True Believers love to claim that the Boers ‘taught’ the British army pretty much everything, including the wearing of khaki, rather than red. Like pretty much everything else they say, this is nonsense: not only did the Boers themselves not even wear khaki, but it had started to be adopted by Imperial troops as early as the 1840s.
On 30 December 1885, British troops fought and won the Battle of Ginnis – an action fought in the Sudan, and generally accepted to be the last time British infantry definitely wore their famous red-coats in action. The British regiments involved comprised the Berkshires, the West Kent Regiment, the Durham Light Infantry, the Yorkshire Regiment, and six companies of the Cameron Highlanders. Of these, the Durham Light Infantry had left their scarlet jackets in Cairo, and fought in khaki. There were also Sudanese and Egyptian units fighting alongside the British – these men fought in either white or khaki.
As usual, there are various tiny caveats to this: British troops deployed to Zululand during the civil war in 1888 are reported to have worn red on active duty, but did not see significant action. Later, during the Sudan campaign of the late 1890s, the gunners of a battery of British Maxims (from the Connaught Rangers) attached to the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ferkeh in 1896 are reported to have worn their scarlet home-service uniforms, rather than the standard service-issue khaki.
But if a clueless battlefield guide ever assures you that the British troops ‘marched forwards in their red coats’ during the Boer War (1899-1902), stand up and demand your money back.
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