Black Watch
| The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) | |
|---|---|
| File:Black Watch.JPG | |
| Active | 1 July 1881-Present |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Army |
| Type | Line Infantry |
| Role | Armoured infantry |
| Nickname(s) | Ladies from Hell (during WWI) |
| Motto(s) | Nemo Me Impune Lacessit |
| March | Quick: All the Blue Bonnets are o'er the Border Slow: The Garb of Old Gaul Pipes & Drums Quick: Hielan' Laddie Pipes & Drums Slow: My Home Pipes & Drums Slow: High Cradle Song |
| Anniversaries | Red Hackle Day (5 January) |
| Commanders | |
| Ceremonial chief | Charles, Prince of Wales |
The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) (named The Royal Highland Regiment (The Black Watch) before 1931) is an infantry regiment of the British Army. Part of the Scottish Division, it is the senior regiment of highlanders. The regiment's name comes from the extremely dark tartan that they wear and from its role to "watch" the Highlands. 'Black Watch' was originally just a nickname for the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot, but was used more and more so that, in 1881, when the 42nd amalgamated with the 73rd Foot, the new regiment was named 'The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)'. The uniform has changed over time, but the nickname has been more enduring. The regimental motto is Nemo me impune lacessit (no one attacks me with impunity). The Royal Stewart Tartan is worn by the regimental pipers due the royal designation. Six companies were formed from 1725 to stop fighting among the clans.
History
18th-Century
The first independent companies of the Black Watch were raised as a militia in 1725 by George Wade to occupy and keep peace in the Scottish Highlands after the 1715 Jacobite Rising. In these early days, members were recruited from local clans, the first six companies were one company from the Munro clan, one of Frasers, one of Grants three of Campbells.
The Regiment of the Line was formed officially in 1739 as the 42nd Highland Regiment of Foot under John, the Earl of Crawford, and first mustered in 1740, at Aberfeldy. In May 1740, when the Independent companies were formed into the 43d Highland regiment (now the 42d Royal Highlanders), Sir Robert Munro was appointed lieutenant-colonel, John Earl of Crawford and Lindsay being its colonel. Among the captains were his next brother, George Munro of Culcairn, and John Munro, promoted to be lieutenant-colonel in 1745. The surgeon of the regiment was his younger brother, Dr James Munro. The regiment's earliest days were inauspicious; ordered to London in 1743 for an inspection by King George II, rumors flew that they were to be shipped to the West Indies to fight in the War of Austrian Succession, and many left for Scotland. They were recaptured, three of the leaders shot in the Tower of London, and the remainder of the regiment shipped to Flanders. The regiment's first full combat was the Battle of Fontenoy in Flanders in 1745, where they surprised the French with their ferocity, and greatly impressed their commander, the Duke of Cumberland.
When the 1745 Jacobite Rising broke out, the regiment returned to the south of Britain in anticipation of a possible French invasion. From 1747 to 1756 they were stationed in Ireland and then were sent to New York.
During the French and Indian War, at the first battle of Fort Ticonderoga (then named Fort Carillon) in 1758 the regiment lost over half of its men in assault. At that time they were already officially recognized as a Royal regiment. The second battalion of the Black Watch was sent to the Caribbean but after the losses of Ticonderoga, the two battalions were consolidated in New York. The regiment was present at the second battle of Ticonderoga in 1759 and the surrender of Montreal in 1760. They were sent to the West Indies again where they saw action at Havana, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Between 1758 and 1767 it served in America. In 1763, the Black Watch fought in the Battle of Bloody Run while trying to relieve Fort Pitt, modern Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during Pontiac's Rebellion. The regiment went to Cork, Ireland in 1767 and returned to Scotland in 1775.
During the American Revolutionary War, the regiment was involved in the defeat of George Washington in the Battle of Long Island and the later battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, the siege of Charleston, and the final Battle of Yorktown. The regiment returned to Glasgow in 1790.
