17th century In April 1633,
Sir John Hepburn was granted a
warrant by
Charles I to recruit 1200 Scots for service with the French army in the 1618–1648
Thirty Years War. The nucleus came from Hepburn's previous regiment, which fought with the Swedes from 1625 until August 1632, when Hepburn quarrelled with
Gustavus Adolphus. It absorbed other Scottish units in the Swedish army, as well as those already with the French and by 1635 totalled around 8,000 men. Sir John was killed in 1636 and succeeded as Colonel by his brother George, then, after his death in 1637,
Lord James Douglas; following the custom of the time, the unit became known as the
Régiment de Douglas. James died in a skirmish near
Douai in 1645 and was replaced by his elder brother
Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, who remained in Scotland and had little contact with the regiment, other than supplying recruits. In 1653, he assigned the Colonelcy to his younger half-brother,
George Douglas, later Earl of Dumbarton. In 1660,
Charles II was restored as king; in January 1661, Douglas's was sent to England in response to
Venner's Rising, an attempted coup by
Fifth Monarchists. The revolt was quickly crushed and it returned to France, since the recently elected
Cavalier Parliament quickly disbanded the
New Model Army but refused to fund replacements. It remained in France until 1679, apart from a period during the 1664-67
Second Anglo-Dutch War when it was based at the naval dockyard of
Chatham. The diarist
Pepys met George Douglas in Rochester and recorded that "Here in the streets, I did hear the Scotch march beat by the drums before the soldiers, which is very odde." In 1667, the regiment was accused of looting after the
Raid on the Medway and ordered back to France; while awaiting transport, over 700 of the 1,500 men deserted. During the 1672-74
Third Anglo-Dutch War, Douglas's was part of the British Brigade that fought with the French, commanded by the
Duke of Monmouth. It served in the
Rhineland throughout the
Franco-Dutch War, even after the Anglo-Dutch war ended in February 1674; it became the
Régiment de Dumbarton in 1675, after George Douglas was made Earl of Dumbarton. The 1678
Treaties of Nijmegen required the repatriation of all Scots and English units from France; reluctant to lose veteran troops, this was made as hard as possible. Dumbarton's was posted to the
Dauphiné in Southern France before being disbanded and its men prevented from travelling for 30 days thereafter; many chose to remain, while those who arrived in England did so without money or possessions. The regiment was listed on the English military establishment as the
First Foot or Royal Scots, a temporary measure during the
Exclusion Crisis of 1679–1681. Four of its twenty-one companies joined the
Tangier Garrison in April 1680, with another twelve in September. It was awarded a
battle honour for 'Tangier' in 1908, but the colony and its garrison was evacuated in 1684. A war diary for 1680 was kept by its commander, Sir James Halkett, allegedly one of the first examples to survive. On its return, the unit was renamed '''His Majesty's Royal Regiment of Foot''' in June 1684. When
James II succeeded Charles in 1685, the regiment fought at the decisive
Battle of Sedgemoor that ended the June
Monmouth Rebellion; a second battalion was raised in March 1686 and posted to Scotland. It was the only unit where the majority remained loyal to James during the November 1688
Glorious Revolution; Dumbarton followed him into exile and one of William's subordinates,
Frederick Schomberg, was appointed Colonel. While awaiting transport from
Ipswich to
Flanders, it mutinied on 15 March 1689, a combination of not being paid and dislike at being commanded by a foreigner. However, the mutineers were treated with leniency and later agreed to the move. At the start of the 1688–1697
Nine Years War,
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Robert Douglas commanded the first battalion at the
Battle of Walcourt in 1689. After Schomberg was killed in Ireland, he was promoted Colonel in July 1690. The second battalion arrived from Scotland in 1690 and both battalions fought at the
Battle of Steenkerque in 1692, where Sir Robert was killed. They then fought at the
Battle of Landen in 1693 and at the
Siege of Namur. When the
Treaty of Ryswick ended the war in 1697, it was transferred to Ireland.
