Highland Regiments footwear during the Great War

[The Q]

Dear Laird O'the Cowcaddens;
Thank you for the post. From my past experiences with British Army and the RAF (a fine alternative to the army) serving in Canada, i knew it would not take long before some Squaddie would come and prove me right. Polishing the brass fire extinguishers in barracks, did you do that as well? We Canadians must have learned that from you.

Jacques

In the RAF but...
Only if the extinguishers were brass,, but they weren't, they were painted red, with the appropriate band of colour for the extinguishers contents. But they did have to be spotlessly clean, and if they had chrome parts, they had to be shining.

The brass door and window fittings had to be polished, along with the linoleum floors ( no electric polishers!!!) . Glass spotlessly clean, every crook and cranny also spotless. The inspecting SNCO wearing white gloves would run his hands over every surface including the tops of the doors on the light bulbs on the ceiling and at the head of the bed.
And then the toilets and showers.. Every surface spotless and shining.

In basic and early trade training.. Bed packs, the bed had to be stripped of all sheets and blankets. Bar one blanket, They were folded into a specific pattern, see photo below, that's not a box holding the sheets, but the bed cover, carefully wrapped around.
Note, the One blanket on the bed, the three lines of the weave straight down the middle, bulled shoes beneath the bed, and number 1 hat carefully positioned.
The photo furniture is exactly as I remember it. Except there was no card in the middle front of the bedpack.
If they didn't like it, your bed pack was likely to be thrown out of the window.. Raining or not..

I notice the basic error in that photo, the bed should be centred under the light on the wall... Someone would be in deep xxxx.

Once past the early trade training, the bed packs were not required, unless the flight was in serious trouble for something. Instead the bed had to be made properly, hospital corners, perfectly smooth and flat.

Boots DMS that's Direct Moulded Sole, can still be bought, though that's not the current issued boot. https://www.cadetkitshop.com/product...boot-size-6-12 an awful lot of polishing needs to be put into this new pair..

Oh the contents of the two cupboards had to be carefully laid out in a prescribed manner, including plimsoles painted in whitener, but definitely not on the soles...