Swagger sticks

[paul w]

Gents,I recently picked up these four swagger sticks of the Worcestershire Regiment with a view to using one with a display of items from that Regiment.They appear to be from different periods of the Regiments history and I'm hoping someone will be able to help me out as to dating each stick.Any help you can give will be appreciated,cheers,

Paul

[paul w]

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[paul w]

Has no one any ideas on this one guys? I guess the first one could be anywhere between 1902-1952 but the others have me stumped!Cheers,

Paul

[Graham Stewart]

I believe those examples with the crowns are early ones, possibly c.1900's whereas those without are possibly c.1920's/30's. Although commonly called "swagger sticks" they are actually "walking out canes" and were part of the dress code of other ranks on leaving barracks before the Great War.

They were often seen during the Great War in studio portraits, while wearing Service Dress, but their use seems to have petered out among the other ranks post 1930's, as I haven't seen them in photo's being carried any later, but junior NCO's may have still caried them while carrying out specific duties within barracks.

Senior NCO's carried a much larger version, a tradition which is still carried on in barracks today, when on certain duties and these too were also embelished with regimental devices..

Officers also carried canes but these teded to be plain with no embelishments and often bound in leather.

[Hugh]

This is a great start on what could become a very informative thread on sticks / canes, etc. For example, we see pictures of senior NCOs with what I think was called a pace stick, used (I think) to define the correct length of pace whilst marching. Did they carry it only on the drill field?

I've seen the leather bound officers sticks, but have also run into the rattan sticks. When would you carry one and not the other. Tropical use only?

I'm hoping someone well informed will jump in and hold forth.

Hugh

[Graham Stewart]

Typical pose of an an other-rank in walking out dress carrying a walking-out cane, but with a ball top. The photo has a sad story to it, as the lad in question is "3751 Pte Samuel Thomas Hogan" of 24 Hollyhedge Lane, Walsall, Staffs and was taken at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on his completion of Training at the 5/68th Depot in early 1914.

He was drafted to the 1st Battalion the same year, with whom he was to die of wounds on the 5th March 1915, aged 21yrs and is now buried in Ramparts Cemetery, Lille Gate, Belgium.

[Graham Stewart]

Probably a better photo of an old Sgt, 3rd Volunteer Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers taken at a Volunteer Camp, Ripon, Yorks, showing the type of walking-out cane as illustratated by Paul.

Edited February 11, 2011 by Graham Stewart

[paul w]

Thanks very much for the replys guys.I guess I can't narrow the time period down for most of these.Even the 2nd Battalion marked cane could be from just about any era.I think I'll be keeping the Kings crown and 2nd Battalion canes and selling on the other two.While on the subject though,is there any real difference between the canes already shown with the 'thimble'shaped top,and the canes with the 'ball'shaped tops, eg time period.Or was it just a matter of preference?Heres some pics of the type I mean plus some more period pics of the canes being carried for walking out,thanks again,

Paul

[paul w]

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Edited February 12, 2011 by paul w

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[Hugh]

Here is what a museum in the (erstwhile British) Commonwealth (Durban) has to say on the subject of sticks/canes:

Stick or Cane. The word "cane" had not been applied to the fashionable walking stick up to the sixteenth century. During his period, however, the thick, jointed stems of tropical grasses known as bamboo and cane, and the reed-like stem of several species of palm and rattan were introduced for the stick. These were called "canes." From that day forth, the walking stick of the past merged into the cane of the future. Today the terms are used interchangeable, though the saying. "One strolls with a walking stick and swaggers with a Cane!" is indicative of how the two are perceived. (Source: Accessories of Dress by Katherine Morris Lester and Bess Viola Oerke, The Manual Arts Press, Peoria Illinois, pp 392.).

Rank and Power. "The final indication of rank was the vitis or vine staff, a short stick about three feet long typically made of grape vine. It is known to have been used for whacking miscreant soldiers!" Ref: Legion XX--The Twentieth Legion, Roman Legion Organization and Officers, Equipment of The Centurion, 1/19/02. http://www.larp.com/...oxx/orgoff.html -RWG.

Use by the British Army. The "leading cane" prescribed for British officers in a General Order of 1702. On parade, this cane was used for leading men. But it was also used administering on-the-spot punishment of up to 12 strokes for minor violations of regulations. Examples of the latter were: sneezing in ranks, scratching the head, or giving an officer a dirty look. Thus officers of Charles II's reign flaunted their aristocratic status by carrying walking-sticks. Lesser ranks such as drum-majors carried some lesser kind of stick, which subsequently developed into the long parade staff or mace. The equestrian (mounted) soldier carried a small cane or whip under his arm when 'walking out' (off-duty, hence the name 'swagger stick' - describing the typical gait of the soldier-on-the-town). Up until the end of World War One the off-duty soldier too was permitted a cane or swagger stick with ornamented head. In the Great War two classes of service stick were carried in the British Army, quite apart from the usual regimental swagger canes (which were lengths of cane or rattan): a light walking cane with a crook handle, carried by officers engaged on duty in static units such as Military Hospitals in the UK; and a Trench Stick - a heavier piece often with a carved handle, carried by officers serving in the field. Ref: Sticks In History: Introduction http:www.durban.gov.za/museums/localhistory/

