Bill Millin Reenactor

[OC Richard]

The interesting thing about Mr. Millin is that he was a Commando... not an official bagpiper... his uniform is an interesting combination of standard items and personal things.

I was suspecting something like that. His specific dress on D-Day then would be a nonstandard thing, and could only be based on photographs made that day, if one were to be strictly accurate (which I say because memory can be faulty, and relics said to be worn by a particular person on a particular day cannot be proven to be such, but may have been acquired later, or owned but not worn, etc). So it's a very difficult task for the re-enactor!

So, if he were not a regimental piper, would he have worn the piper's trade badge? Perhaps he sewed them on his jacket on his own authority? In any case actual regimental pipers wore the British khaki (US olive drab) trade badges on Service Dress and Battledress, not the gold bullion-on-Archer green ones which would have been worn with Full Dress (officially retired, by the way, in 1914). But who knows? He might have got a pair of Full Dress pipers' trade badges somewhere and sewed them on. Anyhow the khaki Service Dress pipers' trade badges are still worn in the Army and are widely available.

The sporran, I feel, is civilian. (EDIT: the sporran displayed appears to be a modified army one.) Is there any photographic evidence that he wore that sporran on D-Day? He could have got it post-war. The closest issue MOD sporran was the one I posted a pic of.

The MOD issue hose had plain ribbed cuffs like the ones worn by Pipe Major John MacLellan pictured above. Civilian kilt hose with diamond pattern cuffs weren't ever worn, AFAIK, in the Army. The colour was usually British khaki (US olive drab) but Black Watch officers and senior NCOs seem to have worn light khaki (beige) ones, and officers of at least one Highland regiment seemed to have worn Lovat ones, in WWII. What Price Glory sells reproductions of the typical WWI/WWII Highland regiment khaki hose. But as you say his dress was personal, not issue, so he might well have worn civilian hose such as the ones you're wearing there.

The plain worsted scarlet flashes are still worn in the Army and are widely available.

Here's some of the variety seen in piper's dress in WWII. Note various colours of puttees, various hose, the usual lack of sporrans, etc



pipers in the war zone 1944



taken post-war, but showing the WWII style dress of the Black Watch pipers (except for the 1947 pattern Battle Dress jackets). Note the Pipe Major's lighter-coloured hose and puttees, and the typical Black Watch thing of having light-coloured binding staps on their dark puttees



here's a variety of regimental pipers' dress in the immediate post-war period (note the 1947 pattern Battle Dress jackets with open lapels)