Service Dress (British Army)

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the bright red tunics worn by British infantry regiments had proved to be a liability, especially when during the First Boer War they had been faced by enemies armed with rifles firing the new smokeless cartridges.

[2] During the Indian Mutiny of 1857 many British regiments took to staining their white tropical uniforms with tea leaves or other makeshift dyes in order to camouflage them.

Scarlet, dark blue and rifle green uniforms were retained as "review order" (parade) and "walking out" (off duty wear out of barracks) until 1914.

After World War I they were reintroduced only for the Brigade of Guards, Household Cavalry, regimental bands and for other limited purposes such as wear by officers attending levees.

[5]For Other Ranks, the SD uniform originally comprised khaki wool (serge) trousers, a khaki wool tunic, with stand-and-fall (or Prussian) collar, four pockets on the front, each buttoned closed by a flap with a straight (horizontal) edge, large, serge reinforcement patches over each shoulder, shoulder straps and a pair of brass wire hangers on the back, over the kidneys, to support the belt.

[10] In late 1914, the Winter Service Dress Cap was introduced; it had a soft peak and crown with woollen ear flaps that could be buttoned together over the top.

Officers also wore a khaki peaked cap with a cloth visor that was similar to the men's, but made of superior materials and of better quality.

A light blue version of Service Dress was approved for daily wear on 10 July, but this proved highly unpopular and many persisted with their old outfits.

The radical appearance of the Service Dress is demonstrated by accounts of German troops, who on first seeing British soldiers, thought that their clothing was more like a civilian golf outfit than a military uniform.

This was an attempt at conservation but had the advantage of being able to be stuffed into a pocket or even pressed underneath the new steel Brodie helmet, which came into service in 1916 as the realities of trench warfare and its attendant artillery bombardment, set in.

Officers' SD uniforms were modified during the War chiefly in that plain cuffs were introduced, with the rank insignia moved to the shoulder straps.

The problem of providing uniforms for these recruits was acute and many trained in their civilian clothes for weeks, while others were temporarily issued with peacetime scarlet from store.

Finally, a highly simplified version of Service Dress was produced for them, without breast pockets, shoulder straps and other refinements.

They were dark blue in colour, because the original khaki dye had been produced in Germany before the war and it had proved difficult to acquire sufficient from alternative sources.

[17] Rumours that the first issue of Blues were actually postmen's uniforms are unlikely to be correct as the tunics issued by the General Post Office were of a different cut and were edged with red piping; however, some sources state that a large quantity of blue uniform cloth was acquired from Post Office stocks for this purpose.