FROM NEW ZEALAND TO GLASGOW.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18465, 28 January 1922, Page 18

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO GLASGOW.

COLOURS OP THE SOOTS GUARDS. CEREMONY IN THE CATHEDRAL. PROM DEADLY DIN TO PEACE. (From Oxtr Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 30. With solemn, picturesque, and appropriate military ceremony the historic 1801 colours of the Scots Guards have been handed over by Field-marshal Lord Methuen, Colonel Commanding the Scots Guards, for custody by the authorities of Glasgow Cathedral. The band of the regiment took part in the service, which was attended by military, civic, legal, and ecclesiastical representatives. ' These colours, now tattered and faded, wore carried through the Egyptian campaign in 1801, and afterwards they became the property of Colonel Sir S. Dalrymple, who left them to his nephew, Wemysa Dalrymple. They were lent by him to be carried at the inauguration of the Duke of Wellington’s memorial in Glasgow in 1814. Tho colours afterwards went to New Zealand, and a descendant of tho Dalrymple family, Mrs Hankins, handed them to the Prince of Wales in 1920, for presentation to the jregiment in recognition of their services during the Great War. How General Dalrymple came into possession of the colours was related to the Prince of Wales by Mrs Hankins when he visited Palmerston North last year:— ‘‘ During tho battle of Alexandria a young ensign who carried the colours fell mortally wounded. Dalrymple, who was officer of tho day, seized-tho colours from the dying coloursergeant and carried them safely through tho action. Afterwards, as was his right, ho retained the colours as his own possession, They thus become on heirloom of the Dalrymple family, and were taken to New Zealand 60 years ago by Mrs Hankins’s father, who was General Dalrymple’s grandnephew.” What was said by the Rev. Dr MncGibbon in his address in the cathedral with reference to . tho colours applies equally to the regiment itself —it “forma a link between times and places, persons, and events far off and «t hand.” In its introduction to the very interesting occasion tho Glasgow Herald remarks: “So much is taken for granted as to the preeminence of tho capital city in the making of Scotland’s history that Glasgow's claims to a few thrilling chapters in the brave story are apt to be overlooked; the voice of her noble past is all but drowned in tho presentday hum of her commerce and the whirr ■ of. her machinery. It is good, therefore, when occasion calls the citizens to repair to the ancient cathedral, and in eolemn ceremony to have the mind carried back to other days, when our ancestors contended in Church and State, shaping the destinies of our Scottish race. Tho Scots Guards is a regiment famed in British martial history. and also in the narrower sphere of Scottish civil and religious strivings, when Prelate end Presbyter disputed at the faint of the sword. Its connection with the city of Glasgow has been long and intimate. Along with Edinburgh, the city has been the main field for the regiment’s recruiting, and in the troublous times just prior to the Revolution the Scots Guards defended Glasgow and. took part in the battle of Bothwell Bridge.” , GLASGOW’S LINKS WITH THE GUARDS. 1 Several regimental functions marked the day (luncheon, presentation of war medals to the Scots Guards, opening of the new club for the Guards, and a dinner at night), but the chief ceremony was that of which the Cathedral was the centre. The large congregation was representative of all ranks. The Rev. Dr J. Mac Gibbon headed the procession of clergy and officers to the chancel, among those occupying sente there with the officers being the Lord Provost, the town clerk, and the Sheriff of LanarksMre. The 'clergy in''hided the BoV. Professor Milligan, the Rev. Dr M'Adam Muir, and the Rev. Dr D. A. Cameron Reid (who read the appointed Lesson). The service opened with the singing of the hymn "O God. Our Help in Ages Past.” Accompanied by the band of the Scots Guards, whose scarlet tunica added a "brilliant note to the assemblage, the congregation later sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” In his address Dr Mac Gibbon regarded it as fitting that the old colours of one of the oldest Scot'iah regiments should, rest in thn Cathedral Church, where for nearly fourteen centuries worship had been rendered continuously. It was fitting that these colours should come to this city so long and intimately connected with the famous regiment of tho Soots Guards. On the south wall of the Cathedral burying ground was the tomb of Major Thomson, a citizen of Glasgow, who commanded one of the original companies from the year 16G2 to 1667, During its long existence the regiment bad been recruited largely, if not mainly, from Edinburgh. The tradition was maintained in tho Great War. A thousand men of Glasgow were admitted to the Scots Guards, and one company was formed almost entirely of volunteers from that 'body of splendid men. the Glasgow Police Force. A vast debt of gratitude was due to the officers of the regiment who were entrusting the colours to the. Cathedral’s keeping, and especially to him whose indefatigable devotion both to the city and to his own regiment had secured for the colours a place and