to be used for touching up marks on the breeches while wearing them.

Trousers

             To preserve the life of the dress breeches on the march, each soldier began to supply himself with a pair of white hemp linen overalls starting in 1791[15] however it appears this was at the discretion of the Commanding officer.   As the term 'overalls' implies, they were trousers worn over the breeches and gaiters.  While that was the official reason for the trousers, they were being worn separately as far back as the early 1790s.  For example, the 5^th Regiment of Foot in 1793 dressed in linen trousers and short gaiters throughout the summer months in North America .[16]   The wearing of linen trousers instead of breeches in the tropical heat of the West Indies had already been regulation by the early 1800s[17] and it is presumed the convenience of trousers spread throughout the army.  When the army returned from campaigning in Holland in 1799, various regiments were noted as wearing “trousers of all sorts, and fashions.”[18]  Under the hot Egyptian sun in 1801, the 61^st Regiment also wore linen trousers however they proved to cause a strange problem when they were marching into one fortified palace:  “ Lice and fleas appear to be excellent guardians of the palace; and strangers are beset by both insects in right good earnest.  Our white pantaloons attracted their attention, and we were but little more than over the drawbridge, when our inexpressibles were literally covered with them.”[19]  

            In 1807, a pair of loose coarse canvas trousers was finally authorized as a standard item of the soldier’s necessaries for all regiments, but were to be worn only on marches, at night and on fatigues.[20]  However by 1809 Horse Guards issued a Circular letter noting irregularity in dress with the adoption of linen trousers by a great number of infantry regiments and militia in Great Britain .  This implies that the use of trousers had expanded beyond their original intent.[21]  Other evidence supports the general substitution of breeches with trousers, particularly when a regiment or detachment was stationed away from headquarters.[22]  Some regiments like the Royal Scots, in Quebec in September 1812, actually paraded in linen pantaloons and half gaiters for their half yearly Inspection Report.[23] 

            The decline in the use of breeches was not surprising during this period. Trousers had started to become all the rage in civilian society and this spilt over into the military world of fashion.   In addition, military scholars as early as 1804 began to question the wisdom of the breeches and tall gaiters:

Breeches and leggings have been long a dress of soldiers; and, though breeches and leggings, when properly made, are a good and comfortable form of clothing in most conditions of service, they are, upon the whole, less suitable for all occasions than the pantaloon and [short or half] gaiter.  The pantaloon is… made easy in form,… has less chance of being irksome by its form than breeches,…. requires less time for adjustment in the act of dressing,[24]

This same scholar had a harsh opinion of the tall black gaiters, believing they constrained and over-heated the calves causing exhaustion and ulcer-like sores.[25]   

 In 1811 a Board of Officers charged with improving the clothing of the Army came to similar conclusions:  

From the reasons assigned by the different members of the Board in favour of Trousers and half Gaiters,  it appears to be the general opinion, that those Articles form a more convenient dress than the Breeches and long gaiters, from leaving the joint of the knee and the calf of the leg unconfined, and are therefore more suitable for marching – the long gaiter from buttoning tight over the calf of the leg being found by experience to produce sores… The advantages of this dress over the Breeches and long Gaiters seems indeed to be sufficiently proved, from the almost universal use thereof in Regiments upon Service…[26]

 The recommendation of the Board was that Regiments serving on Foreign Service[27] be provided with grey wool trousers and grey half gaiters.  Regiments serving at home would continue to wear breeches and black gaiters.  This order did not extend to the West Indies where the regiments had been wearing lighter weight blue woollen serge trousers since 1809.   

             The selection of the colour grey may have been influenced by the regiments stationed in North America .  Since the 1790s, regiments had worn grey “salt and pepper” trousers during the winter months and for fatigues and this now was expanded to the rest of the army serving aboard.[28]  The Board noted a number of advantages to using all grey instead of white and black:  “The grey half Gaiter is… preferable to the Black… the Material is more durable –the dye of the [black gaiters] being injurious to the Cloth – and the Trousers, when worn out as such, may serve to repair the Gaiters…. [grey] also obviates the use of pipe clay.”[29]

             An original tailor book shows a sample of dark “salt and pepper” or Oxford mixture dark grey being used in officer’s trousers in 1815.  Since an effort was made to match the men’s it is presumed to be the same colour.[30]   This same colour is used by other armies and is of the same hue.   It should be noted that the grey is lighter than the later 1830s Oxford mixture used in soldier’s trousers which is almost black. That said it is quite dark as compared to contemporary watercolours of the time, which show a light grey - illustrating the common problem with using watercolours to accurately colour-match..  

            There are many terms for trousers that were mentioned in the various regulations and orders and these terms offer insight into how the trousers were tailored.  References to “pantaloons” usually meant the  trousers were more form fitting.   “Overalls” or “gun-mouth” trousers indicated they were cut loose with the leg sewn straight and roomy.  In 1809, two years prior to the Board’s decision, an experiment was made with three Regiments serving in the Walcheren Expedition to see which design of grey trousers was best:

Colonel Wynch commanding the 4^th[Regiment of Foot], Colonel Ross of the 20^th, and Colonel Belson of the 28^th, agreed to try grey trousers made in different ways.  The 4^th had them made tight with black gaiters, the 20^th, as overalls, with buttons down the sides, and the 28^th loose, with half boots.  On our return, they were compared; those of the 4^th were all torn at the legs, the buttons were off the overalls of the 20^th, while those of the 28^th were nearly as good as when we started. [31]

            When the grey trousers and short gaiters were being considered in 1811, one of the concerns was price.  With the breeches and tall gaiters, the public paid for the breeches through the regiment’s colonel and the soldier paid for the tall gaiters through stoppages in pay.[32]  However the trousers would cost more and the short gaiters less.  To solve this cost shortfall in the trousers an unusual compromise was ordered.  It decreed that the public would, in essence, pay for the trousers to just below the knee and then the soldier would pay for the rest.  The extra expense to the soldier was defrayed by the cheaper cost of the short gaiter.[33]  Only a Horse Guards bureaucrat could come up with such a bizarre solution as splitting the costs of a single garment.    Once a system of financing was established, the trousers and short gaiters were approved for the Army in September 1811.

Detail of a watercolour of a regiment occupying Paris, 1815.  In this work soldiers of the
 same regiment doing fatigues are wearing grey trousers while the Grenadier
 in the foreground is wearing linen trousers for going out to town.  Everything
in this watercolour is regulation right down to the Grenadier only wearing is bayonet belt to town.
  (Anne SK Brown Collection)

            The introduction of the grey trousers did not end the use of white breeches and black gaiters.  Breeches continued to be part of the British Infantryman’s dress in Great Britain until 1823 when they were finally abandoned.[34]  Nor did the Grey Trousers end the use of white linen ones.  The 1812 clothing regulations authorized: “Regiments on Home Service will be permitted to wear Overalls of unbleached Linen, of British or Russian Manufacture, on Marches and on fatigue or night Duties, at the option of the Colonels or Commanding Officers…”[35]  While this order restricted linen trousers to home service, the commanding officers in other stations continued to take liberties.  For example, during the 1814 campaign on the Niagara Peninsula in Upper Canada against the Americans, one company of the 100^th Regiment of Foot reported losing 34 pairs of linen trousers.[36]  So much for permitted only in Great Britain . 

 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank both Keith Raynor and René Chartrand for their kind assistance in unlocking the secrets of these articles of dress in the British Army.  Dear friends, I am indebted to you.

Copyright: Access Heritage Inc (formerly The Discriminating General) 2008

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