Size on British military gaiters

[Chasseur]

I posted this on the WWII forum and I did not get much response, so I'll try here:

I am still working on putting together my early 20th century deer stalking outfit. Half gaiters were quite popular from the photos I've looked at. So I am thinking of getting a surplus set of British or Highland gaiters. However, I am flumoxed by the sizes I see on ebay and surplus sites. Are the sizes the same as British shoe sizes or different? I see numbers ranging from 2 to 9 or so.

Thank you in advance.

I am looking for a light pair of half gaiters like these:

I could not find a stalking photo for this post, but this shooting party photo is quite similar:

 

[old barnacle]

These are called spats. Sizes do not correspond to shoe size, but keep in mind that imperial servicemen were pretty skinny.
I can say with confidence, that no size spats will suit your calf.
Maybe you´re better off, to develop a pattern from these and have them tailored.

 

[Canadian]

I found wearing parade gaiters was more effective in the field than buying ancient spats. They still make and use parade gaiters in the Canadian army, while field boots are tall with your (in my day) Pattern 82 trousers bloused into what we referred to as "combat" boots. Americans of the era of WWII called them "jump boots".

The worst deal I had was being 6"4' and being unable to find pants which fitted both my waist and my legs. I was wearing 28/32 pants, but when I went for camp, I was issued 34/36 trousers (as measured, and given a funky NATO number). They make sure you turn in your camp clothing at the end (save PT shorts, a pair of t-shirts and some cotton shorts) by forbidding you to bring your own combats, therefore, you could not turn in your old combats and keep the new, government issued ones which actually fit.

Some of my colleagues tried to trade off their old parade boots for new combat boots. I was unable to do so, because my boots were on loan from my dad, an army Captain and the boots were extremely valuable (navy boots) which apparently were easier to shine.

Anyhow, what I ended up doing for gaiters was to buy parade gaiters in the surplus shop, shade them with shoe polish and wear them in the field slightly higher than traditional spats, to allow me to keep the pants bloused into the gaiters, not necessarily the top of my combat boots. When I was at camp, I wasn't even issued combat boots (ran out of sz 12s) so I was given a cheap pair of old parade boots to wear in the field. Had I had my gaiters, I would have been sitting pretty.

Also, if you wear parade gaiters (modern ceremony issue) you can wear Clarks Desert Boots with a uniform.

Tom