Proud regiment stands steadfast to the end

Published on Tuesday 4 July 2006 00:59

WHEN the controversial plan to amalgamate Scotland's infantry regiments into one "super-regiment" was announced, the Black Watch was on duty in southern Iraq. Opponents to the decision shook their heads in dismay. It seemed a particularly insensitive way to handle what was already a highly emotional move.

The Black Watch was one of six regiments left in Scotland with a history and symbolism stretching back centuries. By August all the familiar names will be gone, clinging on to fragments of their identity as part of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland.

It has so far been a relatively smooth transition, with the minimum of fuss for the military if not a dose of bitterness for others. One wonders how different and more fraught the process would have been if the regiments had followed in the footsteps of one of their predecessors, the Cameronians, a steadfast group that ignored the political will of the time and considered it "beneath dignity" to amalgamate.

Nearly 40 years ago, in 1968, the Cameronians gathered together for the final time. The regiment was then formally disbanded and the officers and men marched off into history.

The Cameronians had been raised in 1689 under the leadership of the Earl of Angus. It did consent to one amalgamation, with the Perthshire 90th Light Infantry (the Perthshire Grey Breeks) in 1881, at which point the regiment became the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). It fought with distinction in battles like Flanders and Blenheim, at the Crimean War, the Siege of Ladysmith during the Boer War and the Burma Campaign of the Second World War.

At the disbandment service at Castle Dangerous, near the South Lanarkshire village of Douglas, on 14 May 1968, there were tears for the passing of a proud part of Scottish military history. But the final parade reinforced what many people already knew: that there was something unique about the Cameronians, something which set it apart from every other regiment.

The religious divisions which have blighted Scottish life for centuries were behind the formation of the Cameronians. Its roots were in the south-west of the country and it started life effectively as a Presbyterian paramilitary outfit, fiercely opposed to the Stewart monarchy and the Catholic King Charles ll.

Initially known as 'The Society Men', it was regarded by the authorities as a dangerous splinter group, its leaders hunted down and hanged in a period known by Protestant historians as 'the Killing Times'. Its most charismatic leader, Richard Cameron, had ridden into the Dumfriesshire town of Sanquhar and posted a challenge to the Stewarts. He was killed a month later, achieving the status of a martyr. So was born the Cameronians in his memory.

Cameron's men did not have to wait long before the religious order changed. In 1688 William of Orange overthrew the Catholic King James VII (King James ll) and the Cameronians - imbued with a militant Presbyterian fervour - were seen as the ideal people to quell the Catholic Highlanders and help ensure a Protestant succession to the British throne. It was raised as a regiment the following year and defeated a Stewart force four times its strength at the Battle of Dunkeld.

But from the word 'go' there was more to being a Cameronian than simply being a soldier. It was the only regiment founded for a religious cause and was organised on the model of a Presbyterian congregation. Each company had elders and every serving soldier carried a Bible. Unfashionable as it may have been, that tradition carried on until the 1968 disbandment.

To mark its religious beginnings in days when the austere Covenanters could only worship in secret, the Cameronians always carried arms to church and posted sentries outside during services. The regiment's officers did not drink the Loyal Toast and, despite being a lowland Scottish infantry regiment, there was an unofficial tradition of fighting with English cavalry units. The regiment wore trews of the Douglas tartan.On the web The CameroniansRegimental website

In 1968, the regiment decided they could not merge with any other and at the same time keep faith with its traditions. It was decided to hold a final open-air service - or Conventicle as the Covenanters had called their secret religious meetings - on the regiment's 279th birthday.

On disbanding, the Rev Donald Macdonald told the officers and men:

"So put pride in your step, Cameronians! As you march out of the Army List, you are marching into history, and from your proud place there no man can remove your name and no man can snatch a rose from the chaplet of your honour. Be of good courage, therefore! The Lord your God is with you wherever you go, and to His gracious mercy and protection I now commit you."

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