David Niven as a 2nd Lt w/ the Highland Light Infantry 1932

[Hauptmann]

Just found this and thought it might be of interest:

David Niven as a 2nd Lt w/ the Highland Light Infantry (1932)

back row far right.

Being Scottish, Niven requested assignment to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders or the Black Watch; then jokingly wrote on the form, as his third choice, "anything but the Highland Light Infantry" (because the HLI wore tartan trews rather than kilts). He was assigned to the HLI, and his comment was known in the regiment. Thus Niven did not enjoy his time in the Army. He served with the HLI for two years in Malta, and then for a few months in Dover. In Malta, he became friends with Roy Urquhart, future commander of the British 1st Airborne Division.

David Niven with first wife and son

James David Graham Niven

born 1.3.1910 Belgrave Mansions,London

son of William Edward Graham and Henrietta Julia (nee de Gacher) Niven

father Lt,Berkshire Yeomanry killed Gallipoli 21.8.1915 age 37

mother remarried Sir Thomas Comyn-Platt

educated Stowe and RMC Sandhurst

Highland Light Infantry (2Lt)

left Army 1933

film actor since 1935

Rifle Brigade 1939

Phantom 1940s

ended war as Lieutenant Colonel

married Primula Rollo 1940 (2 sons)

married Hjordis Tersmeden 1948 (adopted 2 daughters)

biography The Moons a Balloon

died 28.7.1983

Chateau dOex Cemetery,Switzerland

Dan

[Mervyn Mitton]

Interesting information Dan. Although I must be honest and say I never liked him much as an actor - he always seemed to play David Niven....

The HLI shako could be part of the current question on the Lounge quiz.

[Hauptmann]

Interesting information Dan. Although I must be honest and say I never liked him much as an actor - he always seemed to play David Niven....

The HLI shako could be part of the current question on the Lounge quiz.

Hi Mervyn. Well, to me, that was part of his charm. You always knew what to expect with him no matter what the role. And he was also quite a character in real life. I've read his bio's and was quite impressed.

Dan

[Ulsterman]

Bizarre the way his first wife died.

[Hugh]

Interesting information Dan. Although I must be honest and say I never liked him much as an actor - he always seemed to play David Niven....

The HLI shako could be part of the current question on the Lounge quiz.

I knew it! A green hackle!

[Hauptmann]

For anyone who is intro'd in more details of D N's life and times here's some additional info... but I HIGHLY recommend his autobiographies... he lived a charmed and fascinating life:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Niven

Dan

[Mike Dwyer]

For anyone who is intro'd in more details of D N's life and times here's some additional info... but I HIGHLY recommend his autobiographies... he lived a charmed and fascinating life:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Niven

Dan

Many years ago I read his autobiography "The Moon's a Baloon" and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the parts about Sandhurst and his time in the HLI.

[Obergefreiter]

Slacks instead of kilts for a Highland Regement? Interesting.

[Hauptmann]

Slacks instead of kilts for a Highland Regement? Interesting.

Hey Nick... just popped on for a sec... heading back for some more ZZZZzzzzz's in just a few in prep for work tonight and then our "mini militaria show" tomorrow. Can't wait!

But yeah... there were instances of this in the U.S. Civil War (I use the term loosely as being born and bred in the South I generally would refer to this as "The Late Great Unpleasantness". Anyhoo, there were lots of Scottish emigrants who forms regiments on both sides during that conflict... some wore kilts but some wore their tartans on slacks. If I remember correctly, it's the Highland Clans who wore the kilts and the Lowland Clans wore the slacks. Those from the Highlands tended to be wilder mountain folk whereas those in the lowlands tended to be more into business/trade/manufacturing... city slickers. Hoping I've got this right being part Scot meself. Although as this is the HLI... no idea where it all fits in.

See's ya in a bit!

Dan

Edited December 2, 2010 by Hauptman

[Graham Stewart]

Apparently the 73rd(Highland)Foot(later redesignated 71st(Highland)Foot in 1782) did infact wear the kilt, but had to abandon it when seconded to the Honorable East India Company's Forces in 1779, who insisted they adopt the same dress as other units in the E.I.C.

When Highland dress was re-intoduced in 1798 the Regiment apart from the pipers adopted tartan trews. In 1808 they were redesignated the 71st(Highland)Light Infantry, but continued to wear trews instead of kilts.

In 1881 they were amalgamated with the 74th Highland Regiment, who had been raised in 1787 and they too were a kilted regiment, who sometime during their service adopted tartan trews, only to go back into the kilt. It's not until 1845 that they readopt trews.

In 1881 the 71st & 74th amalgamated as the 1st & 2nd Bn's, Highland Light Infantry and whereas the 1st Bn continued to wear trews it appears that the 2nd Bn,HLI were offered the chance to become kilted again, which they apparently refused, both battalions then adopting Mackenzie tartan for their trews.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Graham Stewart

[Michael Johnson]

When the HLI were in India in 1935, they wore tartan shorts!

[peter monahan]

Many years ago I read his autobiography "The Moon's a Baloon" and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the parts about Sandhurst and his time in the HLI.

The other volume of his biog. is called "Bring on the Empty Horses", from a command Alex Corda allegedly gave during the filming of "The Charge of the Light Brigade". Corda's English was practical but not elegant.

Another anecdote, possibly apocryphal, has Corda losing his temper with Niven and Errol Flynn when they laughed at one of his utterances and roaring "You, you, you think I know f**k nothing! Well, you are wrong. I know f**k all!"

This volume is also worth a read.

[Busterdog]

The Border clans were hardly city slickers! They are the 'Scotch-Irish' who did so much to develop the USA!

Read about the Border Reivers - they regarded the Highlanders as Irish, Lowlanders as effete, and the English as beneath contempt (and all fair game). Sir Walter Scott's 'Blue Bonnets O'er The Border' is about them - not about the Jacobites!

Back to the HLI and David Niven....the ball (not hackle) on the shako WAS green. ISTR the 'tourie' on the HLI's diced bonnet, adopted when they became a kilted regiment in 1948, was green also.

[Hugh]

Who can tell us what his medal entitlements were?

H

[jf42]

The Border clans were hardly city slickers! They are the 'Scotch-Irish' who did so much to develop the USA!

Well, originally, the belted plaid and tartan trews were both worn in the Highlands, the latter more by the gentry whereas, until the 19th century, people of lowland Scotland wore a mix of standard European dress with some elements of woven tartan cloth as leg wear and as blanket plaids, together with a felted wool bonnet.

Eventually, the Highland cult spread south so that trews and the particularly the kilt are now seen as National dress. Before the amalgamation of the Scottish regiments, trews were generally seen as the appropriate garb for Lowland regiments while the kilt was seen as the preserve of Highland regiments. There were of course exceptions to that principle. Now it is all just a bugger's muddle.

"Scots-Irish" is an American term, applied to colonial settlers from Ireland who proclaimed their Protestant Scottish origins. These forbears were staunchly Presbyterian Scots from Southwest Scotland, Cparticularly Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Galloway, who were 'planted' by the Stuarts in Ulster in the early 17th century.

These were joined in Ireland by settlers from the Borderers on both sides of the West and Central Marches of Dumfriesshire and Roxburghshire in Scotland; Cumberland and Northumberland in England. Some were in a sense Lowland Scots in so far as they were not Highland Scots but, until very late in their existence, border families owed allegiance principally to their own kin (if that) rather than to any sense of Scotland nationality.

[jf42]

That should read 'Scottish nationality'. What are the editing facilities on the forums for bad typists?