US President in a kilt

[macwilkin]

It also strikes me that the tunic of his outfit would match that of the Zouave soldiers mentioned as being in fashion for boys' wear at that time.

Yep. The Zouave was the "beau ideal of a soldier", to paraphrase General George McClellan. The Zouave craze came to America after the Crimean War where the Zouaves gained quite the reputation for bravery -- incidently, the Zouaves and the Highland Regiments developed quite the friendship during the Crimea -- Stephen Wood's book on the Auld Alliance devotes a number of pages to this subject.

The man who is generally credited with the zouave craze in the US is Elmer Ellsworth, who took his "Zouave Cadets" on tour across the country, competing in drill competitions with the local militia units. Usually Ellsworth's cadets would show up the local boys, causing them to adopt the zouave name and uniform. Ellsworth, who was one of Lincoln's law partners at one time, later raised the 11th New York Infantry, the famous "fire zouaves", recruited from New York City fireman who also had a brave repuation.

Sorry for the OT post, but there are some strong similarities between zouaves and highlanders, especially in terms of popular perception...

T.

[Ian.MacAllan]

. . . I hadn't heard of a Jewish connection for the Roosevelts, though, and question the source. Given the hatred still held for him and his political legacy in some circles, I can't help but wonder if it might not have come from a smear campaign against him.

Having been raised in an unremittingly biased Republican culture, and having distinct memories of the last five years of the FDR administration, I can assure you that he was the target of many smear campaigns. It has even been alleged, perhaps credibly, that his lack of action to relieve Jewish victims of the Nazis was motivated partly by apprehension that such action would encourage American anti-Semites to oppose his domestic and foreign programs.

.

[highlander_Daz]

Members of the royal family wear the kilt when north of the border, although william and harry dont seem to be carrying on this tradition, I dont recall Gordon Brown ever wearing the Kilt and Tony Blair only wore it whilst performing in a theatrical play.

[Galician]

I propose that we start a drive to have images of Teddy and FDR erected on the Mall in D.C. kilted in the Dutch Friendship Tartan.

[macwilkin]

I propose that we start a drive to have images of Teddy and FDR erected on the Mall in D.C. kilted in the Dutch Friendship Tartan.

Or the New York tartan. Teddy could also wear the NYPD tartan, since he was Police Commissioner in the 1890s.

T.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I don't know if it's true, but I came across this online recently: "The Roosevelts were Jewish Dutch, arriving in NYC in 1682 (originall y
named Claes Rosenvelt before name change to Nicholas Roosevelt) Sarah
Delano, FDR's mother, was descended from Sephardic Jews..."

Heard it before?

Before the Second World War Josef Goebbels, the Third Reich's Minister of Propaganda, created a bogus Jewish genealogy for all of the Allied leaders, including a number of top ranking military personnel. This was disseminated in the USA by the German-American friendship league, among others. Allegedly Henry Ford, an ardent believer in the world wide Jewish conspiracy and an implacable foe of FDR (until 7 December 1941), was convinced of Roosevelt's Jewish ancestry, something no competent genealogist has ever unearthed.

BACK ON TOPIC:

If modern day generals count, Stormin' Norman Schwartzkopf wore his Peter of Lee tartan kilt to a dinner at The Lee in Lanarkshire...

[Pour1Malt]

I suppose that as and when Charles becomes king, that'd count!

It'd be nice to think that our Scottish Prime Minister would be seen in a kilt sometimes. As for SNP leader Alex Salmond, here are his thoughts on kilts:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/294290.stm

Cheers

Bruce

Alex Salmond occasionally wears a kilt... that article i' dated 1999...

he has become wiser o'er the years...

[The Thing]

Douglas Hyde the first President of Ireland was a keen Kilt wearer.
It's hard to find any pictures though on the Internet, I shall continue trying.

[McClef]

But the photos of Alex Salmond kilted are in New York, not Scotland!

After the last election there were articles stating that President Obama should wear a kilt because of that side of his ancestry should he visit Scotland so we will have to keep a watch on that possibility!

[McFarkus]

I wonder what FDR's Scottish connection was?

Cheers

Bruce

His mother's maternal great grandmother was a Murray. Here is a link