OXFORDSHIRE & BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY

OXFORDSHIRE & BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY STABLE BELTS

For my old regiment, the KRRC, our stable belt was rather thinner than most, was a green colour just paler than "rifle green", with two thin red stripes, equi-distant and parallel to the ground. It had black leather straps and a silver buckle. The 43rd and 52nd was a "rifle green" stable belt with two diagnonal black leather strips on it, it was wider than that of the 60th, and had a silver slide to adjust length, and black straps with silver buckles. The Rifle Brigade's was "rifle green", with a black strip in the middle, not as thin as the two red stripe of the 60th but thinner than the top and bottom rifle green parts. It had a silver slide to adjust the length (the 60th's belt did not have a similar slide) and it had black leather straps and silver buckles.

With thanks to Colonel I.H. McCausland, Regimental Museum Archives, The Royal Green Jackets

The consensus of 100% OBLI veterans (total sample 2) was that the first stable belts they wore were green ones, from the time they became Green Jackets. Almost certainly the OBLI did not have one, becoming Green Jackets just as stable belts came onto general use in 1958. Had there been an OBLI one, it would have been cherry, buff and blue. There is also a suggestion that the Bucks Battalion(s) or descendants might have worn a belt with black, to reflect their rifle origins, but it is only a suggestion.

With thanks to Hugh Babington Smith, Project Manager, The Museum for the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust

The Museum for the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust

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