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Originally Posted by smsmith40
I know this is something that not many of you will have heard about, but it is something that is very important to me so I thought I would share a little. Its a little heavy so don't feel obliged, it was more important for me to write that it is for you to read.
Yesterday, 266 years of military tradition ended when my local Army regiment The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) was absorbed into the new Royal Regiment of Scotland.
The Black Watch was first mustered in 1740 and has served proudly in all fields of human conflict since then. Their Battle Honours include names like Waterloo, The Crimea, Loos, Somme, Ypres, El Alamein, Torbruk, Caen, Le Havre and most recently Basra and Baghdad. Wherever the British Army has served in any number, The Watch have been there.
Why do I care about this?
Because in the British Army unlike the the US regular army, regiments recruit almost exclusively locally. If you grew up within 40 miles of where I was born, whether you volunteered or were called up during the war you went into the Watch. Everybody I know from whre I grew up has a relative who served (and all too often died) in the Black Watch, including my own great grandfather Charles Smith in Mesopotamia in 1915.
This created a massive bond between the community and the Regiment which has lasted to this day. Whenever the regiment is in action the whole area feels the tension. Sometimes this intense connection has tragic consequences including the day during the 3rd Battle of Ypres when the 4th and 5th batallions were effectively wiped out. 1500 men from Dundee and Angus killed in 48 hours, an entire generation of men for some small towns. More recently 6 members of the Watch have died in Iraq since the end of the conflict.
The new Royal Regiment of Scotland mustered yesterday will be all thats left of Scotland's proud infantry history, all thats left of its great infantry regiments,are nicknames and cap badges for the 5 batallions of the RRS. Not just the Black Watch, but the ancient traditions of the Cameron Highlanders, Kings Own Scottish Borderers, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Royal Scots, The Seaforths, The Gordons. All gone.
In Edinburgh Castle, the chapel of remeberence holds the great books containing the names of all members of the Scottish regiments to have died in active service. Each regiment has its own books, massive tomes with uncountable names. Tragically, it will soon be time to start a new book.
At least the motto at the bottom of this page is being adopted by the new Regiment. They have a lot to live up to.
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