FONTENOY, Ticonderoga, Alexandria, Corunna, Waterloo, Alma, Lucknow, Tel-el-Kebir, Magersfontein, Neuve Chapelle, Loos, the Somme, Passchendaele, Heraklion, El Alamein, Monte Cassino, the Hook, Fallujah: the battle list is long, honourable and bloody.
From Highland glens to the Napoleonic Wars, Crimea, the two world wars, Korea, the partition of India, Kenya, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Iraq, the Black Watch has been in the thick of some of the worst fights in history, surprisingly often in the role of peacekeeper. They've lost thousands of their bravest and boldest and earned a reputation for courage and compassion as the occasion demands.
Now in the chaos of the sectarian strife in Iraq, they remain true to their Scots nickname, "The Gallant FortyTwa", gaining admirers for building good relations with the local community with their soft-hat, peacekeeping operation in Basra.
Three-and-a-half centuries ago, security in the Highlands was provided by companies of men raised by clan chiefs, apparently loyal to King George I during the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. In 1725, after attempts to disarm the clans had been thwarted, the newWatch companies brought into being by General Wade under orders from George II were all required to wear the same, government-approved dark blue and green tartan. The assumption is that this was the origin of the label Am Freicadan Dubh, the Black Watch, although the darker etymology whispers that it came from a blackness of heart which allowed them to side with enemies of the true Highland spirit.
Yet the Highland spirit remained in the idea of clan loyalty, which saw many a ghillie join with his master. The combination of hardiness and cussedness required for policing the clans has been handed down to the present day, necessarily tempered by three-and-a-half centuries of military discipline and technical warcraft.
In 1739, six of these companies of Highlanders, whose effectiveness was noted in London, were amalgamated into the 43rd Regiment of Foot (later 42nd) and therefore part of the British Army and able to deploy furth of Scotland. They assembled for their first parade at Aberfeldy in May 1740, but returned to duty in the Highlands, with no general understanding that they could be sent to fight George II's battles overseas.
In 1743, at the king's command, they marched the 600 miles to London, creating a spectacle that drew jeering crowds. The shock news was that the king had already gone to Flanders and they were to be posted overseas in five days. This was not how the rank-and-file Highlanders had understood the agreement and 120 men set off in two groups to walk home. They gave themselves up, 107 were tried for mutiny, all found guilty and three sentenced to be shot by firing squad as an example, the rest exiled to serve in the colonies.
The three sentenced to death, Corporal Samuel MacPherson, Corporal Malcolm Macpherson and Private Farquhar Shaw - and many of those sent to join regiments in the tough postings of the Leeward Islands and the American colony of Georgia - came from clans suspected of supporting the Jacobites. The three condemned men faced the firing squad "with perfect resolution and propriety", it was reported in London. Thus began the long history of misunderstanding, antagonism and grudging respect between London and Scotland which reached its latest denouement yesterday with official ceremonies to replace the insignia of the six remaining Scottish regiments with the new caps and badges of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, while former soldiers of the BlackWatch staged their own protest ceremony in Perth. The tartan recognised worldwide is to be replaced by a new government weave for the combined regiment
of a paler version of the BlackWatch colours.
At the same time, today's soldiers remain just as true to the forebears who swallowed their pride in the name of duty and went into action against the French at the First Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. In 1751, they became the 42nd Highland Regiment of Foot (and, therefore, the Forty-Twa at home) and added Royal to the title seven years later. Thereafter, they bayoneted their way through the bloodiest conf licts in history, often with appalling loss of life, gathering 162 battle honours from the Napoleonic Wars onwards.
Twenty-five Black Watch battalions served in the First World War and 7993 men were killed. The 6th Battalion was awarded France's highest military honour, the Croix de Guerre, for its gallantry in July 1918 in clearing the Germans from the village of Chambrecy at the end of seven days of continuous fighting. Six battalions, augmented by affiliated regiments from Canada, Australia, NewZealand and South Africa, were involved in the Second World War.
Then there is the extraordinary tally of 14 Victoria Crosses. They stretch from the Indian Mutiny, which produced eight, to the First World War. Each is a story of unbridled heroism, often to save wounded comrades or recover the dead, sometimes to secure a position under fire often to press on with the mission despite severe casualties.
THAT RELENTLESS SELF-DISCIPLINE was true of all ranks. On January 15, 1859, at Maylah Ghat in India, the only officer was severely wounded and the colour-sergeant was killed. Privates Walter Cook and Duncan Millar "immediately went to the front and took a prominent part in directing the company and displayed a courage, coolness and discipline which was the admiration of all".
