Highland Regiments footwear during the Great War

[Jacques]

I was having this conversation a few months ago with some very knowledgeable people as I was trying to decide on some ammo boots. While traditional finished leather, sealed at the seams with melted wax and polished all over the surface with wax, will provide plenty of waterproofing, the brown rough-out leather boots were also treated by soldiers to have equal protection. It involved brushing in "shoe grease" to the leather tops, over and over again, whilst breaking them in. The end result was likely a softer and more pliable boot with the leather empregnated with grease. Scuffs and scrapes would not be as much of a concern with this method as a boot that's only treated on the outer surface with wax. In a wartime environment, nobody is going to keep trying to repair lost wax protection on a topcoat when the boot gets gouged.

Of course, the regiments eventually did away with puttees altogether, as they were mostly useless for keeping water out of one's boots once they get saturated.

At any rate, I still haven't worn my ammo boots enough to break them in. Mine are more modern era parade boots with a high polish and super-chunky soles. I wear them with the later ankle puttees (shorter than WWI versions) and plain khaki hose tops. I'm told these boots will become really comfortable at some point, but I haven't found it yet! The hobnailed soled are not conducive to everyday wear.

Tobus,
Any idea what they meant by "shoe grease"? The only thing that comes to mind is Dubbin.

[Tobus]

Tobus,
Any idea what they meant by "shoe grease"? The only thing that comes to mind is Dubbin.

I'm told that a modern equivalent is Huberd's Shoe Grease. That company has been around since 1921 and claim that their product is still much the same as the original. It's primarily beeswax and pine tar, as their primary customer base was loggers.

[Crazy Dave]

I've used Bear Grease and Mink Oil on my army boots, which I use mainly for bad weather and riding my motorcycle. Both work a I suspect are very similar to other forms of shoe leather grease. Yes, the boots become very comfortable when broken in.

Dave

[Jacques]

I've used Bear Grease and Mink Oil on my army boots, which I use mainly for bad weather and riding my motorcycle. Both work a I suspect are very similar to other forms of shoe leather grease. Yes, the boots become very comfortable when broken in.

Dave

Thank-you Dave. i am a big fan of Fiebing Neatsfoot Oil as a leather conditioner, and in this application it works very well. However i have not been happy with its waterproofing qualities. And after a quick online search i learned that bear grease is claimed to have medicinal properties as well as its use in water proofing leather. It is also the most expensive option. Although, as it is recommended for hair loss, i might have to give it a try.

Jacques

[Jacques]

I'm told that a modern equivalent is Huberd's Shoe Grease. That company has been around since 1921 and claim that their product is still much the same as the original. It's primarily beeswax and pine tar, as their primary customer base was loggers.

Thanks for the link Tobus. i'll give them a try.

Jacques

[Bruce Scott]

Dubbin was certainly used by the British Army and, from the broad arrow marked examples here, appears to have been an 'issue' item: https://www.blancoandbull.com/boot-c...forces-dubbin/

There are also some recipes here: https://www.blancoandbull.com/boot-cleaning/dubbin/

[Jacques]

Dubbin was certainly used by the British Army and, from the broad arrow marked examples here, appears to have been an 'issue' item: https://www.blancoandbull.com/boot-c...forces-dubbin/

There are also some recipes here: https://www.blancoandbull.com/boot-cleaning/dubbin/

Bruce,
Once again with more useful information, thank you.

[The Q]

Dubbin was certainly used by the British Army and, from the broad arrow marked examples here, appears to have been an 'issue' item: https://www.blancoandbull.com/boot-c...forces-dubbin/

There are also some recipes here: https://www.blancoandbull.com/boot-cleaning/dubbin/

Very interesting site, I hadn't realised the military had ever issued boot polish / dubbin. The site talks of its issue in WW2. But we certainly weren't issued with it by the 1970s we had to buy it ourselves.. Meanwhile there's a tin of cherry blossom not 3 feet from me.

[Jacques]

Very interesting site, I hadn't realised the military had ever issued boot polish / dubbin. The site talks of its issue in WW2. But we certainly weren't issued with it by the 1970s we had to buy it ourselves.. Meanwhile there's a tin of cherry blossom not 3 feet from me.

We were still required to polish our buttons in the early 1980's and i can't recall being issued any Brasso either.

[OC Richard]

About the hose, you see plenty of photos showing Highland troops wearing their diced (or tartan in the case of some pipers) hose-tops with puttees.

About the selfcoloured hose, I'm not sure about the colour. There might have been a wide range of colours considered "khaki" by the army, and due to variances among contractors. About WWI hose I don't know, but plenty of WWII hose survive and they vary from olive green to brown to tan and everything in between.

In WWII officers wore different hose, in a pale beige, the same colour often seen in civilian kilt hose back then, not sure if this was also the case in WWI.

One thing to do for sure: ignore the colours in the colourised photos of WWI soldiers, they get several things wrong.

Here's a photo that was colourised around time it was taken, nice to see



Before colour photography you have coloured B&W photos, and paintings. Here's one, showing hose that appear to be exactly the same colour as the tunics. (BTW it's rare to see the bagpipes painted so accurately. You can see they're fingering F, and some have their B finger lifted too, oddly enough.)



Another painting, showing diced hosetops with khaki spats. I do wonder about the Royal Stewart bag-covers, perhaps one of the wartime battalions?



Now back to the B&W world, note the pattern knit into the cuffs of his khaki hose



Here's a combination I've rarely seen, khaki hose with spats



An officer with pale beige (not cream, more like fawn) hose and (probably) brown shoes. Note the officers' brown sporran with tassels and no badge, seen in some regiments.