42nd Regiment of Foot
The 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot was a Scottish infantry regiment in the British Army also known as the Black Watch. Originally titled Crawford's Highlanders or the Highland Regiment (mustered 1739) and numbered 43rd in the line, in 1748, on the disbanding of Oglethorpe's Regiment of Foot, they were renumbered 42nd, and in 1751 formally titled the 42nd (Highland) Regiment of Foot. The 42nd Regiment was one of the first three Highland Regiments to fight in North America.[1][2] The unit was honoured with the name Royal Highland Regiment in 1758.[3] Its informal name Black Watch became official in 1861.[4] In 1881, the regiment was amalgamated with 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot under the Childers Reforms into The Royal Highland Regiment (The Black Watch), being officially redesignated The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) in 1931. In 2006, the Black Watch became part of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot
1739–1881
Kingdom of Great Britain (1739–1800)
United Kingdom (1801–1881)
Line Infantry
Black Watch
Forty-Twa
Black Jocks
(Scotland's) Nemo me impune lacessit
Popular culture[edit]
A number of songs were composed about the regiment including and "Jock MacGraw" and "The Gallant Forty Twa".[59]
The second line of Brian McNeill's song "The Baltic tae Byzantium" briefly references the 42nd as "The Gallant Forty Twa".[60]
The traditional Scots Language song "Twa Recruitin' Sergeants" refers to efforts by recruiters to lure Highlanders to the regiment.[61]
Gregory Burke's 2006 play Black Watch for the National Theatre of Scotland, based on interviews with soldiers and featuring as a recurring motif the songs The Gallant Forty Twa and Twa Recruitin' Sergeants, is a dramatised account of the regiment's part in Operation Telic.[62]
Battle honours awarded to the regiment were:[63]
Colonels of the Regiment were:[63]
42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot - (1758)
42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot, The Black Watch - (1861)