Royal Highland Fusiliers

Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland

II
Cap Badge of the Royal Regiment of Scotland
Active 28 March 2006-
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Branch  British Army
Type Line Infantry
Role Light Role Infantry
Part of 51 Infantry Brigade
Garrison/HQ Glencorse Barracks, Penicuik
Motto(s) Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (No One Assails Me With Impunity)
March Pipes, Drums and Bugles: Quick Marches - Hielan' Laddie/Blue Bonnets over The Border
Slow March - My Home
Military Band: Quick Marches - Whistle o'er the Lave o't/The British Grenadiers
Slow Marches - The Garb of Auld Gaul/The March of the 21st Regiment.
Anniversaries Assaye (23 September)
Commanders
Royal Colonel HRH The Duke of York
Insignia
Tactical Recognition Flash
Tartan Government
Red Erskine (Pipers kilts and plaids)
Hackle White
From Royal Scots Fusiliers
Royal Highland Fusiliers

Former Royal Highland Fusiliers Cap Badge and Mackenzie tartan, now only worn by the Drum major
Active 20 January 1959-28 March 2006
Country United Kingdom
Branch Army
Type Line Infantry
Role Light Role Infantry
Size One battalion
Part of 1st Mechanised Brigade
Garrison/HQ Glencorse Barracks, Penicuik
Motto(s) Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (No One Assails Me With Impunity)
March Whistle o'er the Lave o't/The British Grenadiers
Anniversaries Assaye (23 September)
Commanders
Royal Colonel HRH The Duke of York
Insignia
Tartan Government
Red Erskine (Pipers kilts and plaids)
Hackle White
From Royal Scots Fusiliers

The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Prior to 28 March 2006, the Royal Highland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment in its own right, created by the then amalgamation of the Royal Scots Fusiliers with the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) in January 1959.

History

The regiment was formed on 20 January 1959 by the then amalgamation of the Royal Scots Fusiliers with the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment). The Royal Highland Fusiliers remained an infantry regiment in its own right; the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment) was part of the Scottish Division, and abbreviated as 'The RHF'.[1]

The regiment was initially based at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh and was deployed to Singapore Lines in Aden in 1960. The battalion band played at independence ceremonies in Hargeisa in 1960.[2] Then it was posted to St. Patricks barracks in Malta in 1961. The regiment then moved to Mons Barracks in Iserlohn in 1963. The battalion went to Cyprus as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus for six months in 1965 and then to Fort George in 1967. In 1968 the regiment was deployed to Gibraltar for six months on frontier duties after General Franco closed the frontier between Spain and Gibraltar. The regiment undertook five tours in Northern Ireland during the Troubles in the 1970s. It relocated to Kiwi Barracks at Bulford Camp in 1970. The regiment did a two-year posting to Malaysia, then returned to Redford Barracks in 1973 and moved on to Barrosa Barracks at Hemer in 1979.[1]

The regiment moved to Palace Barracks at Holywood in 1983, went on to Berlin in 1985 and returned to Redford Barracks before going to Oakington Barracks at Cambridge in 1989.[1] After taking part in the Gulf War in 1991, the regiment moved to St Barbara Barracks at Fallingbostel in 1993 from where it deployed units to Bosnia in 1994 and to Macedonia and Kosovo in 1999.[1]

The regiment moved back to Fort George in July 2000 and to Salamanca Barracks in Cyprus in September 2003.[1] The battalion was involved in Operation TELIC IV in Iraq in Summer 2004[3] and then in Operation TELIC VI in Iraq in Spring 2006.[4]

As part of the Delivering Security in a Changing World Review of the Armed Forces, the regiment was amalgamated with the other regiments of the Scottish Division to become the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland which was formed on 28 March 2006.[1] The battalion moved to Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik at the same time.[1]

In Summer 2015 units of the battalion were deployed to Afghanistan to train the Afghan National Army.[5]

Currently as a light role battalion under the command of 51st Infantry Brigade, the battalion also has responsibility for public duties in Edinburgh.[6]

Regimental heritage

The regiment and current battalion has the distinction among British infantry regiments of carrying three Colours on parade. In addition to the Queen's and Regimental Colours, the third - the Assaye Colour, was originally awarded by the Governor General in Council in India on behalf of the British East India Company to the 74th Highland Regiment for distinguished service at the Battle of Assaye in India in 1803 while under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington.[7]

