The real reason the British wore Red

[@Yandarval]

If I recall corrctly. The root of the Madder plant was used for the Red dye.

[@reenactorsofwessex]

Hi @Yandarval you are correct the madder plant was used and for officers they would use cochineal

FUN FACT: The Royal Air Force uniform is a particular shade of blue because of the Cossacks. The RAF was formed on 1st April 1918, and combined the former Royal Flying Corps with the Royal Naval Air Service. The first RAF uniforms were bright blue and universally hated, so the RAF looked around for a replacement. The Imperial Russian Army had ordered a vast supply of blue cloth for their Cossack troops. There was a shortage of cloth, zero chance of achieving delivery or getting paid by the Russians, and the cloth was occupying valuable warehouse space. So the RAF requisitioned the blue-grey cloth and the rest is history.

[@glynluff2595]

Like that. Another fun fact! Nearly 79:and still collecting them.

[@mikeainsworth4504]

That is actually an urban myth not a ‘fact’. There a a couple of version of the story the other one states that the material was destined for the Imperial Russian Cavalry. There is no documentary evidence to support either of these theories. Even if either of them were true, the cloth would likely have been the lighter pale blue cloth that was used for the Royal Air Force’s original officers’ full dress uniform that was introduced in 1918. The pale blue colour for officers' uniforms was unpopular and impractical and John Slessor who was later promoted to Marshal of the RAF described it as "a nasty pale blue with a lot of gold over it, which brought irresistibly to mind a vision of the gentlemen who stands outside the cinema". A little over a year after its introduction, the pale blue colour was discontinued. On 15 September 1919, Air Ministry Order 1049 replaced it with the blue-grey colour which has remained in use to this day. The khaki uniform continued to be worn until 1924 when it too was replaced by a blue-grey colour. Fun story it may be; but, it isn’t a fact.

[@glynluff2595]

@ Most interesting. One further dress fact is that Sergeant Pilots in Coastal Command in WWII wore for some time Khaki jacket’s possibly because of shortage but there were plenty for other commands. Consequently they felt they were the Bad Boys Club. They flew all the rubbish that had to be used up but eventually were given Beaufighters which were wonderful. My late friend had a gun mounted in the nose fired by a foot pedal. They flew low over a fishing some fishing boats who were suspected of gun running and the crew of one opened up with rifles. Apparently the gun was incredible and boat left sinking. Whether the boat was running guns or not there was never a complaint.

[@simongee8928]

Well whaddya know - ? 😮 Life is full of historical surprises - ! 😄

[@simongee8928]

I knew about red dye being the cheapest one available, but hadn't been aware of Cromwell's NMA being the reason for adopting it. 😊

[@welshpete12]

Yes , it was the new model army

[@inguzwulf]

Short and to the point. Like that👍

[@blackbirdsfly]

Dude I love it, if you cracked a few jokes here and there and such this is gold. Not enough people touching on this period unless it's a crazy long documentary, love this stuff!

[@reenactorsofwessex]

Thank you @blackbirdsfly I am glad you enjoyed it

[@stephfoxwell4620]

Stay fast Mauve dye was invented by William Perkins in 1859 . An accidental discovery while the young chemist was seeking to make artificial quinine to counteract malaria. Mauve became the colour of high fashion throughout the 1860s.

[@robinmcewan8473]

Please, The War of the Three Kingdoms, it started and finished in Scotland and had a huge impact (still does) on Ireland.

[@Bonifazius743]

The men of the Earl of Manchester's Regiment wore red - presumably he had somehow got hold of a large amount of cheap red cloth - as his men made up a large part of the Eastern Association Army it was cheaper to change the other Regiments to red rather than changing all Manchester's men to another colour. His -then- subordinate Cromwell's Ironsides also wore russet (madder) jackets.

[@David_Crayford]

Cracking video, but can you please pronounce your Ts, as in British. Thank you.

[@oml81mm]

The British foot (infantry) wore red. The British horse (cavalry and artillery, which was horse drawn), wore blue. Later on, British rifle regiments wore green. Green dyes tended to fade and so to counter that the shade of green was made very dark, resulting in the 'rifle green' used today.

[@glynluff2595]

I was taught that the blue uniform indicated Kings Troops i.e. not line regimental. So Gunners, the Ordinance Corps and later iterations such as REME and some mounted cavalry wore blue. They originally all belonged to the King’s Train.

