Slouch hat
Wide-brimmed military hat, national symbol of Australia.
A slouch hat is a wide-brimmed felt or cloth hat with a chinstrap, worn as part of military uniforms by numerous nations. It is primarily associated with Australia, where it is considered a national symbol, and features one side of the brim turned up to allow a rifle to be slung over the shoulder.
Quick Facts
- Introduced to australia
- 1885
- Australian manufacturers
- Akubra
- Mountcastle & Sons
- Bardsley Hats
Facts from the source article.
History
The slouch hat traces its military use back to Austrian skirmishers, deriving from the black Corsican hat (Korsehut) used in the Austrian army during the Napoleonic Wars. That headwear was primarily worn by 15 battalions of Austrian Jägers and featured an upturned brim, leather chinstrap, and feather plume; regular infantry also used it in 1803–06 and 1811–36. A shortage of cork helmets led to widespread use of the slouch hat among British Empire forces during the Second Boer War, where it was worn by units including the City Imperial Volunteers, Imperial Yeomanry, and King Edward's Horse. An 1884 painting in the regimental museum of the pipe band of 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders shows the unit in khaki slouch hats crossing the veldt in Zululand. After the war many armies rejected the headwear, as the British Army did in 1905, though it returned briefly during World War II in the Burma campaign and among troops in India and Southeast Asia. The Schutztruppe of Imperial Germany wore a gray felt slouch hat as an alternative to the pith helmet, especially in South West Africa, with different coloured puggarees for various colonies. German colonial police in South West Africa wore a khaki slouch hat with a national cockade and a metal Imperial crown device pinning up the right side. The hat became associated with the Australian military around the end of the 19th century, and since World War I it has been manufactured in Australia for the Australian Army.
Users
The slouch hat was first worn by military forces in Australia in 1885 when the Victorian Mounted Rifles adopted it after their commanding officer, Thomas Price, saw them worn by police in Burma. On 22 December 1890, military commanders of the then separate Australian Colonies met and agreed that all Australian Forces except the Artillery would wear the slouch hat, looped up on one side—Victoria and Tasmania on the right, the other colonies on the left—so rifles could be held at the slope without damaging the brim. After Federation, the slouch hat became standard Australian Army headgear in 1903. Today it is worn as the standard ceremonial headdress for all Army members except those with an official headdress such as a beret, and is treated with utmost care and respect. For ceremonial purposes, the Grade 1 slouch hat has a seven-band puggaree, six bands representing the states of Australia and the seventh representing the territories. A Unit Colour Patch is worn on the right of the puggaree, a Corps or Regiment Hat badge on the front, and the General Service Badge (the Rising Sun) on the left brim, which is folded up and clipped. The Royal Australian Air Force wears the hat with a dark blue or Air Force Blue puggaree as non-ceremonial headdress, and the Royal Australian Navy also wears it when wearing camouflage and other uniforms.
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