THIS is supposed to be a joyous occasion but still looks very serious. This is the passing out parade at Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow for the Highland Light Infantry in 1957 with their colonel, RE Urquahart inspecting the recruits who have passed their initial training. Mind you, perhaps they already knew that their future was uncertain as the HLI was amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers two years later to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers which later merged with the Royal Scots Borderers, the Black Watch, the Highlanders, and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Maryhill Barracks themselves are no more, although bits of their outer walls are still there on Maryhill Road. Hitler's Deputy Rudolf Hess was taken there for questioning after his plane crashed near Eaglesham and French President Charles de Gaulle, while he was leader of the Free French forces during the Second World War, visited his troops while they were stationed at Maryhill.
For the people of Maryhill, the barracks were a focal point of the community. The Solder's Hotel was a favourite among the troops and later became the Maryhill Trades Union Centre. There were also the HLI Bar at the corner of Maryhill Road and Kelvinside Avenue, and the Elephant and Bugle on Maryhill Road.
An interesting footnote about the barracks was the riots in Glasgow in 1919 during a General Strike. The authorities did not risk using troops from Maryhill to quell the riots as they feared the soldiers, just back from the war, would be too sympathetic to the rioters.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here