This photo is valuable evidence of the early uniform of the Cape Town Highlanders. It is a detail of an overall photo of the regiment formed up on the Grand Parade for their first Church Parade on 31 Jan 1886. Officers stand in the foreground wearing the full plaid and badger sporrans. The men behind have no visible plaids, and have dark fur sporrans with six white tassels. They all wear blue glengarry bonnets with blackcocks’ feather plumes, no diced cap band at this stage. The doublet was green without facings. Red doublets were not adopted until 1889. The kilts and plaids are of Gordon tartan. The hose was of red and white check. Senior NCOs can be seen behind the front two ranks. They have rank stripes on their forearms, full plaids and badger sporrans. Behind them are the pipes and drums. The drummers at the back have white belts across their chest. The commanding officer, John Scott, is the officer at the front, slightly apart from the other officers and wearing medals. He gives a brief description of the uniform in his journal and mentions the helmet as being ‘dark green, home pattern’ As it is a church parade, they do not carry arms.
