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Black Watch

The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment was created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881, when the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot (The Black Watch) was amalgamated with the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot. It was known as The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) from 1881 to 1931 and The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) from 1931 to 2006. Part of the Scottish Division for administrative purposes from 1967, it was the senior Highland regiment. It has been part of the Scottish, Welsh and Irish Division for administrative purposes since 2017.

For other uses, see Black Watch (disambiguation).

Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland

1 July 1881 – present

United Kingdom

British Army

Line infantry

Light infantry

Battalion
628 personnel[1]

51st Infantry Brigade and Headquarters Scotland

RHQ – Balhousie Castle[2]
Battalion – Fort George, Inverness

"The Forty Twa"[3]
"Black Jocks" (slang term used by members of other regiments)
"Ladies from Hell"

Nemo me impune lacessit (Latin) "No One Provokes Me with Impunity"

  • Quick: "All the Blue Bonnets Are O'er the Border"
  • Slow: "The Garb of Old Gaul"
  • Pipes & Drums Quick: "Hielan' Laddie"
  • Pipes & Drums Slow: "My Home"
  • Pipes & Drums Slow: "Highland Cradle Song"

Red Hackle Day (5 January)

see below

King Charles III

Red

1916 –

Battle of Bazentin Ridge

1917 – , Third Battle of the Scarpe, First Battle of Passchendale

First battle of the Scarpe

1918 – , Battle of Messines, First Battle of Kemmel Ridge, Second Battle of Kemmel Ridge, Fifth Battle of Ypres, Battle of Courtrai[20]

First Battle of Bapaume

Home Headquarters, at , Inverness – subordinate to RHQ, Royal Regiment of Scotland based at Edinburgh Castle[67]

Fort George

[68]

51st Highland Volunteers

Dundee

The Black Watch Regimental Museum, at Balhousie Castle, Perth

The regiment is currently organised into a standard light infantry organisation (included are affiliated units):

Regimental museum[edit]

The battalion headquarters and regimental museum are located at Balhousie Castle in Perth.[81]

Uniform and traditions[edit]

The Black Watch's primary recruiting areas are in Fife, Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross. The battalion is permitted to retain its most famous distinction, the red hackle on the Tam o'Shanter.[82]

Scotland's last surviving World War I veteran (d. 2005)

Alfred Anderson

the last British-born Governor-General of New Zealand

Bernard Fergusson, Baron Ballantrae

CMG DL JP, Commander of the 1st Battalion.

Hugh Rose, 24th of Kilravock

Scottish footballer

Jim Baxter

older brother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

Fergus Bowes-Lyon

Scots nobleman and British Army officer

Duncan Campbell

actor

Iain Cuthbertson

Scottish former professional football player

Harold Davis

Liberal Member of Parliament for Haddington

Henry Davie

Scottish philosopher, social scientist and historian

Adam Ferguson

British lightweight boxing champion, assigned as a non-combat drummer boy at the end of WWI at age 14, very brief service. Later received Distinguished Flying Cross with Royal Air Force in WWII.

Al Foreman

actor

Stewart Granger

British-born geneticist and evolutionary biologist

J. B. S. Haldane

German-born medieval historian and Oxford professor

Karl Leyser

English poet

Christopher Logue

Scottish actor

Fulton Mackay

the 25th hereditary Chief of Clan Maclaine of Lochbuie

Gillean Maclaine

Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821

Lachlan Macquarie

the original Black Watch commander, Colonel Sir Robert Munro

Robert Munro

theologian

John Murray

Northern Irish loyalist

Brian Nelson

English travel author

Eric Newby

Conservative politician and colonial governor

Simon Ramsay

British Army officer during the Second World War

Neil Ritchie

screenwriter

William Rose

golfer

Bertie Snowball

Scottish diplomat, Harvard professor and Conservative MP

Rory Stewart

Scottish soldier and amateur golfer

Frederick Tait

Lt General of the Rhodesian Army

Peter Walls

British soldier and colonial administrator

Arthur Wauchope

British field marshal during the Second World War

Archibald Wavell

[14]

1. awarded 1909 for services of 42nd Regiment.
2. awarded 1914 for services of 42nd Regiment.
3. awarded 1910 for service of 42nd Regiment.
4. awarded 1951 for service of 42nd Regiment.
5. awarded 1889 for service of 73rd Regiment.
6. awarded 1882 for service of 73rd Regiment.

1912:

King George V

1937:

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

2003: (later King Charles III)

Duke of Rothesay

1881–1888 (1st Battalion): Gen. Sir , GCB (ex 42nd Foot)

Duncan Alexander Cameron

1881–1885 (2nd Battalion): Gen. Sir , Bt. (ex 73rd Foot)

Henry Robert Ferguson-Davie

1888–1907 (1st Battalion): Gen. Sir , KCB

Robert Rollo

1907–1914: Lt-Gen. Sir , GCB

John Chetham McLeod

1914–1929: Gen. Sir , GCB, KCMG, CVO, DSO

John Grenfell Maxwell

1929–1940: Gen. Sir , GBE, KCB, CMG

Archibald Rice Cameron

Colonels of the regiment were:[14]

