The Lovat scouts – The 1st British Army unit to wear Ghillie suits.

Major Frederick R. Burnham 

This Scottish Highland regiment was formed in January 1900 for service in the Second Boer War by Simon Joseph Fraser, 14th Lord Lovat, father of the World War II commando, Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, and uncle of David Stirling, the creator of the Special Air Service. Recruited initially from gamekeepers on Highland estates, the unit was commanded by an American, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, the British Army Chief of Scouts under Lord Roberts, who fittingly described Lovat Scouts as “half wolf and half jackrabbit”.



Major Burnham was selected for the Victoria Cross but declined rather than give up his American citizenship. Burnham would later go on to become one of the founders of the Boy Scouts” Well practiced in the arts of marksmanship, field craft, and military tactics, they were also phenomenal woodsmen always ready to tempt fate, but also practitioners of discretion: “He who shoots and runs away, lives to shoot another day.” Lovats scouts have the distinction of being the first military unit to wear a Ghillie suit.

Ghillie suits;
I have always thought the Ghillie suit was interesting, I remember as a kid there was a Vietnam vet I got to know pretty well, he made a Ghillie suit out of burlap and string and used it for deer Hunting and “People watching” as he said.

I can remember the 1st time he demonstrated the functionality of the suit to me, it was late October in the Midwest USA and he simply walked into the woods wearing the suit and sat down.
He seemingly dissapeared. In my personal experience at that time I really had to look and concentrate on finding my friend hiding in plain site. It was pretty cool to see.

A ghillie suit, or yowie suit, is a type of camouflage clothing designed to resemble heavy foliage. Typically, it is a net or cloth garment covered in loose strips of cloth or twine, sometimes even made to look like leaves and twigs. Snipers and hunters may wear a ghillie suit to blend into their surroundings when they feel it is important for them to camouflage and hide themselves from enemies or their targets. The suit gives the wearer’s outline a three-dimensional breakup, rather than a linear one. When manufactured correctly, the suit will move in the wind in the same way as surrounding foliage.

The name was derived from ghillie, the Gaelic for “servant”, in English especially used to refer to those assisting in deer hunting or fly fishing expeditions in the Scottish Highlands. A Ghillie Dhu-Scots “Ghillie Dubh“-Irish, meaning ‘Black/Dark Servant’, is a faerie, a guardian spirit of the trees. The ghillie suit was allegedly developed by Scottish gamekeepers as a portable hunting blind .High-quality ghillie suits are made by hand, most military snipers generally construct their own unique suits.

Manufactured Ghillie suits can be anywhere from 1 to 4 pieces. Proper camouflage requires the use of natural materials present in the environment in which a sniper will operate. Making a ghillie suit from scratch is time-consuming, and a detailed, high-quality suit can take weeks or even months to manufacture and season for use.

Ghillie suits can be constructed in several different ways. Some military services make them of rough burlap flaps or jute twine attached to a poncho. United States military ghillie suits are often built using either a battle dress uniform (BDU), or a pilot’s flight suit or some other one-piece coverall as the base.

On the base, rough webbing made of durable, stainable fabric like burlap is attached. A nearly invisible material like fishing line can be used to sew each knot of net to the fabric (often with a drop of glue for strength). The jute is applied to the netting by tying groups of 5 to 10 strands of a color to the netting with simple knots, skipping sections to be filled in with other colors. The webbing is then seasoned by dragging it behind a vehicle, leaving it to soak in mud, or even applying manure to make it smell “earthy.” Once on location, the ghillie suit is customized with twigs, leaves, and other elements of the local foliage as much as possible, although these local additions must be changed every few hours, due to wilting of green grasses or branches.

Ghillie suits are essentially impossible to clean and actually work well if not cleaned. Although the underlying garments are tough and washable, the attachments tend to be too fragile to survive washing. In practice, this is a moot point, as dirt is an essential part of the suit’s camouflage. Generally, snipers are unconcerned with being fastidious because they are rarely inspected for correctness of uniform, and they stay far away from the target.

A new generation of ghillie suits are being made with synthetic threads. The synthetic thread is much lighter than the natural jute or burlap. It is also somewhat washable, but washing the ghillie suit can often cause it to lose its abilities to blend in with the environment.

Although highly effective, ghillie suits are impractical for many situations where camouflage is useful. They tend to be very heavy and hot. Even in moderate climates, the temperature inside of the ghillie suit can soar to over 50 °C (120 °F).The burlap is also flammable, unless treated with fire retardant, and the wearer may be exposed to ignition sources such as smoke grenades and white phosphorus.

To enhance safety, the US Army Soldier Systems Center has developed an inherently fire resistant (FR) ghillie suit fabric to replace the jute or burlap. This new material does not need to be treated with any additional flame retardant, as the fire resistance is inherent in the product and the FR ghillie suit fabric will self extinguish. This material was successfully field tested in late 2007 at the Sniper School at Fort Benning, and has been standard issue since June 2008. They are a full set of clothing trousers top and hood.