After reading our Veterans Breakfast Club blog post on the Australian slouch hat, retired Australian Regular Army Warrant Officer Class II Clinton Findlay reached out with some insights—and some strong feelings—about the history and meaning of the iconic headgear.

In the post from 2020, I argued that the slouch hat, with its brim pinned to the side, was a stylistic highlight of headwear that was initially a practical solution to prevent interference during rifle drills. In the U.S., soldiers adopted the look in the Civil War and Spanish-American War, and then again in 1972 when female drill instructors were authorized to wear it.

Clinton Findlay explains that the tradition of pinning the slouch hat to the right side began with Victoria’s Victorian Mounted Rifles in 1885. As we noted in the original article, the right-side pinning helped prevent the hat from being knocked off during the “shoulder arms” drill movement. By 1890, soldiers from Victoria and Tasmania were pinning their hats to the right, while other Australian states pinned them to the left, reflecting different drill styles.

Findlay emphasizes that the variation was not a “fashion choice,” but rather a reflection of Australia’s deep-seated belief in individual freedom and disdain for class-based authority. Australia’s fiercely egalitarian spirit, he explained, grew from its earliest days as a British penal colony in 1788. Convicts and free settlers alike carried a powerful resentment of the British aristocracy and a desire for independence that shaped the nation’s culture from the beginning.

“Australia was a very egalitarian nation and we let each other do whatever we wanted,” Findlay wrote. “It was not a ‘fashion choice’… It was an expression of a deeply held belief that classism was revolting.”

Findlay, whose family descends from Highland Scots cleared off their land during the brutal British land seizures known as the Highland Clearances, noted that many Australians—including himself—still harbor skepticism toward British traditions.

The slouch hat (“KFF,” “Khaki Fur Felt,” “slouchy”), he says, remains a sacred symbol of service and heritage within the Australian Regular Army. “We wear it with pride,” he writes. “Sacred soldier business.” Among headgear, only the sandy-colored beret of the elite Special Air Service Regiment holds comparable esteem.

Findlay also provides some detail about Australian Army ranks. The Regimental Sergeant Major of the Army bears the national coat of arms as a rank insignia. A Warrant Officer Class I wears a coat of arms surrounded by leaves. Findlay himself served as a Warrant Officer Class II for 17 years after general entry, wearing an insignia featuring a crown—what he refers to, with characteristic bluntness, as “a leftover of aristocracy rubbish…the royalty’s champion in knightly concept.”

We thank Clinton Findlay for sharing his perspective and enriching our understanding of the slouch hat’s meaning and Australia’s unique path to national identity.