[@oml81mm]

@glynluff2595 I suppose they were all 'King's troops' (including foot regiments), but gunners and the supporting elements you mentioned used horses and went with the horse colour, which was blue. Being British I am sure there would have been exceptions and one such exception still exists to this day. The Royal Marines originally consisted of the Royal Marine Light Infantry (red) and the Royal Marine Artillery (blue), but when the RM Artillery were done away with the Royal Marines chose to change their colour in memory of their 'lost' branch. Today the no. 1 dress of HM Royal Marines is therefore blue.

[@glynluff2595]

@ Well yes and no! The Marines were originally from the Duke of Yorks Regiment long long ago. As such they wore red if I remember the early history of the regiment. It’s on the shelf somewhere. The horse colour came later as the gun train was a specific unit of limited ability and movement kept in the Tower of London. These were so vast as to be difficult to move and were always known as the King’s Train. They were sometimes moved by oxen and most people wore what they wore it was fairly dreadful! Because the Ordinance which provided shot and powder also resided in the Tower and drove carts and wagons followed them they too became part of the King’s Train and entrained further supply responsibilities. At a later date the use of horses may well have caused control of colour but initially it related to service to the monarch in a technical nature. That was what we were taught in Corps history and seems, with my reading of history so far to be born out.

[@oml81mm]

@@glynluff2595 Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of foot... Which corps were you in?

[@glynluff2595]

@ REME.

[@sarumano884]

The school I went to (Duke of York's, Dover) had information that tells me that the New Model Army wore Buffy Coats - Tanned leather of a yellow-brown colour. Nothing I read led me to believe that anyone wore red in the Civil War. In fact, red was a relatively expensive colour to process, unlike woad, which the French used. Yes, it comes from Madder root, but it then needed a mordant (urine) then a bleach (ammonia, also from urine) to take it to crimson, so three soaks plus rinses, not just one for blue (woad) or green (leaves), or yellow (weld). Officers wore red sashes as a badge of rank. The information that I found was that when William of Orange was invited to become King of England, he brought over his Life Guards, dressed in - guess what - Orange, or more correctly, scarlet, an orangey red. Derived from a marsh plant, the Madder.

[@alecblunden8615]

Buff Coats were certainly worn by Parliamentary Cavalry, but it would have been prohibitively expensive and impractical for infantry.

[@stepheneaston8354]

Jonathan Healey’s book about the Seventeenth Century: “The Blazing World” is quite authoritative and he states that the New Model Army wore red! He then explains that Monck’s troops were derived from the NMA and wore red too. This then led to the army of the Restoration also wearing red! Who knows, LOL. I have also seen comments in the past that red was a Tudor house colour and that is why it was chosen…..

[@welshpete12]

Interesting , there is a connection to the word khaki. Which is a Urdu word for dust colored cloth and is from 1857. The time of the British were in India . When troops would cover their red uniforms with dust to hid themselves from Native snipers .

[@stupitdog9686]

Typical UK Government - Nothing can be too cheap for our troops !

[@paulcollyer801]

Sounds about right, setting a tradition on kit expenditure for centuries… lol

[@BallisticPlate]

Fetch me my brown pants!

[@mcduff9864]

Probably copied it from the Ancient Spartans. Who wore red cloaks supposedly to cover up any blood that may have spilt.

[@paulmcintyre4235]

No they didn’t copy it from the Spartans. 😂

[@mcduff9864]

@paulmcintyre4235 Just a theory.

[@obbyrtrice4654]

Classic POM cheap as

[@christianwithers7335]

No, MOD, cheap is best best is cheap 😂

[@GoatTheGoat]

Thank you for telling me "that is the end of the video". I wasn't sure. But you cleared up my confusion.

[@MichaelEvans-b5c]

The British fought in line and from a distance wearing red made it harder to count the frontage .

[@paulmcintyre4235]

Also a myth as regiments carried two colours ( flags to the ignorant) into battle. A queens / kings and a regimental colour both of which were trooped in front of the regiment in the morning so as the men were familiar with them ( Trooping the colour) as these flags acted as a rallying point in the confusion of battle. If an enemy wanted to gauge an army strength in line of battle all he had to do was count the colours, besides they would already know the appropriate strength of an enemy regiment or division and how much ground it would cover to deploy for battle rather than have to count individually an enemy frontage. Ridiculous idea 😂