A few Saturdays ago, the Savvy Chaps headed off 'on t' bus' to the wonderful North Yorkshire racecourse at Ripon - a properly preserved and intimate venue, quite deserving of it's moniker as Yorkshire's Garden Racecourse, and reassuringly reminiscent of the best of 1950s England. As we were participating in a friend's stag outing, it was clear that a 'session' would be inevitable, so Mr Tiernan opted for the Timothy Taylor Golden Ale at 3.6%, with Mr Millen, being somewhat braver (he's been putting in a lot of training!), diving straight in to the TT Landlord at 4.3%.
Buoyed by such fine refreshment, we approached the racecard with characteristic bluster. Aside from several optimistic but ultimately misguided selections, we couldn't resist a very modest punt on Lord Raglan in the 3 'o' clock.
It was clearly only the more relaxed cut of the famous one-piece shoulder and sleeve arrangement that edged out our jockey (we assumed he certainly wouldn't be allowed to ride with inset sleeves for fear of insulting the beast), running a very creditable 2nd, beaten only by a neck. Literally a noble failure, we decided.
A likeable chap who dedicated his life to the military and Great Britain, the real Lord Raglan was also involved in the battle described in The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1964). In one of the great ironies of tailoring history (though I'm not quite sure there are any others!), Lord Raglan was the one who gave the Earl of Cardigan the order that was misunderstood and led to the near complete massacre of the Light Brigade. Cardigan, meanwhile, was described as 'an ass' and 'unusually stupid', but he did dress rather well!
Some years before that, Raglan had his right arm amputated following damage it received at the battle of Waterloo. His tailor then designed a special short coat for him with a diagonal sleeve seam running from under the arm to the neckline making it easier for Lord Raglan to dress himself. With this simple innovation, a classic shape was invented.
View our selection of classic vintage coats - both raglan and inset sleeves available at all times!
