George Townshend sends Gaiter Cloth to the Board of General Officers for Clothing, 1771

Gaiter Cloth preserved in the State Papers

Dear Readers,

As a follow-up to my previous post regarding soldiers' lower-leg wear in the eighteenth century, I wanted to write this piece post transcribing a primary source. While attempting light infantry reform in his role as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the early 1770s, George Townshend sent a letter to Lord Rochford, laying out a plan of clothing light infantry soldiers using flannel socks and cloth gaiters instead of yarn stockings and linen gaiters.

“... The gaiter of course cloth, such as were worn in America, supplies the place of the stockings, and being of the same colour as the regimental breeches, is a very graceful clothing, like the Hungarian, especially if divided by a garter of the colour of the regimental facing.”[1] 

Townshend included a sample of proposed gaiter-cloth in his letter, which remains attached to the page. The cloth is a bit lighter in weight than I initially expected, and while the outward facing side has accumulated fade-damage and red-rot dust from storage, the underside is quite black.

The timing and language of this letter leads me to put down a few ideas:

1) "Cloth Gaiters" and "Leggings" became interchangeable terms for some in the British military by the early 1770s, even though they referred to relatively distinct garments per Knox in the 1750s/early 1760s.

2) Obviously, we know with hindsight that according to the 1784 army-wide, tall black cloth gaiters became standard.

3) Portions of this overall scheme (matching the colours of breaches/facings) were never adopted on an army-wide basis.

4) It is interesting that in the 1770s, Townshend consciously wants to emulate the elite troops of Austria, demonstrating an important antidote to the rampant Prusso-mania of the time.

Furthermore, we know from a reply to Townshend that the Board of General Officers for the Cloathing and Accoutrements of the Light Infantry reviewed his proposal, saw a number of soldiers in different types of drafted patterns, and accepted some his recommendations for light infantry companies. The board of clothing approved cloth gaiters which reached to the calf, not to the breeches, as Townshend had recommended. [1]

The author, reduced to all the warm feels

As you might imagine, I was rather stunned by finding this cloth, and was fortunate enough to have a fellow graduate student from West Virginia University working next to me, who captured my delighted reaction.

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Thanks for Reading,

Alex Burns

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[1]TNAUK, SP 63/434
[2] Ibid.