What is a raglan sleeve? A raglan sleeve is a sleeve that extends all the way to the collar, with a diagonal seam from the underarm to the collarbone. It is named after Lord Raglan, who lost his arm in the Battle of Waterloo.
You will almost definitely have worn a raglan sleeve at some point in your life, even if you didn’t know what it was. A lot of sports uniforms use raglan sleeves because they allow for a lot more freedom of movement. Anything you need to move a lot in, such as gym wear, yoga clothes, and athletic clothes will most likely have raglan sleeves. Many raincoats and trench coats also use raglan sleeves because it makes them easier to wear over other clothes.
A raglan sleeve is easy to picture. A regular t-shirt or shirt will have a shoulder piece and the sleeve will be attached to that. The lower part of the sleeve will be attached to the body of the shirt just under the armpit. With a raglan sleeve, the top part of the sleeve is attached directly to the collar and the bottom part of the sleeve is attached diagonally to the top of the body, roughly where the collarbone is. This structure gives a much wider armhole and therefore a lot more freedom of motion for the arm. Sports like baseball, where throwing is important, use raglan sleeves.
You probably wear one of these shirts without knowing what the sleeve is called. And if you do know what the sleeve is called, you probably don’t know why it is called that. Let’s find out.
The raglan sleeve is named after Field Marshal FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan. He was born in 1788 and joined the army in 1804. He was promoted up to captain and became the aide to Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. He went with Wellesley’s army into Portugal to try and stop the advance of Napoleon. He fought in several battles, distinguishing himself, and was promoted up to lieutenant colonel. He would go on to be promoted as far as Field Marshal and was one part of the disaster that became the Charge of the Light Brigade. However, for our story, he remains a Lieutenant Colonel and he has followed Wellesley to Waterloo.
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 between the forces allied to the Duke of Wellington and the forces allied to Napoleon I. The battle lasted a whole day, and Wellington would end up being the victor. Napoleon returned to Paris and abdicated a few days later before surrendering to the British. It was a hard battle and over 50,000 soldiers were killed or injured. One of those people was FitzRoy Somerset, the future Lord Raglan. While he was fighting beside Lord Wellington, he was shot in the right arm by a French sniper. A bullet in those days didn’t have as much power as a modern one, but it could still shatter the bone and cause great damage. The biggest cause of death among soldiers in the 19th century was the infection caused by the wound. Sickness would often cause far more deaths than the actual battle itself. If there was no way of fixing the bone, or a limb became infected, amputation was the usual solution. And so it was with Lord Raglan. He was taken to an army hospital and he had his right arm amputated.
After losing his arm, Somerset had to adapt to doing everything with his left hand. Military clothing at the time was stiff and restrictive, and a conventional coat was not particularly convenient for a one-armed soldier. At some point, he began wearing coats with a new kind of sleeve that ran all the way from the underarm to the collar. The larger opening made the coat easier to move in and also suited a man who was missing an arm.
Exactly who invented the sleeve is less certain. Aquascutum, a clothing brand that has been around since the 1850s, says that during the Crimean War Raglan asked the company to make him a coat that gave his sword arm greater freedom of movement, and credits its founder, John Emary, with devising the new sleeve. Aquascutum had only been founded in 1851, however, 36 years after Raglan lost his arm at Waterloo. The story is certainly possible, but it would mean that the famous sleeve was created for the much older Raglan rather than immediately after he lost his arm. That would make the name make more sense because he as Lord Raglan by this point.
Whether Emary is the tailor or not, the raglan sleeve was still named after Lord Raglan because he lost one of his arms at Waterloo. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://www.wickedwilliam.com/tag/lord-raglan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raglan_sleeve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FitzRoy_Somerset,_1st_Baron_Raglan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo
https://aquascutum-active.com/blogs/news/pills-of-heritage-the-raglan-sleeve
https://shopcanoeclub.com/blogs/editorial/the-surprising-history-of-the-raglan-sleeve