Khaki drill

Khaki drill or KD was the term for a type of fabric and the British military uniforms made from them.

History

Uniform of Khaki color was first introduced in 1848 in the Corps of Guides that was raised in December 1846 as the brainchild of Sir Henry Lawrence (1806-1857) Resident at Lahore, and Agent to the Governor-General for the North-West Frontier. Lawrence chose as its commandant Sir Harry Lumsden supported by William Stephen Raikes Hodson as Second-in-Command to begin the process of raising the Corps of Guides for frontier service from British Indian recruits at Peshawar. Initially the border troops were dressed in their native costume, which consisted of a kurta and white pajama trousers made of a coarse home-spun cotton, and a cotton turban, supplemented by a leather or padded cotton jacket for cold weather. For the first year (1847) no attempt was made at uniformity. Subsequently in 1848 Lumsden and Hodson decided to introduce a drab (khaki) uniform which Hodson commissioned his brother in England to send them - as recorded in Hodson's book of published letters: "Twelve Years of a Soldier's Life in India", first published in 1859. It was only at a later date, when supplies of drab (khaki) material was unavailable, did they improvise by dying material locally with a dye. As well as the Corps of Guides, other regiments in India soon adopted the uniform and eventually it was used throughout the British military.