Scottish Military Disasters

Quick Guide to the Scottish Regiments

To keep things simple, I've decided to base the following on the regular Scottish regiments as they were at the time of the Second World War.

The Royal Scots Greys

Royal Scots Greys badge

Scotland's only regular cavalry regiment. They trace their origins back to troops of horsemen raised in 1678 as the Royal Regiment of Scotch Dragoons to hunt down strict Presbyterians who revolted against attempts to impose an English-style church in Scotland. The name “Greys” was first applied because of their grey uniforms but later they were mounted on grey chargers. The regiment was also distinguished by being the only cavalry one to wear bearskin headgear. Most famous for their charge at the Battle of Waterloo (See Scottish Military Disasters Chapter 19 ; “Scotland for Ever”), the regiment also took part in the successful, but now mainly forgotten, Charge of the Heavy Brigade, during the Crimean War. The regimental headquarters at Edinburgh Castle. In 1971 the Scots Greys were amalgamated with the Carabiniers to form the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.The Carabiniers had recruited in Cheshire and North Wales. The Welsh connection is recognised by Men of Harlech, arranged for the bagpipes, being one of the duty tunes played by the regimental pipe band. The officers' reputed fondness for champagne in times past once led to the regiment being nicknamed the "Bubbly Jocks".

Scottish Military Disasters Review Extracts

War is hell and the winning side is often the one which makes the fewest mistakes. The Scots are justly proud of their fighting men and women but mistakes have been made. Best-selling author Paul Cowan turns his attention to the disasters which have befallen Scotland’s soldiers over the centuries. His sharp eye for anecdotal detail, ranging from the gory to the humorous, help make this engaging account of military fiascos, catastrophes and blunders involving Scotland’s proud fighting men come alive for the general reader. Why should their stories only be told when they're on the winning side?

From some reviews of Scottish Military Disasters

"Author and war journalist Paul Cowan gives a pithy thumbnail sketch of each battle or incident (the longest episode is nine pages), and sets each event in the context of its time and also lists, where appropriate, its military or historical consequences. All in all, it is a cracking good read."
--Brian Townsend, The Courier

"[T]his pacy, lucidly written history is extremely readable and highly informative"
—Martin Tierney, The Herald

"A fascinating and highly recommended read."
—Ian Smith, Scots Magazine

The full texts of the reviews can be seen on Page Two-

Reviews of Scottish Military Disasters

Blog

AS PROMISED - SAMPLE CHAPTER FROM SCOTTISH MILITARY DISASTERS - GO TO PAGE 5.

* Page Two - Book Briefing - To make it easier for people who use the site search engine to locate the reviews they want on the page, the reviews have now been numbered.

**This Page- The Photo Identification article now includes illustrations of regimental sporrans as worn around the time of the First World War. Hope this helps identify the units those kilties in the old family photograph albums belonged to.

***This Page - A map giving details of the old Scottish regimental recruiting districts has now been included in the Quick Guide to the Scottish Regiments.

****Page 4 has a links to some old film footage of the Gordon Highlanders leaving Aberdeen to fight in the Boer War and the 4th Camerons shortly before they left Bedford to take part in the First World War.

Bad Timing

The 1948 massacre at Batang Kali of around two dozen ethnic Chinese rubber plantation workers and tin miners by a Scots Guards patrol couldn’t have resurfaced in the media at a worse time for the regiment. The massacre in Malaya has been back in the headlines recently due to a High Court review in London of a British Government decision not to order an inquiry into the killings. Now there’s speculation that the Scots Guards may be disbanded in the next round of defence cuts because it allegedly has the worst recruiting figures in the Guards Division. I don’t think that is going to happen, but the Scots Guards wouldn’t have Batang Kali hanging over their heads now if they had been more honest about it in the past. When the BBC aired a documentary in 1992 about the massacre it was condemned by highly placed members and former members as a foul slur on the regiment. The News of the World accounts of the massacre in 1970 were also dismissed as nonsense. There’s been a cover-up and the Scots Guards may yet rue their part in it. Meanwhile, at the High Court in London in a bid to torpedo a proper inquiry into the massacre, British Government lawyers have been arguing that the real bad guy was the Sultan of Sengalor. They said that Batang Kali was in his territory and the Scots Guards were answerable to him. Obvious nonsense. Then they argued that the British Government was entitled to wash its hands of all responsibility because Malaya was granted independence in 1957. A close look at what is known about the massacre reveals a number of seedy second-and-third raters in both the military and the colonial administration who ordered and then covered up a wicked and stupid act. Proceedings at the High Court suggest nothing much may have changed when it comes to the calibre of British public servants.

