Highland Regiments footwear during the Great War

[OC Richard]

The Toronto Scottish, and their parent regiment The London Scottish, have always worn those brown kilts, and doublets too. They call the colour Hodden Grey, it's a brown-grey with the slightest hint of purple, the colour that's called taupe in the USA and often called brown in England.

Here's the Pipes & Drums of the Toronto Scottish where you can see their Hodden Grey doublets, plaids, and kilts. Note that the kilts have royal blue fringe.



Here are some soldiers of The London Scottish, where the difference in colour between the khaki/drab jackets and the Hodden Grey kilts is clear.



However people oftentimes have only seen WWI black & white photos of the London Scottish or Toronto Scottish, and imagine that their kilts are the same khaki/drab as the tunics.



Wow I'd not heard about the shoddy shoes!

The thing of contractors providing shoddy clothing, blankets, etc is a recurring theme in the American Civil War. You hear of the dye running the first time the soldiers were in the rain and so forth.