Royal Regiment of Scotland - History

History

As part of restructuring in the British Army, the Royal Regiment of Scotland's creation was announced by the Secretary of State for Defence, Geoff Hoon in the House of Commons on 16 December 2004, after the merger of several regiments and the reduction in total regular infantry battalions from 40 to 36 was outlined in the defence white paper, Delivering Security in a Changing World, several months earlier.

The regiment consists of a total of seven battalions: one of these was formed by the amalgamation of the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers, while the others are each formed from one of the remaining single-battalion regiments of the Scottish Division. Along with The Rifles, it is currently the largest infantry regiment in the British Army. Of all of the new regiments formed following the announcement of 16 December 2004, the Royal Regiment of Scotland is the only one where the former regimental titles have been prominently retained with the new numbered battalion designations as subtitles. There is however a common regimental cap badge, TRF, tartan, stable belt and Glengarry headdress but distinctively coloured hackles are also worn by each separate battalion on the Tam o' Shanter headdress in order to maintain their individual identity and the pipes and drums of each battalion continue to wear the ceremonial uniforms and tartans of their former regiments.

Along with The Rifles, The Royal Regiment of Scotland is also one of only two line infantry regiments to maintain its own regular military band within the Corps of Army Music, which was formed through the amalgamation of the Highland band and Lowland band of the Scottish Division. In addition, there are two Territorial bands, The Highland Band and The Lowland Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, which are administered by the regiment's two Territorial battalions. The regiment also has its own Parachute Display Team, the Golden Lions and shinty team, The Scots Shinty Club.

In 1948, every regiment of line infantry was reduced to a single battalion. The subsequent process of reducing the overall number of infantry regiments in the Army through disbandment or amalgamation of the traditional county regiments that were formalised in the Childers Reforms of 1881 to form larger multi-battalion regiments, has continued to affect most of the British Army Infantry since the 1957 Defence White Paper outlined the first mergers. The creation of the Royal Regiment of Scotland encountered considerable opposition amongst former soldiers, conservatives and nationalist groups. It has been argued that the establishment of large regiments in the British Army during the 1960s, such as the Royal Green Jackets, The Light Infantry, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and Royal Anglian Regiment, quickly led to a loss of separate identity amongst the constituent battalions as personnel were posted back and forward.

The new regiment is also primarily a kilted one and there are concerns that the much older Lowland units, which traditionally wore trews, will be effectively absorbed into a Highland tradition. However, the Ministry of Defence's case that change was necessary in order to enhance operational efficiency through economies of scale, improve and create more flexible conditions of service and to resolve chronic recruiting and retention problems amongst the eight single-battalion Scottish regiments appears to have been accepted by the majority of serving personnel, and indeed was recommended by the then Chief of the General Staff, Sir Mike Jackson.

Jackson delegated the decision on how the reduction of battalions would be achieved to the Council of Scottish Colonels. It is understood that at the meeting the Colonels were invited to speak in turn on how the reduction should be achieved. The Royal Scots Colonel speaking first on behalf of the senior regiment suggested that his regiment should be amalgamated with The King's Own Scottish Borderers, this suggestion was accepted by the remaining regiments less the The King's Own Scottish Borderers whose Colonel petitioned Jackson directly but to no avail. It is thought that the Colonel of The Royal Scots feared that his regiment would be disbanded due to its long term poor recruiting record and high reliance on Commonwealth recruits. The insistence in some quarters that the Scottish regiments must be treated as a special case, similar to the Guards Division, has not won wide support amongst the army at large.

The amalgamation remains an emotive one however because of the symbolic loss of historical continuity through the individual regimental status of each battalion. An organization called Save the Scottish Regiments was created to campaign against the plan, and the influential newspaper The Scotsman also opposed it.

The status of the Black Watch was particularly controversial. When the plan to amalgamate the regiments was announced, the Black Watch was deployed at Camp Dogwood in a relatively dangerous region of Iraq. Hoon was accused by the SNP of "stabbing the soldiers in the back" and being motivated purely by political and administrative concerns, with little regard to the effect on morale. This controversy was further exacerbated by the revelation that a former Colonel of the Black Watch, Lieutenant-General Alistair Irwin, had originally drafted the Army Board proposals to amalgamate the Scottish Division.

The regiment was initially formed of six regular battalions on 28 March 2006. On 1 August 2006, the Royal Scots Battalion and King's Own Scottish Borderers Battalion were amalgamated into the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots Borderers, leaving the final regular roll of five battalions. The Regimental Headquarters is located at Edinburgh Castle, although each regular battalion continues to maintain their own former regimental headquarters and museums within their respective recruiting areas.

In 2012, as part of the Army 2020 reform package, it was announced that the 5th Battalion, while not losing its name and history as the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, would be reduced to the status of an incremental company, similar to the three companies in the Guards Division, and be transferred to become a permanent public duties unit in Scotland.