The threat to the Scots Guards is only one of several to Scottish units in the defence shake-up expected to be announced soon. It seems almost certain that one of the Royal Regiment of Scotland’s five battalions will be axed. The question is which one. The 5th Battalion, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, is the most junior but the 4th Battalion, the Highlanders, is saidto have the worst recruiting record and the highest number of non-Britons in its ranks. One rumour has it that it will be the 5th Battalion and its soldiers will be transferred into the 3rd Battalion, the Black Watch. The historic names may also to be dropped altogether and the battalions will be known only by their numbers. The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards may also be on the chopping block as the Army reduces its main battle tank fleet. Not a good time to be a Scottish soldier.

See Batang Kali Revisited

Agree? Disagree? Interesting? Boring? Have your say. I'll add your comments to the entries in the Blog Archive.

Comment

Wrong Headed

The Batang Kali Massacre is getting a lot of coverage in the media at the moment due to the High Court hearing in London at which relatives of those killed are challenging a British Government decision not to hold a public inquiry into the incident. I've said before that I think there should be a proper inquiry and the truth of what happened to 24 rubber plantation workers killed in Malaya by a Scots Guards patrol in 1948 should be established. What surprises me about the coverage I'm seeing is that many do not agree. Media website comments sections have people saying that it all happened more than 60 years ago and it doesn't matter any more. The arrogant bully-boy tactics employed by the British authorities to block Malaysian attempts to hold their own inquiry a couple of years back are still souring relations between the two countries. One clown suggested he should be compensated for the Highland Clearances. Others suggest it happened in a war and therefore the murder of civilians is justified. Perhaps these people are aware that British troops regularly massacre civilians in time of war. I'm certainly not aware of that. Others suggest that the lawyers representing the Malayans are only in it for the money. The hearing in London is not about compensation - though claims may follow. And the families say they have no interest in seeing the now-elderly surviving patrol members prosecuted. It's about ending a 63-year-old cover-up. In some ways the cover-up is worse than the massacre. The cover-up gives the massacre a seal of approval from Her Majesty's Government.

Click on the coffee cup to visit the main blog archive.

Photo Identification

OK, you've found an old black and white studio photo of a kilted relative kitted out in his military finery before heading off to the First World War. But which regiment was he in?
Fortunately, there may be some clues in the photo – the kilt, the glengarry bonnet and, sometimes, the sporran. The regimental badge on the glengarry or, later in the war, the Tam 'o Shanter may be visible.
A lot depends on the quality of the photo – sometimes the tell-tale over-stripes on the tartan of the kilt don't show up.

The Black Watch – Plain kilt, no over-stripes. Plain glengarry without diced band. The white sporran will have five short black tassels. On the glengarry, the regimental badge may appear to resemble a star. The ToS has a dark hackle instead of a badge.

Black Watch Sporran

Seaforth Highlanders – Dark kilt with obvious light coloured over-stripes: there are also a red over-stripes but they seldom show in a black and white photo. In general two vertical over-stripes should be showing either side of the centre of the kilt apron. Dark glengarry with diced band. White sporran with two long black tails. The regimental badge is a stag's head with very obvious antlers.

The Right Men in the Wrong Tartan

Now that all the Scottish infantry battalions, with the exception of the Scots Guards, have donned the kilt it seems odd to discover that around 130 years ago senior Scottish officers regarded it as a drag on recruiting and actually wanted to cut the number of kilted regiments.
The debate in the run-up to the 1881 re-organization of the British army was every bit as heated as the one surrounding the recent amalgamation of all six regular Scottish infantry battalions into one super-regiment. In the immediate run up to the 1881 changes, the only Highland regiment stationed in Britain was the Black Watch.
Its colonel was the only Highland regimental commander consulted about the proposals to double the number of kilted battalions from the five that existed prior to 1881.
Colonel Duncan MacPherson said those five kilted regiments already had enough problems recruiting Scots, never mind true Highlanders, into their ranks.
He suggested it would be better to create one regiment, “The Highland Brigade”, which would recruit from the whole Highland area.
He, like the other Highland colonels, was anxious not to dilute the Highland character of the regiments any further.