Glasgow Highlanders

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The Glasgow Highlanders

Cap Badge of the Glasgow Highlanders
Active 1868 - 1973
Country United Kingdom
Branch Territorial Army
Type Line Infantry
Part of Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers 1868-1881
Highland Light Infantry 1881-1959
Royal Highland Fusiliers 1959-1967
52nd Lowland Volunteers 1967-1973
Garrison/HQ Glasgow
Motto Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (No One Assails Me With Impunity) (Latin)
March Quick - Highland Laddie
Engagements Battle of Modder River
Battle of Festubert
Battle of Loos
Battle of the Somme
Battle of Arras
Battle of Passchendaele
Battle of the Scheldt
Insignia
Tartan MacKenzie Tartan

The Glasgow Highlanders was a former Territorial Army (TA) regiment in the British Army, it eventually became part of The Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) in 1881, which later became The Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment) in 1959. It was amalgamated into the 52nd Lowland Volunteers in 1967.

History

The regiment was originally formed as the 105th Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, also known as the Glasgow Highland Regiment, which was formed in 1868 by a group of Highland migrants to Glasgow as part of the civilian Volunteer Force and initially wore the uniform and based its cap badge upon that of The Black Watch. It consisted of 12 companies. The various battalions of the Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers eventually became volunteer battalions of either the Highland Light Infantry or the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) after the Childers Reforms of 1881, with the 105th becoming part of the former, and renumbered as the '10th Lanarkshire Volunteer Rifles', which was changed to the '5th (Glasgow Highland) Volunteer Battalion' in 1887. The personnel were based at Greendyke Street drill hall near Glasgow Green and were distinctive because they continued to wear their kilts in contrast to the rest of the HLI, who wore trews.

Detachments were sent to South Africa during the Second Boer War and earned the battalion its first battle honour, for service on the Modder River.

TF and WWI

In 1908 the unit became the '9th (Glasgow Highlanders) Battalion, The Highland Light Infantry', when they became part of the 52nd (Lowland) Division in the new Territorial Force (TF). During the First World War another two home-based battalions were recruited, one of which was a Bantam battalion, which were used to supply manpower to the 1st Battalion in France, who served with distinction with the Highland Light Infantry under the 2nd Division at the battles of Festubert and Loos. In May 1916 the battalion was transferred to the 33rd Division and fought at the Somme (at High Wood), Arras and Passchendaele. After the end of the war, the Glasgow Highlanders were disbanded along with the rest of the TF. The story of the Battalion in the Great War would later be dramatised in the 1995 Bill Bryden play, The Big Picnic, starring Jimmy Logan.

TA and WWII

In 1920, the TF was re-established as the Territorial Army, and the Glasgow Highlanders re-raised a single battalion. It later moved to a new Headquarters, (in what became known as Walcheren Barracks) in Maryhill in 1935. When war was declared in 1939, the battalion went to war again and also raised a second battalion, they fought valiantly as part of the 52nd (Lowland) Division and 15th (Scottish) Division in the Second World War, most notably during the capture of Walcheren Island during the Battle of the Scheldt in November 1944.

Postwar

In 1949 the unit was redesignated the '1st Battalion, The Glasgow Highlanders, The Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment)' and in 1959 transferred from the Highland Light Infantry to the new Royal Highland Fusiliers Regiment without a change of title. In 1967, with the formation of the Territorial Army and Volunteer Reserve (TAVR), the battalion laid up its colours and was amalgamated with the other TA battalions of Regiments in the Lowland Brigade, which were reformed as companies in three new TAVR battalions.

The name of the Glasgow Highlanders was initially carried on through 'HQ (Glasgow Highlanders) Company' of the 52nd Lowland Volunteers and 'C (Glasgow Highlanders) Company' of the 3rd (Territorial) Battalion, The Royal Highland Fusiliers. With the disbandment of the latter in 1969, it was only carried on by 'HQ (Glasgow Highlanders) Company' of the 1st Battalion, 52nd Lowland Volunteers. It later changed its affiliation to The 'Royal Highland Fusiliers' in 1973, thus formally ending the existence of a Glasgow Highlanders unit within the Territorial Army. The Glasgow Highlanders' name was continued by a platoon of the Army Cadet Force, attached to 52nd Lowland Regiment. However in 2007, this ACF unit changed its affiliation to 52nd Lowland, 6th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland and became F Platoon RHF (Maryhill). Members still have the history of the Glasgow Highlanders taught to them.

References

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