So much then for the general use of sticks/canes of various kinds. Sticks and canes of various lengths have been carried and used by officers and in some cases SNCOs for different purposes since long before Queen Victoria's reign. The "vine" used by a Roman Centurion (clearly an officer) and the "leading cane" carried by British Officers in the early 18th Century are both sticks/canes but neither are, in my view, "swagger canes". For me the swagger cane is inextricably linked with a specific Army policy that began whilst Queen Victoria was on the throne and that policy was intended to improve the lot and standing of the British Army soldier, one "Tommy Atkins". In both the 18th and 19th Centuries the British soldier was considered the "scum of the earth" (vide Wellington's Dispatches) who was invariably drunk, illiterate, ill-fed and often ill-clothed. Wives and families were treated little better and, all-in-all, his lot was so bad that no self respecting parent wanted their son to become a soldier.

Several initiatives were put in hand to begin remedying this state of affairs but in the interests of specific relevance to this thread and brevity I will focus on just one, appearance and standing. Soldiers began to be issued with a "walking out uniform" that was a specific order of dress intended to look smart, improve his pride in himself and look 'dashing' to the public at large. The uniform was intended to be smart, functional and relatively simple when compared with Full Dress. Such items as pill box hats and well fitting trousers or overalls together with close fitted tunics, shiny buttons and regimental titles were intended to help him 'look the part' and, included as an accessory to occupy his hands, was a swagger cane (later stick). These swagger canes were, as mentioned previously, of a reasonably common pattern, thin and tapering from one end with brass or nickel caps and metal ferrules and light in weight. They were not robust like a walking stick and could be swished and gesticulated in the air in a way that would be impossible with a heavy walking stick/cane. They were carried, out of barracks, by Other Ranks (ORs) only and became synonymous in the Public eye with being a smart soldier, so much so that the image of a soldier in walking out uniform, carrying his cane and escorting a pram-pushing Nanny in a public park became iconic in pre-Great War, Edwardian England. This public perception was to become significant when a mass, citizen Army was mobilised in an initial burst of enthusiastic effort in 1914-16. Almost as a rite of passage young men who had never worn a uniform began to have themselves photographed (often for their families as a keepsake). In their drab khaki uniform, they almost invariably are accompanied by that last vestige of perceived military panache, a swagger cane/stick.

After the 'war to end all wars' matters military understandably became unfashionable, as a nation weary with war returned to peacetime occupations. The Full Dress uniform that had been supposedly temporarily withdrawn in 1914, became permanently so, apart from the Sovereign's Household troops and soldiers were no longer given a specific walking out uniform but had to make do with the basic uniforms that they had. Swagger sticks were, for soldiers anyway, accordingly in abeyance for walking out. At the same time a fashion grew for officers to carry a cane rather than a stick when in what might be called barrack dress or undress uniform and these again took up a fairly standard pattern of either plain leather or cane/rattan or in smarter orders of dress, coloured cane and silver ends (this latter type had also been popular for a while in Victorian times when in barracks but not when walking out). Although generally a little shorter than the previous ORs pattern, these too became known as swagger canes/sticks (perhaps by chronological 'association', as officers did not 'swagger') and there were, as previously mentioned, variations with 'whips' and for some, blackthorn sticks.

This then is my 'take' on the swagger stick.

What a wonderful set of writeups! I used to see whole umbrella stands of these sticks, mostly OR, in the military tailor shops of India and Pakistan. You could select the regiment of your choice, or as many as you could afford. Thanks,

Hugh

[Hugh]

The Royal Regiment of Artillery in Britain claims to be the originator of the pace stick. Their field gun teams used the pace stick to ensure correct distances between the guns. At that time the artillery used the pace stick in an open position, like a pair of calipers, and not like the drill stick which is adjustable to various settings.

From the beginning the infantry used the pace stick as a drill aid. In 1982 Arthur Brand M.V.O. M.B.E. developed the drills for the pace stick. The stick he used is still carried by the Academy Sergeant Major at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

The objective of the pace stick drill is to provide uniformity in the use of the stick and a high standard of steadiness and cohesion amongst the instructors. The stick is used to determine the correct length of the pace, distance between the ranks and to check drill movement. The instructor marches with the stick open next to the squad. By using the stick he can check the length of the pace, and then lengthen or shorten the pace.

The original pace sticks could only open to one setting, like a pair of calipers. So many 'paces' set the interval between guns (depending on spread of the calibre at optimum range ) with no equivocation. These sticks were stout (robust) and often had round ends in either brass or ivory. I am not aware if they were ordnance marked.

The 'drill' pace stick was a later derivation designed by the infantry (seemingly and inevitably Foot Guards) and can be set to separate settings for different 'paces' (Rifles and Light Infantry and Heavy Infantry Quick March and Slow March). These latter sticks are often made to order in both 'light weight' (competition) and standard weight patterns.

Now that's definitive! I infer both from this and from the size and general ungainliness, that pace sticks were not carried whilst walking out.

Thanks,

Hugh