19th-Century
The Black Watch fought in a dozen battles of the Napoleonic Wars. During the battle of Alexandria in 1801 a regiment major captured a standard from the French. It also served in the Battle of Waterloo where its 73rd Battalion was in the most intense fighting and lost 289 men. It was one of the component parts of the Highland Brigade in the Crimean War, at Cawnpore and Lucknow in 1858, and the Anglo-Boer War.
The regiment captured its regimental gong during the Indian Mutiny. After that the gong has tolled hours in Black Watch quarters. The regiment received a new name from Queen Victoria in 1861 when it became The Royal Highland Regiment (The Black Watch).
20th-Century
During World War I the 25 battalions of Black Watch fought mainly in France and Flanders, except for 2nd Battalion which fought in Mesopotamia and Palestine, and the 10th Battalion which was in the Balkans. Only the 1st and 2nd battalions were regulars. The fearsome reputation of these kilted soldiers led to their acquiring the nickname "Ladies from Hell" from the German troops that faced them in the trenches. (Scottish troops wore kilts up until 1940).
Battalions of the Watch fought in almost every major action of the British in World War II, from Palestine to Dunkirk to Normandy. After the war, in 1948, the two regular battalions were merged into one.
The regiment won honours after the Battle of the Hook during the Korean War in November 1952, and were subsequently involving in peacekeeping in various parts of the world, ironically the same activity for which the regiment was raised 250 years earlier. It was the last British military unit to leave Hong Kong in 1997 and played a prominent role in the handover ceremony.
21st-Century
During the 2003 Iraq War the Black Watch fought in the attack on Basra and during their deployment they suffered a single fatality. The following year the Black Watch were dispatched to Iraq again, as part of 4 (Armoured) Brigade. On August 12 a soldier from the regiment was killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED). In October, the Black Watch were at the centre of political controversy after the Americans requested British forces to be moved further north outside of the British-controlled Multi-National Division (South East) area. Despite objections in Parliament, the deployment went ahead. Based at Camp Dogwood, South of Baghdad, they came under regular attack from rockets. On the October 29, during the journey to their new base, a Black Watch soldier was killed in a road accident. On 4 November three soldiers and an interpreter were killed and on November 8 another soldier was killed. This high profile deployment caused a magnification of these events back home in Britain.
Under a plan supervised by General Sir Mike Jackson, on December 16 2004 it was announced that the Black Watch was to join with five other Scottish regiments - the Royal Scots, the King's Own Scottish Borderers, the Royal Highland Fusiliers, Highlanders and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders - to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland, a single five-battalion regiment. The measure, which reflected recruiting difficulties and the inefficiencies inherent in maintaining a number of relatively small separate units, will take place in March 2006. These plans have encountered considerable opposition from retired soldiers and the Scottish public. It is claimed by proponents of the plan that the establishment of a large regiment will improve conditions of service for serving personnel. The former Black Watch battalion will retain its present title in brackets and the right to wear its distinctive red hackle on certain occasions.
Australia/New Zealand
While Australia has had various units of its military with affiliations to the Black Watch, no regiment in Australia or New Zealand has formally borne that title nor adopted the red hackle.
Canada
Canada (from 1862) has its own Black Watch, being raised as the 5th Battalion of the Canadian Militia, being renamed by 1914 as the 5th Regiment (Royal Highlanders of Canada). It adopted its current title, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, prior to World War Two, in which it served in the Second Canadian Division from mobilization in 1939 to 1945. As part of the 5th Canadian Brigade, the Regiment's 1st Battalion landed in Normandy in July 1944 and participated in major combat actions afterwards including the fight for the Channel Ports, the Scheldt, the Nijmegen Salient, the Rhineland, and the final battles of the war east of the Rhine River. Two battalions of the Black Watch (RHR) of Canada also served in Canada, one in the Active Army, the other as a Reserve unit. For brief time between 1953 and 1970, the Regiment had two battalions on the order of battle of the Regular Force, with a battalion in the Militia. The Regiment reverted to a one-battalion Militia unit in 1972 and remains in that status today.
