Those pants, tho

“My first warlike frenzy!” Via The Illustrated Naval and Military magazine

Happy birthday today to the oldest regiment in the British Army– and among the snazziest dressers, with Hunting Stewart tartan trews being a standard part of their kit for a long time.

The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment), c.1908

Although the British standing army dates to a Royal Warrant issued by Charles II on 26 January 1661, the oldest regiment actually predates that by a good bit.

Sir John Hepburn, then a 34-year old Scottish soldier who had been fighting in the Thirty Years War for about half his life and had already been made a colonel and knighted by Swedish King Gustav II Adolf, was granted a warrant dated Edinburgh, 24 April 1633, by the Privy Council of Scotland to raise a regiment of 1,200 men in Scotland for French service.

Dubbed originally Régiment d’Hebron, it was off…