Capping it off

For some reason, my inquisitive mind recently found itself directed to an article of military clothing that I’ve always been passing curious about. I suppose it was one of those all-singing-all-dancing-Nazi programs on cable TV, where I saw a clip of some British soldiers marching. I was struck by the field service caps they were wearing.

Well, not the caps so much as it was the angle at which they were perched on their heads. Like this:

Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this cap—it’s fairly common to a lot of military services. It’s worn by our Air Force, our Army and our Marines, for example. (Naval officers can wear one with their service khakis; enlisted wear the Dixie cups, of course.) But we—and pretty much all other forces I’ve observed in the world who use it—wear it smack on the center of the head, not at that tilt.

(I’m not going to tell you what the guys I knew in the Army called it, but it’s alliterative and rude.)

I’ll admit there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about that tilt—a sort of in-your-face ‘tude that makes it more of a statement than our straight fore-and-aft style. But ever since I first saw it in The Great Escape, I’ve always wondered how the hell those Brits kept the caps on their heads, wearing them at that angle I mean—were there staple guns back then?.

And I’ve even seen worse, including a couple of paintings by Eric Kennington, R.A. Like:

Well, I asked around a bit, and had a quick root through the Web on the subject. It looks like the antecedent of this cap is the glengarry traditionally worn in Scottish regiments, except that the latter typically had a sort of checked border around the bottom, and a couple of ribbons hanging off the back.

But I still couldn’t find out details on this whole angle thing, even though it was often called a “side cap” in British services on account of that whole tilt. The most I could get was that it was supposed to be worn at an angle on the right side of the head, but no specifications on how much of an angle, much less how you are supposed to keep it on your head while moving about.

Someone told me that Brylcreem would probably do the trick, but that just grossed me out (and I thought he might be testing the extent of my gullibility). Also that the exaggerated tilt as in the Kennington picture or this photo is probably just a pose for portrait purposes. Also for taking the piss. (Okay, that last one is my extrapolation.)

Well, since glengarries are still worn in Scottish pipe bands, by playing around with my search terms I found some forums where my exact same question has been asked and answered.

And Brylcreem it is. Or the like.

Euw. I mean: grody to the max.

Anyhow, the berets the Brits have been wearing since 1947 look way sharper. So, you know, carry on!