Osprey - Men-at-Arms 003 Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders[Osprey MaA 003].pdf

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MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES
EDITOR:
P H I L I P WARNER
Text by
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, photo-
copying, 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
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 contribut-
ing still further to that depopulation which remains
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 improb-
able 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 main-
taining even a majority of Scots, let alone High-
landers, 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,
Duncan Campbell, 8th Lochnell, who raised the 91st for
the Duke of Argyll, and w a s their first Colonel
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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
incorporated in 1799, took their origins.
among the field officers and captains for seniority,
The extreme Whig and anti-Stuart prejudices the recruiting of officers presented few problems.
of the Campbell chieftains had brought into tem- T h e semi-feudal hold of the Clan was still power-
porary being a Hanoverian regiment during the ful enough to obtain almost all that was needed
actual rebellion of '45; and there had been two locally; and when, some eighteen months later, the
Argyll Fencible regiments in 1759 and 1778. new regiment embarked for South Africa, 15 of
Colonel J o h n Campbell of Barbreck in 1778 raised the 33 officers were Campbells and 2 of the others
a second West Highland regiment which was had married Campbell ladies. Only in the matter
called the Argyll Highlanders; but he had to fall of an adjutant — then a much less august figure in
back on a large number of recruits from Glasgow the military hierarchy than he has since become —
and the Lowlands, owing to the preference o f ' t h e were the Duke's ambitions foiled. He had set his
lower orders in Argyllshire' for naval rather than heart on having a 'gentleman'; but Lochnell had
military service. All but four of his officers, how- in the end apologetically to accept a promoted
ever, were Highlanders, and twenty-three of them ranker from the 79th.
were Campbells. These too were disbanded at the
But the required number of NCOs and rank
end of the American war; and when the Duke of and file simply could not be found in Argyllshire.
Argyll in 1793 was requested by George I I I to Lochnell's personal tour of L o m e and the Isle of
raise a local regiment, he had to start again more Mull had disappointing results; and when, on
or less from scratch.
15 April, he took over command of his new regi-
The Duke was in poor health when the King's ment, only about a third of the 689 rank and file
letter reached him, and did not feel disposed to were genuine Highlanders. The rest came largely
take any active part in the business beyond vetting from Glasgow and Edinburgh, Renfrew and
the list of officers. He therefore deputed the task Paisley, with a small contingent of Irish. This
proportion, with a steadily increasing Irish ele-
ment, was to remain typical of the 91st throughout
its independent existence. The officers continued
to be drawn mainly from Argyllshire, and there
were always enough genuine Highlanders to give
the regiment its characteristic stamp. Over the
years the obstinate War Department preference
for general service enlistment, and the rapid trans-
fers resulting from the need to bring regiments
abroad up to a higher establishment, added to the
alien Irish large numbers of Englishmen who only
slowly and reluctantly took to wearing the kilt. All
were in the end successfully absorbed; and despite
fifty years of entrenched official disapproval, the
91st maintained with equal obstinacy their High-
land tradition. On 9 July 1794 they were formally
gazetted into the British Army, but only, to
Lochnell's fury, as the 98th Argyllshire High-
landers. T h e Duke's approved list of officers had
been mislaid in Lord Amherst's office at the Horse
Guards, and they had consequently lost four or
Typical c o s t u m e s of recruits on their way to Fort George
five steps in seniority. It was not until four years
to join the 93rd: mountain crofters, m e n f r o m the pros-
later that, in October 1798, as a result of various
perous f a r m s of the coastal plains, and fisher folk
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