On October 4, 1917, near Zonnebeke in Belgium, Lt-Col Lewis Pugh Evans, 36, "while his troops were working round the flank of a machine-gun emplacement, rushed at it himself, firing his revolver through the loophole and forcing the garrison to capitulate. Although wounded in the shoulder, he refused to be bandaged and again led his battalion forward and was wounded again. Nevertheless, he carried on until his next objective was achieved, and then collapsed."
Among the toll of the First World War were the brother and cousin of the late Queen Mother, who succeeded George V as colonel-in-chief of the regiment in which 11 of her Bowes-Lyon family have served. Previous suggestions of amalgamation had been assumed to be impossible before her death in 2002.
In 2004, amid much criticism at home, the BlackWatch's tour of duty in Iraq was extended when they were moved north from Basra to Camp Dogwood to give special assistance to US forces. Soldiers in two Warrior armoured personnel carriers came under attack from a suicide bomber followed by sustained mortar fire. Sergeant Stuart Gray, 31, from Dunfermline, Pte Paul Lowe, 19, from Kelty and Pte Scott McArdle, 22, from Glenrothes were killed.
On November 10, 2004, Private Pita Tukatukawaqa was killed by a roadside bomb, bringing further grief to the regiment and to his family in Fiji, as well as in the colleagues' homes where he'd been welcomed as one of the family. One of hundreds of Fijians recruited to the British Army, Tukatukawaqa, like many of his countrymen, was immediately attracted to the BlackWatch by the glamour of the kilt, the red hackle and the courage.
So the old Dundee street ballad strikes the same note now in Fiji as in Glenrothes and Kelty, the Angus towns and to the Perth and Dundee lads looking for adventure.
"You may talk about your Lancers, or your Irish Fusiliers, The Aberdeen Militia, or the Queens own Volunteers. Or any other regiment that's lying far awa', Come give to me the tartan of The Gallant Forty-Twa."
The sentiment was surprisingly shared by President John F Kennedy, who asked the pipes and drums of the BlackWatch to play at the White House in 1963, just nine days before he was killed. His widow, Jackie, asked them to play at his funeral.
Yesterday was the blackest of days for the oldest of the Highland regiments, the toughest test for those centuries-old diplomatic skills, the hardest to remain gallant beneath their red hackles. Losing those proud red feathers that distinguish them instantly from any other regiment, anywhere on the planet is felt as the final, unnecessary, thrust in a betrayal of a unique and cherished history.
Nemo me impune lacessit, the motto of the BlackWatch (and the Royal Scots) has been adopted as the motto of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland. It is rendered into Scots as a rhetorical question and veiled threat: Wha daur meddle wi me? The answer may well be found in the history of the Auld BlackWatch.
Scotland's distinguished military tradition
The Royal Scots
Nicknamed "Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard" because it has the longest continuous history in the British Army, the regiment was raised in 1633. In 1751, it was recognised by the title of "First of Foot". One of only two Scottish regiments never to have been amalgamated.
The King's Own
Scottish Borderers Raised in 1689, it fought at Killiekrankie against a wild Highland army and has campaigned worldwide since then. Its catchment area is the Borders and Lanarkshire, and it has consistently maintained a high level of local support.
The Royal Highland Fusiliers
The RHF is the product of a previous shotgun marriage between the Royal Scots Fusiliers and the Highland Light Infantry in 1959. The combined history dates back to 1678, making it Scotland's second oldest. Drawing from Glasgow and Ayrshire - despite its "Highland" title - it has taken part in battles from Blenheim in 1704 to Kuwait in 1991.
The Black Watch
Renowned in song as "The Gallant Forty-Twa", it is the oldest surviving Highland regiment, raised originally to police cattle-thieving clansmen. It has since fought with distinction in almost every major campaign. Most recently, its armoured battlegroup spearheaded the successful final assault on Basra in 2003. Its heartland is Perthshire, Angus, Dundee and Fife.
The Highlanders
An unhappy union of the Queen's Own Highlanders and Gordon Highlanders in 1994, it has just begun to gain recognition in the north-east. The Queen's Own Highlanders had been formed in 1961 from a merger of The Seaforth Highlanders (72nd, raised in 1778, and 78th, raised in 1793) and The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (1793). It is the only regiment with a Gaelic motto: "Cuidich 'n Righ", (Help the King).
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
The Argylls were saved from the Treasury axe by an adept publicity campaign in 1968, preserving a history dating back to 1794. The Argylls are probably best remembered as the inspiration for the "Thin Red Line" at Balaclava in the Crimea and for their daring seizure of the Crater district of Aden in 1967.
