Former Colonel-in-Chief Charles to unveil Gordon Highlanders tribute

A COMMEMORATIVE statue honouring one of Scotland’s most famous regiments is to be officially unveiled by the Prince of Wales – 17 years after the Gordon Highlanders lost their final battle against amalgamation with the Queen’s Own Highlanders.

The “Gallant Forty-twa” marched into the history books in September 1994, when the regiment merged with the QOH to form the Highlanders Regiment. The amalgamation ended two centuries of a unique bond between the people of the North-east and the unit raised originally by the 4th Duke of Gordon to fight in the Napoleonic War.

Prince Charles, known officially as the Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland, was the last Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment and is patron of the city’s Gordon Highlanders Museum. He will unveil the statue, commissioned by Aberdeen City Council, in the city’s Castlegate.

The bronze statue by Mark Richards, a sculptor responsible for a number of high-profile public commissions, features two Gordon Highlanders, one dressed in regimental attire at the time of the Battle of Waterloo and the second from the regiment’s final years.

Lieutenant General Sir Peter Graham, a former commanding officer of the Gordon Highlanders, said: “The Duke of Rothesay was a superb, caring and interested Colonel-in-Chief of the Gordon Highlanders, and of course he has maintained that dedication as patron of the Gordon Highlanders Museum. He is very much a member of our regimental family and all Gordon Highlanders are very fond of him. It is a huge honour to the regiment that the city should fund and erect this commemorative statue to the regiment.”