"British in foreign hats" Topic

One for the uniform experts. Did British Napoleonic infantry ever wear some form of headgear that would typically be defined as 'foreign', i.e. bell top shakos, crested helmets etc. I ask because I've deheaded a box full of Waterloo British to make a demi-brigade of Portuguese Legion and am wondering what I can do with the bodies. I have plenty of surplus French or Austrian heads of several types but can't find an excuse to stick them on.

You could do the BrunswickerJaeger companies attached to British brigades as riflemen. They wore an essentially British uniform with a bell top shako and green tunic. They had Baker rifles.

You could also do the Black Brunswickers who did not wear the long coat in the Peninsula but had a laced tunic.

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Royal Marines wore a kind of top hat, and some of the British Foreign regiments wore different headgear, check out the Derolls regiment.

Once military fashion moved om from the cocked hat, everyone was wearing a foreign hat of some sort- except of course the Highlanders with their bonnets decorated with the plumes of Scotland's national bird.

The line infantry's 'stovejack' cap was of Imperial, that is to say Grenzer, inspiration. The 1812 cap seems to have been copied directly fom the Portuguese. The light Dragoons gave up their Tarelton caps to become Hungarians. The Dragoon Guards copied their pseudo-classical crested helmet from…..somebody.

I dont know how long the foreign regiments in British service retained exotic headgear, which seems mainly to have reflected hot weather stations, hence the Royal Marines, smartened version of the 'Mother hubbard' hat issued generally for the West Indies and some Mediterranaen service

Oh, I know- how about Graham's 90th Perthshire who were equipped as light infantry and wore a crested helmet?

42 flanker gives good examples.
When a Colonel is financing a unit, he gets to select head gear and how often items are replaced.
This is especially true in the obscure outposts. As he mentioned the West Indies is a good example. As is the India posts and the Egyptian campaign.

Brunswick Jäger with belltopped shako?
AFAIK they had corsehats.

No Corsican hats (or litewkas) in the Peninsula. See the link above and this.

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Here are some better links giving more background.

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TMP link

Paraphrased from Lawson's "A History of the British Army" volume 5, Page 9
De Roll's regiment in Egypt wore wide brimmed round hats in Egypt. A set of watercolours by a member of the 61st Foot shows them also wearing the same hat.

Page 12
The 90th Perthshire Light Infantry raised by Sir Thomas Graham in 1794 wore a fur crested helmet, but how long for is not known. In 19801 the regiment went to Egypt and then the West Indies so probably adopted the round hat.

The 90th retained their crested helmets/caps in Egypt. Otherwise the round hat seems to have been general issue for most, Highlanders aside.

I don't know about the West Indies. Apart from the Caribbean climate, the helmets would have been pretty battered by then. Again, round hats were general issue.

Trockledockle: I stand corrected.

Thanks for this, irritatingly the Brunswick Corsehut is folded up[ on the opposite side to the Austrian.

Maybe the best candidate is late war Sicilians?

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They seem to have had a mainly British style uniform, but with other headgear? There is a good plate in Lachouque's Napoleon's War in Spain IIRC.

Just did a google of British Foreign Regiments uniforms. Plenty of examples of different headgears from Emigres to Swiss.

Grenadier corporal,

Thanks for the comment. I always try to remember that my Napoleonic armies mix 1805 and 1815 French and there are a lot of Peninsular British withBelgic shakos!

Why is it that *every time* I see this subject line I see it as "British in funny hats"???

Cheers,
John