The Regiment maintained the traditions of the long 'Attention' command being given on parade (rather than the modern abbreviated Army 'shun') and of referring to the Commanding Officer's orders (disciplinary parade) as 'haul up' from the days of the unit acting as escorts to prisoners being transported to the colonies. Officers wore red 'infantry' piping on the epaulettes of their greatcoats, a detail inherited from the Royal Scots Fusiliers and mentioned by Boris Pasternak in his book Doctor Zhivago, but long lost to other infantry regiments.[8]

The Regiment's uniform included the blue Glengarry cap with red 'tourie', red, white and green dicing, black silk cockade and 'Flaming Grenade' cap badge, Mackenzie tartan trews and black highland brogue shoes worn with white spats. In the field in combat dress, the Glengarry was replaced, when a helmet is not worn, by a khaki 'tam o'shanter' bonnet with Mackenzie tartan patch and with a white hackle from the Royal Scots Fusiliers when appropriate. The Regimental capbadge was the 'grenade in flames' taken from the Royal Scots Fusiliers cap badge, on which is mounted the crowned HLI monogram from the Highland Light Infantry. The tartan is 'Mackenzie', the blue and green 'government' tartan with added white and red lines.[9]

Battle honours

The Regiment has been awarded over 200 battle honours, from Blenheim to the Gulf War, gained in every major and many minor conflicts, campaigns and theatres of war since the 21st Regiment's first engagement at the Battle of Walcourt in 1689, a number unsurpassed by any other unit in the British Army.[10]

The Regiment's Battle Honours include: Blenheim (August 1704 - War of the Spanish Succession), Assaye (September 1803 - Mahratta War), The Storming of Badajos (April 1812 - Peninsular War), Vitoria (June 1813 - Peninsular War), Waterloo (July 1815), Inkerman (November 1854 - Crimean War) and Gheluvelt (October 1914 - World War 1 - France). 44 battle honours are carried on the Regimental Colour, 29 on the Queens Colour and 2: Seringapatam and Assaye, on the Assaye Colour.[10]

Pipe band

In the Royal Highland Fusiliers' Pipes, Drums and Bugles band, pipers wear the all-blue Cameron pattern Glengarry with Dress Erskine tartan kilt, drummers also wear the kilt but retain the diced Glengarry as do buglers who wear Mackenzie tartan trews. The band members wear a different type of capbadge in which the Regimental 'flaming grenade' capbadge is superimposed on the saltire of St Andrew and the star of the Order of the Thistle. The Drum major wears Mackenzie tartan trews, fusilier officer's full dress pattern scarlet doublet and bearskin with a grenade cap badge and white hackle.[11]

A Royal Highland Fusilier in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
The Home Headquarters and Museum of the Royal Highland Fusiliers on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow.

Regimental Headquarters and Museum

The Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed Regimental Headquarters and Museum is operated by the Regimental Secretary and located near Charing Cross at Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. The battalion's recruitment team is also based at Walcheren Barracks in the Maryhill district of Glasgow. A regimental magazine is also published, The Journal of the Royal Highland Fusiliers. There are also various old comrades groups and associations linked to the current and antecedent Regiments of the RHF.[12]

Alliances

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Royal Highland Fusiliers". British Army units 1945 on. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "Somaliland Independence: 26th June 1960". Somaliland News. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  3. ↑ "UK Stability Operations in Iraq" (PDF). Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  4. ↑ "The Operational Emergency Department Attendance Register (Opedar): A New Epidemiological Tool" (PDF). Royal Army Medical Corps RAMC Journal. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  5. ↑ "Scots troops off to Afghanistan to train army". Herald Scotland. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  6. ↑ "The Royal Highland Fusiliers (2 SCOTS)". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "Assaye". Royal Highland Fusiliers. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  8. ↑ Pasternak, Boris (2010). Doctor Zhivago. Harvill Secker. p. 316. ISBN 9781846553790.
  9. ↑ "Tartan types". Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  10. 1 2 "Battle honours". Royal Highland Fusiliers. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "4/5th Bn Royal Scots Fusiliers TA, drum major 1965". Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  12. ↑ "Welcome to the Regimental Museum". Retrieved 25 May 2014.

Further reading

External links

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