The Bearskin

Guards at Windsor Castle

Considering that the Queen’s Jubilee is on French television and all over French newspapers you can’t help thinking that France, as a nation, is very forgiving. Never mind the English illegal occupation which lasted on and off for over a hundred years and bankrupted France, watching Trooping the Colour you do wonder how many flag wavers are aware that the British Bearskin was French.

It was worn by The Imperial Guard, an elite Regiment responsible for Napoleon’s personal protection. Napoleon wore the green uniform of the Regiment under his famous grey frock coat. Infantry soldiers, who had to be at least 5 foot 8 inches tall, wore huge bearskin hats to make them look even taller in battle.

British soldiers were allowed to take the Bearskins from the heads of defeated soldiers as spoils of war. Members of the newly named British Grenadiers were permitted to wear them.

At least Napoleon commanded a French army. At the Battle of Waterloo half of Wellington’s forces were not British. He said: The French system of conscription brings together a fair sample of all classes, ours is composed of the scum of the Earth. The English soldiers are fellows who have enlisted for drink—that is the plain fact—they have all enlisted for drink.

Twenty years ago, research for a book took me to a man in Hertfordshire, England, who made them by stretching a bearskin over a wicker frame. Perhaps he still does. At that time he was the only master of the craft in Britain. Perhaps he still is. Each laboriously made by hand, he averaged eight a week.

Each required the pelt of a black bear. Results of experiments with synthetic materials so far turn out the wrong colour, become distorted in the rain and wind and attract static electricity.

The British government does not go so far as to imply the bears roll over and die of natural causes but do say the pelts are by-products of a licensed cull by the Canadian authorities to manage the wild bear population.

Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.