Stable belt

A stable belt is an item of uniform used in the armed forces of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries. Stable belts or similar derivatives are also worn by the armed forced of other nations such as the Danish army, Homeguard and Air Force.

Originally, stable belts were worn by cavalrymen in the working dress they used for cleaning the stables and tending to their horses, but in the 1950s they spread to all branches of the armed forces, adding a splash of colour and individuality to the drab khaki working uniforms. Initially they were resisted by many senior officers, who saw them as too individualistic, but they soon became accepted throughout the forces.

A stable belt is a wide webbing belt, usually a single solid colour or horizontally striped in two or more different colours. It is worn around the waist, either in the belt loops of trousers or a skirt or over a jersey. The original cavalry stable belts buckled at the side to avoid chafing the soldier's stomach as he bent down during stable work, but many stable belts are now clipped at the front, sometimes behind a metal belt plate (usually bearing the badge of the regiment), although a few regiments such as the Light Infantry clip their stable belts at the front with the original two leather straps. A large number of units, however, continue to use the traditional method of securing the belt using two leather straps and metal buckles at the left-hand side.

Today, every regiment and corps of the British Army has its own stable belt, often very colourful. The Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force also have their own. Stable belts are worn with most styles of informal dress, but not with full dress, service dress or mess dress. Stable belts are purchased by individual service personnel, not issued, so are theoretically neither regulation nor compulsory but since most people own one they are effectively uniform items in the Army.

United Kingdom

Note that these belts are shown in cross section, the stripes actually being horizontal as worn, and are actually considerably wider than shown, although the stripes are shown in correct proportion. Where belts are asymmetrical, the left-hand side of the illustration is the uppermost as worn.

Cavalry/Armoured regiments

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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Royal Dragoon Guards
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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Queen's Royal Hussars
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|9th/12th Royal Lancers
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|King's Royal Hussars
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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|The Light Dragoons
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Queen's Royal Lancers
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Royal Tank Regiment
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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Royal Yeomanry [Worn by Regimental Headquarters. Squadrons wear old stable belts: Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, Leicestershire and Derbyshire Yeomanry, Kent and Sharpshooters Yeomanry, and Westminster Dragoons.]
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Royal Wessex Yeomanry [Individual squadrons wear old stable belts: Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, Royal Devon Yeomanry, and Dorset Yeomanry.]
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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Queen's Own Yeomanry
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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Queen's Gurkha Engineers
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Queen's Gurkha Signals
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment
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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Honourable Artillery Company
RHQ and HQ squadron
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Honourable Artillery Company
1 squadron
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Honourable Artillery Company
2 squadron
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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Honourable Artillery Company
3 squadron
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Honourable Artillery Company
Signal squadron
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Honourable Artillery Company
Corps of Drums
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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Royal Jersey Militia
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ub-units

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Other services

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Former infantry regiments

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Former corps

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colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Gurkha Military Police
colspan="2" width="25%" style="font-weight: bold; color: #6a6c76; text-align: center;"|Queen's Own Gurkha Transport Regiment
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Former training units

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Footnotes

References

*"Materiel Regulations for The Army", Volume 3, Pamphlet No.16, "Optional items of dress", Ministry of Defence, London, 1995

External links

* [http://www.stablebelts.co.uk/ Stable Belts]
* [http://www.militaryhorse.org/ Society of the Military Horse]