[centurion]

At one time ALL pioneers wore beards not just the sergeant. The earliest illustration of a bearded pioneer private in the British army I can find in my library is of about 1800. Certainly one of a British pioneer at the siege of Quebec shows a clean shaven guy. In the Napoleonic wars pioneers in most armies were bearded (usually very impressively so - look at some pictures of those of the French Imperial Guard). To confuse the English speaking researcher pioneers the French pioneers were called sappeurs (a tradition carried over into the French fire brigades) as was also the case in some of the various Germanic armies of the time. Their role was not the same as a sapper (who dug saps or siege trenches). Pioneers cleared the undergrowth, felled trees and moved rocks etc . I'd hate to argue with one who was a pioneer but I have a little difficulty with Richard Hughs explanation. Looking at a number of histories of the British Army and its uniforms (including Carman's execellent 5 volume work) its clear that pioneers existed in the British Army since before the time of Elizabeth I and their roles did not include lighting bombs (that dubious distinction fell either to petarders (often hoist) or the artillery depending upon circumstance. The former would be attched to the Sappers (and eventually these became the Royal Engineers) In any case the fuses of bombs were relatively sophisticated and as early as the beginning of 18th century (a hundred years before pioneers were bearded) were made of boxwood tubes filled with specialy milled and corned black powder to achieve a constant burn rate. Hair plucked from a beard could not be substituted. I have come across one, unsubstantiated, explanation that makes some sense and this has a Canadian connection from the 7 years war. It was the custom for some units (both British and French) operating in the Canadian winter (when most troops were in winter quarters) to be bearded simply because beards were warmer. Certainly there are pictures of bearded French marine units and, despite the Hollywood portrayal, Rogers Rangers were often bearded. The story goes that pioneers also had to operate in winter (providing firewood) and unofficially grew beards for the same reason (probably initially shaving them off in the summer) and this was later adopted as a formal round the year 'uniform' together with the axe. One assumes that the Mony Python lumberjacks' song was not adopted as a unit marching song. When the beard was restricted to the sergeant I don't know but I've certainly seen pictures of bearded British pioneer privates fronm the late nineteenth century and I have a recollection of seeing photos of bearded French Foreign Legion pioneers as late as WW2 - some in a jeep I think. I'll have a rummage tonight