presentation becoming their worth. It would be neither gracious nor practicable to give even the briefest account of the Scots Guards. Sufficient to state that its fighting record, was unequalled in the history of the British army. Engaged, and generally in the forefront, of every important jror of the last 'three centuries, they overcame many enemies with great valour, and on the rare occasions when they could not overcome died grimly, still unconquered, with their faces to the foe. These ooloum had many associations. They formed a link between times and places, persons and events, .for - off and at hand. They thought gratefully of the unknown women who first fashioned them and .wrought in them the emblems that were to nerve the soldier to the fight, and of that gracious woman separated from these, her sisters, by many years, who restored them to the regiment again. They wore a link between the young ensign who carried one of them in tho year 1891 and the fieldmarshal who was to give them to the custody of the Cathedral in 1921; between the long war at the beginning of tho nineteenth century against the Emperor whose ambition would have dominated the world, and the still greater war at the beginning of tho twentieth century against a no less formidable foe. They were a link among the many - indissoluble links of Empire, between one of her most distant and most loyal colonies. Tho colours came to Glasgow shattered as by tbe round shot which killed the gallant standard-bearer. Lord Campbell of Inverneil, in the attack on Alexandria. They were carried in Glasgow at the inauguration of the monument to the hero of .Waterloo. Taken by the descendants of General Dalrymple to New Zealand, generously preserved as a precious* family heirloom, afterwards to be yielded up as a tribute of utmost loyalty to the heir to the throne. From the hands of the Prince, .whom tho Empire delighted to honour they h.-.d passed to the Guards again, and now from the hands of the distinguished officer undei whose generalship the Scots Guards served in the war of South Africa, they were to pass to the Cathedral. Through many vicissitudes, with a host of honoured and hallowed memories, they passed from tho deadly din of battle to the peaceful house of God. I UNVEILING CEREMONY. After the hymn, “Lord of all Power and Might,” had been sung, Lord Methuen, accompanied by the Lord Provost, the officers of th regiment, and the officiating ministers, went to tho west end of tho choir, where the cases containing tho colours were unveiled. Lord Methuen said the honour had been , conferred upon him of presenting these old colours of the Scots Guards to the care of the city of Glasgow. His thoughts went back to the close connection there had been, formed between the city of Glasgow and the regiment cf tho Scots Gnards. In 1662 that association was begun, and later—in 1679 — the Scots Guards nobly defended this good city of Glasgow, and took part in the battle of Bothwell Brig. They had suffered aud paid a terrible toll for tbe duties that they performed td their country, and their worth had been recognised. The position they held in tho Peninsula, in the Crimea, in the South African war, and in tho late war was worthy of tho highest traditions of the regiment. Let him express one wish, and that was that this generation had so splendidly carried on the work of their ancestors, so let them pray with all their heart that they might do their utmost to train the youth of this country in tno love of God and loyalty to the King, so that when their time came they might perform their duty as his comrades had performed it in this war; , • ... Dr Mac Gibbon said that with pnde and gratitude he accepted, as representing th© Kirk Session of the High Kirk of Glasgow, the guardianship of these colours. To tliem, within the walls of that Cathedral, would be accorded., the honour and reverence which was their due, that ns in the hearts of past generations they inspured and ennobled chivalry, so in the hearts who worshipped there they might awaken the same increasing their faith and hope in the God of their fathers, to Whose mercy alone was our national greatness due. On behalf of H.M. Office of Works and Public Buildings, Mr J. Wilson Paterson accepted custody of tbe colours. When , the procession of clergy and officers bad returned to the chancel prayer waa

offered by Dx Mac Gibbon. After the. Second Paraphrase had been sung the benediction was pronounced. There were a few moments of silent prayer, and then with the singing ot the National Anthem the service concluded. rem tho Cathedral, I/ord Methuen unci ifiany others went to the High Church burying ground and laid a wreath of lilies and evergreens on the grave of Sir Alexander Thomson, who was captain of tho original Glasgow Company of the Scots Guards, raised in 16G2, after the Restoration. This company, along with five others raised na Edinburgh, took part in the Battle of Bothwell Brig. Sir Alexander, who died, in 1669, was tho son of a town clerk of Glosgow. The headstone at the grave is built into tho north wall of the burying ground, and is stall in a fairly good state of preservation, but the Latin inscription cannot be easily deciphered. It is understood that Lord Methuen and the officers of the Scots Guards will shortly have the lettering renewed.