  – Australia – The Royal Queensland Regiment

Australia

  – Australia – The Royal New South Wales Regiment

Australia

  – Canada – The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada

Canada

  – Canada – 42nd Field Artillery Regiment (Lanark and Renfrew Scottish), RCA

Canada

  – Canada – The Prince Edward Island Regiment (RCAC)

Canada

  – South Africa – Solomon Mahlangu Regiment

South Africa

  - Sri Lanka - Gemunu Watch

Sri Lanka

  – HMS Montrose

Royal Navy

The battalion has the following alliances:[14]


Before and after the Second World War, the Australian Militia, later renamed the Citizen Military Forces (CMF), included the 30th Battalion, New South Wales Scottish Regiment. This unit was affiliated with the Black Watch.[84]


Canada (from 1862) has its own Black Watch, being raised as the 5th Battalion of the Canadian Militia, being renamed by 1914 as the 5th Regiment (Royal Highlanders of Canada).[85] It adopted its current title, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, prior to the Second World War, and saw action in both world wars.[86]


New Zealand raised the New Zealand Scottish Regiment in 1939, which was allied to the Black Watch and disbanded in 2013.[87]

Anecdotes[edit]

When wearing the kilt, it is customary for troops to "go regimental" or "military practice", wearing no underwear.[88][89] In 1997, a Black Watch soldier received wide press exposure because of windy conditions during a military ceremony in Hong Kong.[88]

Anthems associated with the regiment include "Wha Saw the Forty-Second", ("Wha saw the Forty Twa") a reworking of the Jacobite song "Wha Wadna Fecht For ",[90] "The Gallant Forty Twa", and "Twa Recruiting Sergeants".[91]

Charlie

In 2006, the premiered a new play, Black Watch, by Gregory Burke at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Compiled from interviews with former soldiers, the play dealt with the history of the regiment and in particular the recent deployment in Iraq.[92]

National Theatre of Scotland

The regiment are lambasted in an The Black Watch, recorded by various artists such as the Irish Brigade, the Fighting Men of Crossmaglen, Athenry and Shebeen, for their role in the Troubles. The lyrics speak of the Black Watch, "strolling down the Falls Road with riot guns and gas, terrorising women as they're coming out of Mass."[93] (The tune is taken from the earlier song "The Gallant Forty-Twa".)[91]

Irish rebel song

The tabletop game features a fictionalized version of the Black Watch known as the Royal Black Watch Regiment, serving as the bodyguard of the First Lord of the Star League and using the same insignia and motto as their real life counterparts.[94]

Battletech

'Glasgow Green, c.1758'. A painting in the regimental museum showing a review of Black Watch recruits, c.1758'.

'Glasgow Green, c.1758'. A painting in the regimental museum showing a review of Black Watch recruits, c.1758'.

Detail from the painting 'Glasgow Green, c.1758'.

Detail from the painting 'Glasgow Green, c.1758'.

Detail from the painting 'Glasgow Green, c.1758'.

Detail from the painting 'Glasgow Green, c.1758'.

The Black Watch on Parade at Gibraltar.

The Black Watch on Parade at Gibraltar.

Black Watch soldiers pass by a burning German anti-aircraft half-track, Sicily, 5 August 1943.

Black Watch soldiers pass by a burning German anti-aircraft half-track, Sicily, 5 August 1943.

Black Watch Memorial, Aberfeldy.

Black Watch Memorial, Aberfeldy.

Black Watch South African Wars Memorial, Edinburgh.

Black Watch South African Wars Memorial, Edinburgh.

3 details from the Black Watch Memorial, Edinburgh.

3 details from the Black Watch Memorial, Edinburgh.

Black Watch Memorial on Powrie Brae near Dundee

Black Watch Memorial on Powrie Brae near Dundee

Armed forces in Scotland

Military history of Scotland

Copp, Terry (2007). The Brigade: The Fifth Canadian Infantry Brigade in World War II. Stackpole Books.  978-0-8117-3422-6.

ISBN

Parker, John (2008). Black Watch. Headline Book Publishing.  978-0-7553-1348-8.

ISBN

Simpson, Peter (1996). The Independent Highland Companies, 1603–1760. Edinburgh: John Donald.  0-85976-432-X.

ISBN

Trevor-Roper, Hugh (2009). . Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-13686-9.

The Invention of Scotland

Anton, James (2007). Royal Highlander : a soldier of H. M. 42nd (Royal) Highlanders during the Peninsular, South of France and Waterloo Campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars. [U.K.]: Leonaur Ltd.  978-1-84677-223-8.

ISBN

Durie, William (2012). . Berlin: Vergangenheitsverlag (de). ISBN 978-3-86408-068-5. OCLC 978161722.

The British Garrison Berlin 1945 - 1994: nowhere to go ... a pictorial historiography of the British Military occupation / presence in Berlin

Grant, Charles; Youens, Michael (15 June 1971). . Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85045-053-8.

The Black Watch

Grant, James (1 January 1999). . Elibron.com. ISBN 978-1-4021-7481-0.

The Black Watch or, Forty-Second Highlanders

Schofield, Victoria (26 April 2012). . Quercus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84916-918-9.

The Highland Furies: The Black Watch 1739–1899

on the National Army Museum website

The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)

The Black Watch Website

Archive relating to soldiers of the 73rd Regiment and 42nd Regiment (The Black Watch), The Black Watch Castle & Museum, Perth, Scotland.

catalogues for collections