Sorry, Clockwork Mouse, but I feel compelled to trump you with the old ‘Royal Air Force not old enough to have traditions, merely habits’ card.
The forage cap was issued to mounted troops as a sack to collect fodder for feeding their mounts, subsequently being adapted as headwear in the form of the balaclava helmet, hence the drop-down hood and chin flap.
The forage cap is still an issued item, although these days it has assumed a more ceremonial function in the Army. It was certainly referred to as a ‘tw*t-hat' by Other Ranks during my association with a Cavalry regiment, perhaps because, when opened up in the ‘chip-bag’ mode it displayed a more than passing resemblance to that part of the female anatomy, especially if fitted with a red silk liner.
So the spectre of BEagle skipping about Mount Pleasant
Camp wearing his DPM and forage cap would not have been quite so eyebrow-raising as he might have hoped.
