ARMY DRESS REGULATIONS (ALL RANKS) Part 1 Introduction, Glossary of Terms and Orders of Dress Ministry of Defence PS12(A) January 2011 Part 1 SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION CONTENT 01.1. These revised Army Dress Regulations have been devised to form an amalgam of JSP 336 Vol 12 Part 3 Clothing Pamphlets 1-16 and Officers Dress Regulations - and will supersede both in April 2007. 01.2. They are designed to provide a ready access in electronic format, both on AEL and DII, to all features of Army dress regulations, except for clothing scales which can be found by link to DC IPT…Also, illustrations with requisite NSN numbers can be seen by access to DC IPT’s Photo Library on the following link ... ARMY DRESS COMMITTEE - FUNCTIONS AND PROCEDURES 01.3. The Army Dress Committee considers all proposals affecting authorised orders of dress and embellishments for officers and soldiers and approves the wearing of new pattern clothing; no deviation from any authorised pattern of clothing is permitted. 01.4. Before any dress proposal is formulated to amend these regulations, either to change an existing item of dress or to seek approval for a new item, advice must first be sought from the Army Dress Committee Secretary. 01.5. Should any proposal involve a new design, or change to an existing design, of a badge, crest or logo, prior advice must first be obtained from some or all of the following Army dress advisers: a. The College of Arms through PS12(A) and approval of the Inspector of Regimental Colours (see note at the end of this Section). b. Def DPR(A) . c. The Army Historical Adviser and Assistant Adviser. d. The Corporate Analysis branch at MOD. 01.6. Other changes of design will normally involve prior help and advice from the Historical Advisers. 01.7. Once initial advice has been received on design aspects, where public money is involved the source of funding must be identified by the proposer which will normally require the production of a Business Case to Log Sp at HQ LAND as appropriate, and funding authority will form an integral part of the formal dress proposal and this should include the total numbers of officers and soldiers involved, by ranks, within authorised establishments. 01.8. The Dress Proposal, illustrated where necessary, would then be submitted to the Army Dress Committee Secretary at PS12(A) to include: 1 Part 1 – Section 1 a. The College of Arms through PS12(A) for badges and emblems for approval of the Regimental Inspector of Colours (see note at the end of this Section). b. Agreement of the Colonel or Colonel Commandant of the regiment or corps, and of the honorary Colonel and Colonel-in-Chief, if appropriate. c. The relevant chain of command. d. Agreement of other regiments or corps who may be affected. 01.9. The Army Dress Committee usually meets three times a year and any finalised dress proposal should reach the Army Dress Committee Secretary at PS12(A) at least three weeks prior to the meeting. Minor proposals, and any urgent special case proposal, may by considered Out of Committee and if approved would be ratified with Decision Number at the next full Committee meeting. 01.10. Army Dress Committee Minutes will contain a record of decisions and the relevant Decision Number will constitute the formal authority. Notes: Inspector of Regimental Colours The office of Inspector of Regimental Colours was instituted in 1806 in order to regulate the design of the various Colours, Guidons, and Standards of the Army. Regulations for these had been laid down in 1768, but were widely ignored and designs left to the whim of individual Colonels. The first Inspector was George Nayler (1764-1831), York Herald, later Garter King of Arms. Since that time the office of Inspector has normally been held by Garter King of Arms. The present incumbent, Thomas Woodcock, was appointed in 2010. As the Army's heraldic adviser he is responsible for approving all new designs for Colours, Guidons, Standards, Cap Badges, Defence Agencies etc. The artwork for all new designs is prepared at the College of Arms by a heraldic artist, signed by the Inspector, and then submitted to The Queen, via the Ministry of Defence, for formal approval. Once The Queen has signed the painting, it is returned to the College for safe keeping. 2 Part 1 – Section 1 SECTION 2 - THE PRINCIPLES OF BRITISH ARMY UNIFORM (re Regular Army only, except where otherwise noted) 01.11. The British Army has enjoyed historical continuity to a unique degree. In over 300 years it has acquired a fine and much admired heritage that includes its insignia and formal uniforms; a few features, such as the red/scarlet uniform colour, actually date back to the beginning. 