18th century During the
War of the Spanish Succession, the regiment served under
Marlborough at
Schellenberg,
Blenheim,
Ramillies and
Oudenarde. At
Malplaquet in 1709, its members included
William Hiseland, an 89-year-old reputed to be the last serving veteran of the
First English Civil War. Both battalions spent 1715 to 1742 in Ireland, but after this were normally separated. After returning from
Puerto Bello in 1743, the 2nd helped suppress the
Jacobite rising of 1745, before being posted to Ireland once again. In the army reforms of 1751, the unit was ranked as the most senior infantry line regiment and titled the
1st (Royal) Regiment of Foot. On the outbreak of the
Seven Years' War in 1756, the 2nd Battalion moved to
Nova Scotia in 1757, fighting at
Louisburg,
Guadeloupe and
Havana, then returning home in 1764. After the rebellion was over in Ireland they were used in minor raids on the coast of Spain in 1800. In February 1812, the regiment was retitled as the
1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots), the first official appearance of the popular name. It returned to Portugal in 1810 with the 5th Division, fighting at the
Battle of Buçaco (1810), the
Battle of Fuentes de Onoro (1811), the battles of
Badajoz,
Salamanca and
Burgos (1812), the
Battle of Vitoria, capture of
San Sebastián,
Battle of Nivelle, and the
Battle of Nive (1813), before advancing into France in 1814. It was sent to Belgium during the
Hundred Days, and fought in Picton's Division (the 5th) at the
Battle of Waterloo (1815). After two years in the Army of Occupation, it was disbanded at Canterbury in 1817.
19th century The 1st battalion was sent to Ireland after the end of the Napoleonic wars, and stationed there from 1816 until 1825, when it was moved to the West Indies, where it remained until 1835. The 2nd battalion, however, had a more active time; based in India, it was involved in the
Third Anglo-Maratha War, where it fought at the Battle of Nagpore (1817) and
Battle of Mahidpur (1818), and in the
First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–26. It moved to Scotland in 1830, and to Canada in 1836, where it was involved in the
Rebellions of 1837. A move to the West Indies in 1843 was complicated by half the regiment being shipwrecked and delayed several months, but was successful, and the regiment finally returned to Scotland in 1846. After the war, the 1st battalion moved to Ceylon in 1857 Under the previously mentioned reforms, the regiment became a county regiment, encompassing the following:
City of Edinburgh (
Midlothian),
Haddingtonshire (East Lothian),
Linlithgowshire (West Lothian), and
Berwickshire (later transferred to the
King's Own Scottish Borderers on 1 May 1887). In addition to the two regular battalions and depot, the regiment now took control of the various militia and infantry (rifle) volunteers based in the above counties. This left the regiment with the following structure: • Regimental Headquarters, at
Edinburgh Castle,
Edinburgh • Regimental Depot (part of the 1st Regimental District), at
Glencorse Barracks,
Glencorse • 1st Battalion –
regular, previously 1st Battalion, 1st (Royal Scots) Regiment of Foot • 2nd Battalion –
regular, previously 2nd Battalion, 1st (Royal Scots) Regiment of Foot •
3rd Battalion (The Queen's Edinburgh Regiment of Light Infantry) –
Militia •
1st Edinburgh (City) Rifle Volunteers (The Queen's City of Edinburgh Rifle Volunteer Brigade) –
three battalions forming the main Rifle Volunteers element – forming the 1st volunteer battalion of the regiment •
2nd Edinburgh (City) Rifle Volunteer Corps –
2nd volunteer battalion of the regiment •
1st Midlothian (Leith) Rifle Volunteer Corps –
3rd volunteer battalion of the regiment • 2md Midlothian (Midlothian & Peebles-shire) Rifle Volunteer Corps –
4th volunteer battalion of the regiment •
1st Linlithgowshire Rifle Volunteer Corps –
5th volunteer battalion of the regiment •
1st Haddington Rifle Volunteer Corps –
6th volunteer battalion of the regiment In 1881, the 1st was in the West Indies; it moved to South Africa in 1884, when it saw action in the
Bechuanaland campaign, and remained there until 1891, when it moved back to the UK to serve as the depot battalion and the 2nd moved out to India. With the outbreak of the
Second Anglo-Boer War, the 1st was quickly earmarked for service in South Africa, and sailed in late 1899. It remained there until 1903, being joined by the 3rd from 1900 to 1902 In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the
