FORGET about your on-line petitions that can be backed by a simple tap of a key, this is a real petition of one million signatures on paper, crammed into 22 cardboard boxes, that were then transported with ceremony to London by train.
The petition was simply called “Save the Argylls” and was an attempt to halt the famous Scottish regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, from being disbanded in Army cutbacks.
These are the boxes arriving at Euston Station in December 1968, before being presented to Parliament. Look at the famous faces behind the boxes. On the left, Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, who gathered 50,000 of the signatures in London, although she later became infamous for her enthusiastic collecting of lovers.
In the middle, the regiment’s former commanding officer, Lt Col Colin “Mad Mitch” Mitchell who won public acclaim for his robust actions in Aden, now Yemen.
The Argylls were on peace-keeping duties there, but after soldiers were killed in the Crater district, and Army chiefs debated what to do, Mad Mitch simply ordered the regiment’s 11 pipers to play the charge, and with Colin leading from the front, the Argylls retook Crater without losing a man.
On the right is Pipe Major Robert Hill, with the craggy look of someone who knew how to look after himself while having a dram or two.
The regiment was saved although its size fluctuated over the years until it was amalgamated into the Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2006.
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