01.12. Like the British constitution, the field of uniforms and insignia has unwritten conventions without which such things become meaningless and, at the very least, lose their prestige. 01.13. The following paragraphs clarify some of the underlying principles sanctioned by history. Although in a few instances these rules have been breached, they remain valid in principle: exceptions are not listed here unless they are significant and provide a real precedent. KEY SIGNIFICANCE OF FULL DRESS 01.14. In the range of orders of dress, descending from the grandest (Full Dress) to the most prosaic (Combat Dress with helmet), there is a steady thinning out of regimental features. In dress terms the personality of the regiment or corps is most massively present in Full Dress: this is the key. Ultimately it dictates the special details displayed in the other orders of dress. 01.15. For many regiments and corps continuity is undisturbed, so all details, including Full Dress, are long established. For those created or amalgamated since 1939, too, the details of Full Dress are mostly very obvious. In fact, where regiments of similar category amalgamate, it is mainly just a question of choosing insignia. In all other cases an outline of Full Dress can be inferred from the unit's antecedents and functions and from Army history. In many such instances the uniform has already been formally settled (for their Bands) in this way. 01.16. Thus with an actual (or notional) Full Dress borne in mind, virtually all other uniform matters become clear, including colours of mess jacket; trouser stripes; the potential wearing of spurs; of a sash (if infantry); accoutrements; shoulder chains or shoulder cords in No. 1 Dress: colours of No. 1 Dress cap; pattern of sword etc. In some cases such characteristics may amount to a “package”. UNIFORMITY 01.17. In general the basic colouring of a given uniform is the same for all ranks of a unit, however greatly the embellishment may vary with rank or appointment. Thus, in Full Dress, the body colour, any facing colour, the button colour and colour of plume, if any, will be the same for officers, NCOs and soldiers. 01.18. However, within the same unit and in the same order of dress, uniform of differing colour can 1 Part 1 – Section 2 be logically granted; Pipers should and Farriers (now only in LG) could wear a special colour. Special uniform for Musicians largely waned but smaller features such as plumes of distinctive colour etc. are historically appropriate, particularly for cavalry Musicians and Trumpeters. Drummers’ distinctions are in a slightly different category as these long ago ceased to involve wearing different colour. REGIMENTAL UNIFORM COLOUR - FULL DRESS AND MESS DRESS Throughout these notes, the obvious exceptions of the three regiments with special colour trousers (RDG, KRH. and R.Irish) are left aside, as are kilts and trews. “Unit” is used here to mean a regiment or a corps; and the term “regimental” may refer to either. 01.19. Apart from the RA in blue, historically the great bulk of the army wore red (scarlet for officers and sergeants) but Light Dragoons (later Hussars and Lancers) led to a new element in blue. Similarly the advent of RIFLES involved green uniforms. New departmental corps were later steadily added, swelling the once limited numbers wearing blue. In the 1920s the Royal Signals logically followed the RE into scarlet and more recently the AGC was also granted scarlet. The colour for Generals, most army Staff officers, LG, normal heavy cavalry, RE, Foot Guards and Line Infantry in Full Dress remains scarlet. The slightly deeper red worn by the soldiers had given way to scarlet c. 1870, when improved technology made this economically possible. 01.20. Thus each regiment and corps historically had its allotted “uniform colour”, which was the body colour for its Full Dress (and also for officers’ stable and shell jackets when these evolved and, at first, for the late Victorian working “frock”). In the Regular Army, the colour is only scarlet, dark blue or Rifle green. When stable and shell jackets came to be used as mess jackets, the colour of course remained the same as the Full Dress, and this is an important principle. 01.21. The only valid exceptions have arisen when two regiments with differing "uniform colour" amalgamated, in which case one antecedent colour could reasonably be taken for Full Dress and the other for the mess jacket. 01.22. Historically waistcoats had long been white. When Mess Dress emerged, based on the short jacket, the mess vest worn with that was normally either of the jacket colour or of the facing colour or it could be of the washable white variety. Today, following amalgamations, a further logical alternative could be the facing colour of any antecedent unit.