Redcoat

Transcript

Voiceover:

Now, in 'A small piece of history', Julian Farrance of the National Army Museum presents a favourite object from the Collection.

Julian Farrance:

Now, what we've got here is something that immediately, just by looking at it, links straight to British soldiers because it's a Redcoat and Redcoats have been linked to the British Army since way back in the 1640s when the New Model Army picked it up. In fact, you can go back earlier than that really and look at the trained bands in London. A lot of London-based soldiers wore red coats. And throughout the 18th and 19th centuries British soldiers wherever they are in the world are wearing their scarlet coats.

And people think today, "Well that's daft, isn't it? You stand on a battlefield in a scarlet coat, you're just asking to get shot." But of course what you have to remember is that at the time most of the weapons that are being used on the battlefield will be firing black powder weapons so there'd be a lot of smoke. And a commander, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Raglan, needs to be able to look down onto the battlefield and see Redcoats here and Redcoats there - those are my guys.

So, until we get smokeless powders there's no point in trying to hide your soldiers. It's not that a general woke up in 1885 going, "Green!" No, at the time you're wearing red coats because it's the most sensible thing to be wearing at the time.

It's not to hide the colour of the blood. If you get hit in the chest with a cannonball, the last thing on your mind is the laundry bill. It's nothing to do with that either.

The Redcoat can also translate into pride in your regiment, pride in your appearance. If you look at some of the regiments, like for instance the Guards battalions, at the Crimea, when the First Division (the Guards and Highlanders) went across the River Alma wearing their scarlet coats absolutely perfectly turned out with every bearskin brushed, hit the water in a dead straight line and got out the other side in the same straight line, you can almost look at that kind of presentation ability as being integral to their ability to maintain that discipline.

So, very important and still traditionally a defining thing about the British Army. Do British soldiers still wear red coats? Yes, they do. Go and look at the ones outside Buckingham Palace. They're still with us today. And it's one of the defining images of the British soldier - the scarlet coat.