The Loyal Regiment, India c1936
 

A splendid image recording the regiment's various orders of dress.

The Loyal's 1st Bn was stationed in Cawnpore between 1932 and 1936.

Jon

Great photo! I wish we could see the pagri flash. So many orders of dress in one of my favorite time periods; interwar in India, the second home of the old British Army.
The men were so much smaller and svelte compared to today. Dress uniforms worn today are essentially those of the early 20th century and they do not look as well on the much larger and bulky men these days in my opinion. Badges, trim and buttons are small in scale for the vast areas of cloth on a size 44 tunic.

CB

Go on then, name the orders of dress please!

Can't say that I know of the exact terminology for each, marching order hot weather I think is one. I note two men in the home service dress, which to my knowledge was generally not worn in India prior to to ww1. This tunic was sometimes seen worn with short trousers in the NWF.

CB

A typo I think - "Home Service Dress" would be red tunic, the khaki is "Service Dress".

is it officially red, or is it scarlet though?

I wasn't sure - so I went for red.
Sergeant's scarlet?

Oh, scarlet, red; whatever. We all know what is meant. Who's for a stab at the pagri flash? I can find nothing for the Loyals after scouring the web for it.

CB

Brian Davis's book on WW2 uniforms has a list of pagri flashes which records that of the Loyal Regiment as being "Cloth ribbon 3in by 2in with vertical cerise [light clear red] and French grey stripes with black dividing lines".

The c 1916 Gale & Polden Regimental ribbon chart shows the colours as attached.

Jon

And a photo of it being worn at around the same time.

Jon

Thanks for that. On blowing up the photo of the group however, it appears that something else besides the white stripe may be in wear, particularly on the drummer in white towards the right. Pagri flashes are a mystery in many cases, with changes occuring constantly given a particular battalion at a particular time.

CB

Unless the Home Service Tunic of the current Foot Guards is different from the old Line colours, it is officially scarlet.

Apart from the sergeants' sash, which is Turkey Red, and the warrant officers', which is crimson.

"Red" [a poor quality, sometimes called "brick red"] was worn by ranks below sergeant until 1871, when all adopted scarlet, although in three different qualities. The quality bears on the reflectivity in the old orthochrome black and white film, making for some interesting odd-looking group portraits.