Gordon Highlanders

THE 92ND THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS

For an organization formed for the express purpose of violence, The Gordon Highlanders enjoyed a rather romantic inception. Alexander, The 4th Duke of Gordon (known to his people as Coileach an taobh tuath, 'the Cock of the North'), having recently raised three other regiments for local service and with the British army's atrocities following the 1745 rebellion still fresh in people's minds, received authorization to raise a fourth regiment, this one destined for regular service. With many men already serving, and those remaining being perhaps less than eager to join British service, the Duke may have expected some difficulty in raising the full complement of 1000 private soldiers.

The Gordon Highlanders was one of the great names of Scotland's history, and one of the British Army's most celebrated regiments. It was the local regiment of the North East of Scotland, recruiting mainly from Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Kincardineshire, an area which took great pride in the Regiment's record.

The 75th Highland Regiment was formed in 1787. The Gordon Highlanders was raised in 1794 by the 4th Duke of Gordon, as a regiment of Highland Foot (infantry). Many of the original recruits were drawn from the Gordon estates, and the recruiting effort was assisted by the Duchess of Gordon, who is said to have offered a kiss as an incentive to join up. Always known as the Gordon Highlanders, the Regiment was officially designated the 100th Regiment of Foot, becoming in 1798 the 92nd Regiment of Foot, the numbering with which it has since been associated. The 75th then merged with the 92nd in 1881 to form the modern Gordon Highlanders Regiment.

In 1994, the Regiment was amalgamated to become part of the Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons) - the new regiment of the north of Scotland.

The Gordons were originally brought into being during the French Revolutionary Wars. They saw action against the armies of France, first at Egmont-op-Zee in Holland in 1799, then in the Egypt expedition of 1801, and again in the long campaigns and many battles of the Peninsular War in Spain. The Regiment then played a prominent role in the final defeat of Napoleon at Quatre Bras and Waterloo in 1815.

The Gordon Highlanders had an interesting association with the Scots Greys (the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards) at Waterloo. As the Greys passed through the ranks of the Highlanders to charge the French lines, the Gordons grasped their stirrups and shouting “Scotland for Ever” - in Gaelic “Alba gu brath” - they were carried headlong through the ranks of the leading French division.

The Gordons have a very honourable history, fearsome reputation and have earned respect from many of their enemies! ‘Here’s to the Gordons!’

Extracted in part from A Brief History of the Gordon Highlanders Regiment. from The Gordon Highlanders Museum.

LONDON SCOTTISH

The Highland Armed Association of London and The Loyal North Britons had been raised in 1793 and 1803 as part of the country's Volunteer Forces ready to repel Napoleon's threatened invasion of Britain. These formations were later disbanded and it was not until after the Crimean War that the country's security seemed again to be in danger.

So, in 1859, sponsored by The Highland Society of London and The Caledonian Society of London, a group of individual Scots raised The London Scottish Rifle Volunteers under the command of Lt Col Lord Elcho, later The Earl of Wemyss and March. He decided to clothe the Regiment in Hodden Grey, the homespun cloth known throughout Scotland.

This avoided all interclan feeling on the subject of tartan and, as Lord Elcho said "A soldier is a man hunter. As a deer stalker chooses the least visible of colours, so ought a soldier to be clad." The only regiments wearing Hodden Grey are The London Scottish and The Toronto Scottish.