Soldiers in the British Army are now allowed to wear beards, Prior to this only Pioneer Sergeants and a few other soldiers such as Pipe Majors and Goat Majors (oh yes, military tradition is  grand thing) had been allowed to wear beards for the last 100 years or so. Until WW1 moustaches were theoretically compulsory, but an influx of young soldiers made this impractical. There are, of course, good reasons for a lack of facial hair, the main one being that gas masks won’t seal on bearded faces.

The Regimental Mascot of the Mercian Regiment (which used to be the Sherwood Foresters, our local regiment) is a Ram rather than a Goat and he has, in these pictures, smooth-chinned handlers, but I decided that we should stay local. The Goat of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers is much more impressive. Our Ram is Lance Corporal Derby XXXII – one of a line of 32 mascots dating back to the 1860s. Actually, I just noticed their Goat major is clean-shaven, I may have been misinformed about beards, but it is always good to get Regimental mascots into a post.

The reason for this change is simply that recruiting is becoming more difficult and beards are in fashion. I do have personal experience of beards and recruitment – when I moved to Nottingham I began the process of  joining the Special Constabulary, but it was at the time the then Chief Constable decided that he didn’t want bearded Specials. As a result, and having had my beard for about eight years by then, I decided to keep the beard and use my spare time for something less civic-minded.

The policy on tattoos was recently relaxed too, for similar reasons.

I could go on to be political, but I won’t. I just thought that I should mark the day that the British Army decided to let soldiers wear beards.

Photos Courtesy of the MoD.