Territorial Force and the latter the
Special Reserve; the regiment now had one Reserve and seven Territorial battalions. The 1st moved back to India in 1909, relieving the 2nd, which moved back to the UK; they remained stationed there until 1914. and seeing action on the afternoon of the 23rd. The Special Reserve had been mobilised, with the 3rd Battalion activated at Weymouth, and all seven battalions of the Territorial Force had mobilised and raised an additional second-line battalion by the end of 1914. A further seven battalions of
the New Army were formed in 1914, including two
Pals battalions By the end of 1914, the regiment stood at a strength of 24 battalions; another six Territorial battalions and three New Army battalions (one of
bantams) were formed in 1915. In 1916, one service and one reserve battalion were formed by merging depleted Territorial battalions, and in 1917 a
labour battalion was formed. In total, the Royal Scots raised some thirty-five battalions of infantry and over 100,000 men during the course of the First World War, of which fifteen battalions saw active service. 11,000 soldiers serving in the regiment were killed, and over 40,000 wounded. The 1st, on returning from India, was placed in the
27th Division, a division made up of regular units that had been recalled from garrison duty, and arrived in France in December 1914. It saw combat in the action of Saint-Éloi and throughout the
Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, before the division was withdrawn and moved to
Salonika in November, where it spent the rest of the war It was sent to
Georgia in December 1918 for operations against the
Bolsheviks, and returned to Edinburgh in May 1919. The 2nd was part of the
3rd Division, one of the first units of the
British Expeditionary Force to be sent to France. It first saw action in the
Battle of Mons, and thence at almost all of the major actions on the
Western Front, before returning to Scotland in 1919. They fought at the
Gallipoli campaign before being moved to
Egypt in 1916 and serving in the
Sinai and Palestine Campaign. They were sent to France in April 1918 for the
Second Battle of the Somme, and remained there until the end of the war. Both battalions were reduced to a
cadre in March 1919, and returned home to disband in May. and spent the remainder of the war on the Western Front. The 11th and 12th moved to Germany after the armistice; the 12th was reduced to a cadre in April 1919 and disbanded in the UK in June, whilst the 11th was reduced to a cadre and disbanded at Cologne in November. The 13th remained in Belgium, being reduced to a cadre in March 1919 and disbanded in the UK in June.
Inter-war period (1919–1939) The regiment was reduced sharply in size following the
Armistice; during 1919, the 3rd Battalion disbanded, as did all bar one of the Territorial battalions (the one exception being the 2/10th, which was finally disbanded in February 1920). In September 1919, the 1st Battalion again embarked for imperial service, taking up garrison duties in
Rangoon, and in August 1920 the 2nd Battalion was sent to Ireland for service in what would later become the
Anglo-Irish War; they would remain there until January 1922. The three battalions not retained in 1921 were converted to support units outside the regimental structure. The 4th/5th Battalion was later, in 1938, transferred to the
Royal Engineers and converted into an anti-aircraft role, becoming the 4th/5th Battalion, The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) (52nd Searchlight Regiment). It was later transferred to the
Royal Artillery in August 1940 as the 52nd (Queen's Edinburgh, Royal Scots) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery. The 1st Battalion moved from Rangoon to
Secunderabad in 1922, then to Aden in 1925. They finally returned to the UK in 1926, barracked at Maryhill in Glasgow, where they saw duty in the
General Strike. Under the Cardwell system, it was common for one battalion to remain at home while the other one served overseas, and accordingly in January 1926 the 2nd Battalion moved to Egypt, then to China in 1928. In 1930, they moved to
Quetta, then
Lahore in 1934, and finally Hong Kong in January 1938. At the same time, the 1st Battalion was deployed to serve in the
1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, where it would remain for a year, until January 1939, when it became part of the
4th Infantry Brigade,
2nd Infantry Division. whilst the other formed a duplicate 8th Battalion on 2 August 1939.
