Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders

MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES EDITOR: Text by P H I L I P WARNER WILLIAM McELWEE Colour plates by M I C H A E L R O F F E OSPREY PUBLISHING L I M I T E D Published in 1972 Osprey Publishing 707 Oxford Road, © Copyright 1972 by Ltd, P.O. Box 25, Reading, Berkshire Osprey Publishing Ltd This book is copyrighted under the Berne Convention. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers. SBN 85045 085 3 Printed in Great Britain by Jarrold & Sons Ltd, Norwich Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders The Origins of the Regiment On 1 July 1881 Viscount Cardwell's wholesale reorganization of the British Army brought into existence Princess Louise's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders: an amalgamation of the old 91st Argyllshire Highlanders with the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders. On the face of it this was an improbable and not very promising combination. T h e two counties were geographically as far apart as any two areas north of the Highland Line could well be. The histories of the two regiments were equally diverse and divergent. They had never served together in the same theatre of war. They drew their recruits from widely different sources so that, while the 91st had great difficulty in maintaining even a majority of Scots, let alone Highlanders, in their ranks, the 93rd were regarded as the most solidly Highland of all the regiments in the Highland Brigade. In fact, the only common factor between the two was an unbroken record of gallantry and efficiency. Yet, as every modern reader knows, the combination was a tremendous success. The new regiment quickly acquired a glory all its own, a pride and a sense of cohesion, which have enabled it to mount a battle for survival unique in recent history. The roots of both regiments go back far beyond their official incorporation into the British Army, and stem from the misery and impoverishment which beset the Highlands after the Battle of Culloden. For many different reasons a large reservoir of good fighting manpower suddenly became available to the Hanoverian government; and in addition to the regular regiments raised almost immediately for the Seven Years War, no less than twenty were raised from the Scottish Highlands between 1759 and 1793, thus contributing still further to that depopulation which remains Duncan Campbell, 8th Lochnell, who raised the 91st for the Duke of Argyll, and w a s their first Colonel 3 an acute problem to this day. It was from some of of raising an Argyllshire regiment to his kinsman, these that the gist, oflicially gazetted in February Duncan Campbell, 8th Lochnell, then a Captain 1794 as the 98th Highlanders, and the 93rd, in the 1st Foot Guards. Apart from some jockeying i