These two NCOs of the Queen’s Own Highlanders, photographed in Hong Kong in 1980, are in white jackets, the no.3 order of dress for a hot climate. In the UK they would normally wear no.1 dress, a green jacket. No.2 dress was a service dress khaki jacket. The scarlet doublet was referred to as full dress, for ceremonial occasions. The drum major, J Finnie, has gold laced blue wings on his shoulders and wears a shoulder plaid of Cameron of Erracht tartan. On his right forearm he has four gold chevrons, point upwards. His drum major sash is blue, embroidered with the badges of the Seaforths and Camerons and their combined battle honours. On his right shoulder is his sergeant’s red sash, formerly worn on the left shoulder underneath the embroidered sash. He has a sword slung from a white waist-belt. The mace is silver-topped, bearing the Seaforth and Cameron badges and an ER II crown The sporran is the pattern worn by the Cameron Highlanders, with the gilt cantle of a senior NCO.
The drum corporal, named as M Monaghan, has blue shoulder wings laced with white, and carries his drum on a white shoulder belt slung on his right shoulder. He is festooned with plaited cords and tassels which are made up of a mixture of blue and buff cord. He has a bugle slung with a cord from his left shoulder, and tasseled with similar blue and buff cord. Regiments designated as royal, like the Queen’s Own Highlanders, normally had red, yellow and blue cords and tassels, while non-royal regiments had green. The distinctive blue and buff was a way of mingling the blue facings of the Camerons with the buff facings of the Seaforths.
