Further to my earlier query, those interested in the story of the 38th may be interested to know that the earliest regimental history appears to be-
A History of the South Staffordshire Regiment (1705-1923) by James P. Jones (1923), which can be read online here:
https://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/i...e/507/mode/2up
The relevant passage is here:
'Appendix III
The Uniform of the Regiment. [Contributed by Lionel E. Buckell] (p.438)
In 1752, Ross’s Regiment ( the 38th), while serving in the West Indies, was permitted to wear linen linings to the coat instead of cloth.'
That's it!
This may be the earliest publshed reference to the origin of the Holland badge backing authorised for the South Staffords in 1935. It clearly does not record the more colourful state of affairs that popular narrative suggests.
The neglected regiment's clothing is not depicted hanging from the men in tatters or needing to be replaced entirely (Forty-odd years after their arrival in the Caribbean, the 38th had certainly bided their time to act). There is no mention of sugar bags or hessian sacking. It seems a regiment serving in a tropical station was simply authorised to use lighter fabric to line their regimental coats, a practice recorded in North America and in India.
It may be the fabric used came from bolts of the same linen used to wrap produce of the sugar factories and this may have been seen as a droll state of affairs by officers that was then passed down in regimental tradition, but if so the author of the history does not include that detail. We might ask ourselves why he chooses to mention the episode at all.
it would be interesting to see what additional comment was made at the time of the authorisation of the badge backing in 1935, in regimental journals or elsewhere.
JF