Liverpool Scottish

The Liverpool Scottish, known diminutively as "the Scottish", is a unit of the British Territorial Army, raised in 1900 as an infantry battalion of the King's (Liverpool Regiment). The Liverpool Scottish became affiliated to the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in the 1920s and formally transferred to the regiment in 1937 with its identity preserved. Reflecting the Territorial Army's decline in size since the 1940s, the battalion was reduced to a company in 1967, then to a platoon of "A" (King's) Company, King's and Cheshire Regiment in 1999. In 2006, the company was incorporated into the 4th Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.

Service in the First World War was extensive and the Liverpool Scottish was one of the first territorial battalions to arrive in France when it deployed in November 1914. Approximately 1,000 of more than 10,000 men who served with the Scottish died during the war. The first major battle of the Scottish during the war was on 16 June 1915 in what is officially known as "The First Action at Bellewaarde", which was designed to pin down German reserves while other Allied forces were engaged elsewhere. The action is known to the Liverpool Scottish as the "Battle of Hooge". Hooge being a village a few miles East of Ypres in Belgium.

The unit's most acclaimed soldier during the war was Noel Godfrey Chavasse, who was awarded two Victoria Crosses while attached from the Royal Army Medical Corps.. Sgt Albert Baybut, Chavasse's Medical Orderly, is technically the most highly decorated soldier in the history of Liverpool Scottish due to Chavasse's parent unit actually being the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). Baybut would receive a Distinguished Conduct Medal, and Bar, together with the Military Medal for his actions alongside Chavasse during WWI. Chavasse remains one of only three people ever to have twice been awarded the decoration, and the only recipient from the Liverpool Scottish.

Although expanded to two battalions during the Second World War, the Liverpool Scottish did not serve abroad as intact battalions. Contingents were instead supplied to other battalions and the Army Commandos. With the commandos, the Liverpool Scottish actively served in operations in Europe, including the Norwegian Campaign and the St Nazaire Raid.

Read more about Liverpool Scottish:  1900–1914, Interbellum and Second World War, Post-war, Commanding Officers

Famous quotes containing the word scottish:

    I have hardly begun to live on Staten Island yet; but, like the man who, when forbidden to tread on English ground, carried Scottish ground in his boots, I carry Concord ground in my boots and in my hat,—and am I not made of Concord dust? I cannot realize that it is the roar of the sea I hear now, and not the wind in Walden woods. I find more of Concord, after all, in the prospect of the sea, beyond Sandy Hook, than in the fields and woods.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)