FAMOUS REGIMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23707, 14 January 1939, Page 17

FAMOUS REGIMENT

THE BLACK WATCH TRADITION AND RECORD REASON FOR FORMATION The proposal before Cabinet to establish a regiment of Highland troops in New Zealand and to dress this regiment in the uniform of the Black Watch would, in its fulfilment, link New Zealand with one of the most distinguished fighting forces in the cavalcade of British arms. The Black Watch came into being, as a regiment, in May, 1740, and received its baptism of fire against the French at the Battle of Fontenoy on May 11, 1745. Since then it has been conspicuous in British history right down to the present time. The Black Watch to-day is in Palestine, and it was to the assault of the Highlanders that the Arabs in the old city of Jerusalem recently speedily surrendered. Before its establishment as a regiment, the Black Watch was an organisation of six independent corripanies, broken up into small detachments throughout the Highlands. Scotland at the time was preparing for the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and the responsibility placed upon the Black Watch was that of overawing the disaffected and in preventing reprisals and plunder on the part of rival clans. They were also frequently called on to avert the depredations of mountaineers on their peaceable neighbours outside the Highland line. Archibald Forbes in his history of the Black Watch records that these six independent companies performed their allotted duties to the satisfaction of the Government from 1730 to 1739. Towards the end of 1739 when certain truculent Spaniards cut off the ear of the English sea captain Jenkins and told him to take it to his king with their compliments war with Spain began to loom up. War Declared Ultimately a clash with Spain was enforced bv the universal voice of the English nation and the formal declaration of hostilities was made on November 3, 1739. King George II considered it would be an advantage to have a Highland regiment to help him deal with the Spanish and resolved to incorporate the Black Watch into a regiment of the line to be augmented into 10 companies.

Actually he had made his plans before the declaration of war, and the royal warrant for the establishment of the regiment was dated October 25, 1739. The regiment came into being in May of the following year, with the Earl of Crawford and Lindsay as its first colonel, but after all, it was not required in the affair with the Spanish. The colonel was the only officer in the regiment who was not a Highlander. Most were men of old family, and possessed of landed property for generations back. Others were sons or relatives of Highland lairds. Family and personal pride was the most salient characteristic of the regimental officers and the rank and file. SPECIAL INCENTIVE The Highlanders had a special incentive to enter the Black Watch. At the time of its formation, the carrying of arms by civilians was prohibited by heavy penalties, and this restriction was galling to a highspirited and waidike race. Hence it became an ambition with young Highlanders of spirit to be admitted, even as privates, into a service which gave them the cherished privilege of carrying arms. In the days of the independent companies of the Black Watch, each commanding officer naturally wore, and had his company wear, the tartan of his own clan. When the embodiment of the companies into a regiment was ordered, no clan could arrogate to itself a valid claim to have its tartan made common to the whole regiment, while the colonel, a Lowlander, could have no clan tartan.

In this dilemma a pattern of tartan belonging to no clan was selected. It is distinctive from all others. A scarlet jacket and waistcoat, with buff facings and white lace, was originally worn with the kilt and plaid, but these have now been supplanted for active service wear by the more sombre and more practical khaki. Old Scottish folk tales have it that a Highlander is worth tv/o other men and that a Black Watch Highlander is worth 10. The grounds for this statement are difficult to ascertain, but the claim probably dates back to an- account of the battle of Fontenoy, in which the Duke of Cumberland figured. It is related that the Duke observed the gallant conduct of the regiment in battle. Particularly he noticed the feat of Private Dhu McKinnon, who had killed nine of

the enemy and was making a stroke with the broadsword at the tenth when his arm was shot off by a cannon ball. The duke applauded the man’s bravery and skill and promised him a reward “of value equal to the arm.”