Cite?
Bookkeeper makes an important point; the bearskin chappie (in Mangetout’s post) is a Captain in one of the Foot Guard regiments (Scots Guards, I believe, as his bearskin has no coloured feather hackle) and is in charge of a ceremonial guard at Buckingham Palace, no less: the Guards do funny things (and are the butt of many jokes from the rest of the Army as a result). They are at their dandified best while standing guard at Buck House, of course.
How to recognize Guards Regiments from a long way away (or relatively):
http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/castle/guards.html Our Captain is wearing his greatcoat all done up, so you can’t see the identifying badges on his tunic beneath.
The photo in the OP is a Household Cavalry trooper (dismounted), and it looks like the Horse Guards Parade is his beat (looking at the background of the photo). He is in the Life Guards (also known as “The Cheesemongers,” a jibe going back to 1788, when, according to this website [http://www.napoleonseries.org/reference/military/organization/nickname.cfm#cavalry], “After a reduction in social qualifications for recruiting officers, the members of the regiment declared that they were ‘no longer gentlemen but cheesemongers’ ie ‘tradesmen’.”)
But don’t be misled: these are real soldiers, fully trained, and likely with real experience in the Gulf, and for the older NCOs and officers, Northern Ireland:
http://www.householdcavalry.gvon.com/flash.htm
And the strap-on-chin is certainly nothing new: check out this Guards Colour-Sergeant-Major from the Crimean War:
http://www.sevastopol-adventure.com/files/csmc.jpg
It was a common jokey saying, from mid-Victorian times to at least WW2, that a group of soldiers at the end of a long, hot march were “coming in on their shin-straps,” that is to say they are so tired that they are leaning on their chin-straps in order to hold themselves up.
I guess you haven’t heard David Starkey lecture on the subject.
Let’s just face it, the British have just always had a fondness for odd head-straps.
Not to be outdone by the British, in the 19th century the Spanish Guardia Civil wore those black leather tricorns, with chinstraps that protected the lower face with bright red leather rectangular bibs that fit under the nose. I wish I could find the painting on google, but it shows a mob of rioting factory workers being ridden down by ferocious dental assistants.
[QUOTE=Rodd Hill]
And the strap-on-chin is certainly nothing new: check out this Guards Colour-Sergeant-Major from the Crimean War:
http://www.sevastopol-adventure.com/files/csmc.jpg/QUOTE]
Perhaps Rodd Hill is on to something here… Maybe the strap went on the lower lip because so many men had beards, and that might have made it difficult to fit and tighten a chin strap.
