Caubeen - Military Use - British Army

British Army

In the British and Canadian armies, the caubeen is officially known as the "Bonnet, Irish, Green".

In 1916, the British army regiment the Irish Guards established a pipe band. The pipers' uniform was a mix of standard service dress and bandsman dress, and also included a khaki bonnet, saffron-coloured kilts and green hose. The khaki bonnet was named "caubeen" by the Guards pipers, and was similar to an oversized beret. Some sources have stated the Caubeen's similarity to the Scottish tam o' shanter, but the two are different in both appearence and construction. In World War II, a number of British army regiments adopted both khaki and rifle-green caubeens as their headdress, replacing the GS cap.

Each regiment was distinguished by the feather hackle in their caps: the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers wore their traditional grey hackles, the Royal Irish Fusiliers wore their traditional green hackles, the Irish Guards and London Irish Rifles wore granted blue hackles, and the Liverpool Irish wore a blue-and-red hackle. The Royal Ulster Rifles did not get a band until 1948, so they did not receive their black hackles until 1947.

In 1937, the London Irish Rifles extended the caubeen's wear to the entire regiment. In World War II, they were the only soldiers to wear the caubeen until 1944, when the 2nd battalion of the London Irish were serving with the Irish Brigade in Italy. The 2nd battalion of the Inniskilling Regiment started wearing caubeens made from Italian soldiers' greatcoats in January 1944, and the 6th battalion of their regiment soon copied them.

In February 1944, the British Army fortuitously made the "General Service" cap (a sort of oversized beret made from serge wool) the new standard undress cap. The caubeen passed muster, as the exact form of the GS cap hadn't been formalized at the time, and their re-tailoring of the stocks of GS caps went largely unnoticed by the ACI.

In 1947, the wearing of the caubeen was later extended to all of the infantry regiments in the post-war North Irish Brigade, with the Royal Ulster Rifles receiving a black hackle.

The Royal Irish Rangers (formed in 1968 by the amalgamation of the remaining regiments in the North Irish Brigade, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, The Royal Ulster Rifles and The Royal Irish Fusiliers) were granted the wearing of the caubeen with the Irish Fusiliers' green hackle. It continues to be worn by the Royal Irish Regiment, created by the amalgamation of the Royal Irish Rangers and the Ulster Defence Regiment in 1992.

A blue caubeen, with hackle of three vertical stripes in colours matching the Royal Signals stable belt, is worn by officers, warrant officers and sergeants of the now disbanded 40 (Ulster) Signal Regiment. Sergeants wear an anodised metal Royal Signals cap badge, while officers and warrant officers wear an embroidered cap badge.

The modern caubeen is worn very high on the off-side (usually the left), which makes it resemble a tilted rimless Balmoral bonnet. It is often made with narrow black tapes, that are worn tied neatly in the back; the Canadian version is made with wide tapes. It is traditionally rifle green in colour, and typically worn with a unit insignia (sometimes worn with a short colored plume called a hackle, indicating regimental association) pinned on the off side of the cap.