THE FIRST ROYAL SCOTS

Evening Star, Issue 12884, 6 August 1906, Page 6

THE FIRST ROYAL SCOTS

• TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Von have a letter in your issue of August 2 headed ' The King and the Army." from " A Soldier of the First Royals 413 Years Ago" (that would be in 1858). in which he tells us of this famous iegimeul from its inception down to the Cnmoim War. And great indeed and old in history are the First Royal Scots—the most ancient British regiment in the world —for thcr traditions go back to the twenty-four Scottish Guards of Charles 111. of France: thence to the Scottish Garde du Corps, which saved the life of St. Louis in 1254 in Palestine and fought in all the wars of France, at Agincourt, the conquest of Naples, and at Pavia, where they weie nearly cut to pieces. In after years there was engraited on them the remains of those gallant Scottish bands which 6erved in Bohemia, tinder Sir Andrew Gray and Sir John Hepburn, in all the ware of Gustavus Adolphus, and as the regiment of the Lords Douglas and Dumbarton—they returned to Scotland after the Restoration, and now at this day their standards are so loaded by embroidered trophies that the blue silk—the national color of Scotland—is nearly hidden, while the mere list of the battles and sieges in which" they have been engaged, ever with glory and honor, occupy ten dosely-printed pages of the War Office records. Even their rivals, the famous " Regiment de Pisardie," could not equal this, though in the French service they were wont to quiz tho Rovals as having been "the Guards of Pontius Pilate whn slept upon their posts." Amid all our " unconquerable British infantry " none have suoh a brilliant record of glory as the Royal Regiment, Tradition asserts that it van originally the bodyguard of the Scottish Kings. It bears the Royal cypher within the collar of St. Andrew and the crown over it, also the thistle and crown, with motto of the Order: "Nemo me impnus lacessit." It is only the 3rd Battalion of Roynl Scots that the King said "Good-bye" to, and they have not long been recently enrolled, and more than likely the men will be drafted into other battalions to keep up their numerical strength. I can recall the " ten years' * service men that were enlisted and sent to India (Lord Palmerston'a Government), and at the end of their engagement were sent home, landing in England and Scotland without a l»ei.ny, for they got no pension. They had to be sent by the Government* and the Hon. East India Company to their respective homes.—l am, etc., a F. Glbgc. August 6.