Notable members
- Alfred Anderson, Scotland's last surviving World War I veteran
- Fergus Bowes-Lyon
- Walter Cook
- Henry Davie
- Thomas Edwards
- Lewis Pugh Evans
- Adam Ferguson
- David Finlay
- J. B. S. Haldane
- John MacKenzie
- Charles Melvin
- Simon Ramsay
- John Ripley
- Neil Ritchie
- William Rose
- William Speakman
- Arthur Wauchope
- Archibald Wavell
Battle Honours
- [combined battle honours of 42nd Regiment and 73rd Regiment, plus:]
- Guadaloupe 17591, Martinique 17621, Havannah1, North America 1763-642, Mysore5, Busaco3, Salamanca4, South Africa 1846-76, 1851-2-36 Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882 '84, Kirbekan, Nile 1884-5, Paardeberg, South Africa 1899-1902
- The Great War [25 battalions]: Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914 '18, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Ypres 1914 '17 '18, Langemarck 1914, Gheluvelt, Nonne Bosschen, Givenchy 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozières, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Thiepval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916, Arras 1917 '18, Vimy 1917, Scarpe 1917 '18, Arleux, Pilckem, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 '18, St Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Rosières, Lys, Estaires, Messines 1918, Hazebrouck, Kemmel, Béthune, Scherpenberg, Soissonnais-Ourcq, Tardenois, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenburg Line, Épéhy, St Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Courtrai, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Doiran 1917, Macedonia 1915-18, Egypt 1916, Gaza, Jerusalem, Tell'Asur, Megiddo, Sharon, Damascus, Palestine 1917-18, Tigris 1916, Kut al Amara 1917, Baghdad, Mesopotamia 1915-17
- The Second World War: Defence of Arras, Ypres-Comines Canal, Dunkirk 1940, Somme 1940, St. Valery-en-Caux, Saar, Breville, Odon, Fontenay le Pesnil, Defence of Rauray, Caen, Falaise, Falaise Road, La Vie Crossing, Le Havre, Lower Maas, Venlo Pocket, Ourthe, Rhineland, Reichswald, Goch, Rhine, North-West Europe 1940 '44-45, Barkasan, British Somaliland 1940, Tobruk 1941, Tobruk Sortie, El Alamein, Advance on Tripoli, Medenine, Zemlet el Lebene, Mareth, Akarit, Wadi Akarit East, Djebel Roumana, Medjez Plain, Si Mediene, Tunis, North Africa 1941-43, Landing in Sicily, Vizzini, Sferro, Gerbini, Adrano, Sferro Hills, Sicily 1943, Cassino II, Liri Valley, Advance to Florence, Monte Scalari, Casa Fortis, Rimini Line, Casa Fabbri Ridge, Savio Bridgehead, Italy 1944-45, Athens, Greece 1944-45, Crete, Heraklion, Middle East 1941, Chindits 1944, Burma 1944
- The Hook 1952, Korea 1952-53; Al Basrah, Iraq 2003
1. awarded 1909 for services of 42nd Regiment.
2. awarded 1914 for services of 42nd Regiment.
3. awarded 1910 for service of 42nd Regiment.
4. awarded 1951 for service of 42nd Regiment.
5. awarded 1889 for service of 73rd Regiment.
6. awarded 1882 for service of 73rd Regiment.
Anecdotes
When wearing kilts, it is customary for troops to "go regimental" or "military practice", wearing no underwear. In the 1950s, kilted soldiers on parade would be checked by the sergeant major using a mirror on the end of a stick. In 1994, a Black Watch soldier received wide press exposure, because of windy conditions during a military ceremony in Hong Kong.
It should be noted that when a Leader in the Scouting movement in the UK completes the full training course, the ceremonial neckerchief which they are presented with features a Black Watch Tartan patch on the back.