Second World War (1939–1945) s and regimental troops pause in
Tilburg, 27 October 1944 s, December 1944 , January 1945 At the outbreak of the
Second World War on 3 September 1939, the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots was at Aldershot as part of
4th Infantry Brigade, alongside the 1st
Border Regiment and 2nd
Royal Norfolk Regiment,
2nd Infantry Division; accordingly, it deployed to France with the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It moved to
Lecelles in September, and in May 1940 moved into
Belgium during the
Battle of France. The BEF were heavily hit by the
German Army's breakthrough, however, and fell back towards the coast; the battalion was deployed at
Le Paradis, near
Béthune, on 25 May to protect the flanks of the
Dunkirk evacuation. After being heavily hit by armoured attacks, the battalion ceased fighting on the afternoon of 27 May. The adjacent unit, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolks, had almost one hundred men taken prisoner and later shot by their captors in the
Le Paradis massacre. Recent research has suggested that around twenty Royal Scots suffered a similar fate. The remnants of the battalion were reconstituted in Bradford in June. The two
Territorial Army units, the 7th/9th, which was the 7th and 9th battalions merged, and 8th Battalions, mobilised in Scotland in September; the 7th/9th was briefly deployed to France with the
155th Infantry Brigade, alongside the 4th and 5th
King's Own Scottish Borderers, of the
52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division before the collapse of the French government, but was quickly withdrawn. Most of 1941 passed without active duty for the regiment, and with growing concerns about the stability of the Far East, the 2nd Battalion, still based at
Hong Kong, moved into defensive positions around the colony. On 8 December, the
Battle of Hong Kong began a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor; after bitter fighting, the garrison surrendered on Christmas Day. The newly formed 12th Battalion was disbanded and reformed as the 2nd Battalion in May 1942. as a 2nd Line duplicate of the 7th/9th Battalion. They remained in the United Kingdom as part of
44th (Lowland) Infantry Brigade, alongside the 6th
Royal Scots Fusiliers and 6th King's Own Scottish Borderers. The brigade was a part of the
15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, which would gain an excellent reputation in the campaign, and itself was formed a 2nd Line duplicate of the 1st Line 52nd Division. In June 1944, they
landed in Normandy as part of
Operation Overlord and fought in the
Battle for Caen in
Operation Epsom and later at the
Second Battle of the Odon and
Operation Bluecoat. They then fought in the
North West Europe Campaign,
from Paris to the Rhine, until the end of the war; it entered Belgium in September,
crossed the Rhine in March 1945 and advanced to Hamburg by the end of the war. The 7th/9th (Highlanders) and 8th Battalions were reconstituted in the Territorial Army in 1947. Both battalions remained until 1961, when the latter was absorbed and the single battalion retitled the 8th/9th Battalion. In 1967 this was disbanded and reconstituted as two separate companies, A Company (The Royal Scots) of the
52nd Lowland Volunteers, and A Company (8th/9th Royal Scots) of The Royal Scots and Cameronians Territorials. By 1971, both companies were in the battalions of the 52nd Lowland Volunteers, and though the Royal Scots name was retained in the title the regiment no longer had a Territorial Army element. The 1st Battalion briefly saw service in the
Korean War in 1953, as part of
29th Infantry Brigade; after a brief spell in Egypt, they deployed to
Cyprus from June 1955 to February 1956. They then spent two years in England, two in
Berlin, one in Scotland, two in
Libya, and four in England. In 1964, they deployed to
Aden, then back to England and a three-year spell in Germany with the
British Army of the Rhine. 1970 to 1974 was spent in Britain as part of the
Allied Command Europe Mobile Force, with the battalion undertaking two four-month tours of duty in Northern Ireland. The battalion was then posted to Cyprus in early 1974. Unfortunately,
Turkey invaded the island and created the "Green Line", which still partitions the island. During the action of moving service families and holidaymakers to safety from
Limassol, Piper Malcolm Halliday played at the roadside becoming known as "The piper of Cyprus". This had put the Regiment on a war footing and they were involved in riots attacking
RAF Akrotiri and protection of the
Sovereign Area Base of Episkopi. They were relieved in early 1975 returning unexpectedly to Kirknewton near Edinburgh and did a further four-month tour of Northern Ireland, where three soldiers were lost in a roadside bomb attack. They moved to
Münster in mid-1976 as the Nuclear Convoy Battalion charged with the protection of 8 Regiment
RCT. However almost immediately the
Ministry of Defence moved to amalgamate the two battalions. This was not a new idea: the origins of the combined entity,
Royal Scots Borderers, dates from the 1990
Options for Change review, when it was initially announced that the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers would amalgamate. That amalgamation was subsequently rescinded. The Royal Scots Battalion and King's Own Scottish Borderers Battalion duly amalgamated on 1 August 2006 – upon their amalgamation, the new battalion took the name Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland. The remaining Territorial element of the Royal Scots, a rifle company of
52nd Lowland Regiment, was likewise amalgamated, becoming A (Royal Scots Borderers) Company of 6th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland. ==Regimental museum==