Dance The Glasgow Highlanders 2498

The Jacobite Rising of 1745 ended on 16 April, 1746, with the battle of Culloden and most of the leaders were executed or exiled and their estates and titles forfeited. Simon Fraser, 12th Lord Lovat (1667–1747), was beheaded, while another leader, George, 3rd Earl of Cromarty (1703–1766) was more fortunate in that, though condemned to death, his countell was able to win him a reprieve.

Lord Lovat’s eldest son, Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat (1726–1782), was pardoned in 1750 for his part in the rebellion and in 1757 he raised the “78th Fraser’s Highlanders” for the king’s service. The 78th was disbanded in 1763 and in 1778 Fraser, by then major-general, raised the “71st Fraser’s Highlanders”. Both regiments served in America.

John MacKenzie, Lord MacLeod (1727–1789), eldest son of the Earl of Cromarty, was pardoned in 1746 upon surrender of his rights and he went abroad to enter the army of Adolphus Frederick of Sweden.

The Swedish court was a haven for Jacobite intriguers who dreamed about the “next” rising and cherished hopes that the King of Sweden might make war against the House of Hanover. An anonymous drinking song, to the old Scots tune “Hey Tutti Tatti”, pointed to the forlorn hopes of the plotters.

Weel may we a’ be,
Ill may we never see;
God bless the King,
And this gude company.
Chorus
Fill, fill a bumper high,
Drain, drain your glasses dry;
Out upon him, fie! O fie!
That winna do’t again.

Here to the King, sirs,
Ye ken wha I mean, sirs,
And to every honest man
That will do’t again.

Here’s to the Chieftains,
Of the gallant Scottish clans;
They hae done it mair than ance
And will do’t again.

Here’s to the King of Swede,
May fresh laurels crown his head;
Foul fa’ every sneaking blade,
That winna do’t again.

To mak a’ things right,
He that drinks maun fight too,
To shew his heart’s upright too,
And that he’ll do’t again.

When you hear the pipe sounds
Tutti, tatti, to the drums,
Up your swords and down your guns,
And at the loons again!

In 1777 Lord MacLeod returned home, raised a regiment for George III, fought in India against Hyder Ali, became a major-general and a member of parliament. His estates were restored in 1784.

The regiment raised by MacLeod was the 73rd Highland Regiment (MacLeod’s Highlanders). Its original composition was 840 Highlanders recruited from MacKenzie country, 240 from Glasgow and the rest from Ireland and England. A second battalion was raised the following year and in 1779 the 1st Battalion, under Lord MacLeod, went to southern India and the 2nd Battalion, commanded by MacLeod’s brother, the Hon. George MacKenzie, sailed to Gibraltar where it won a battle honour, the “Castle and Key”, superscribed Gibraltar 1780–1783. Following the disbandment of “Fraser’s Highlanders”, “MacLeod’s Highlanders” became the 71st Regiment.

Battalions were raised or disbanded according to military needs or political expediency and in 1804 a new 2nd Battalion was raised. Recruitment for this battalion was chiefly from Glasgow and in 1808 the 71st became known as “The Glasgow Highland Regiment”.

In 1881 the 71st was linked with the 74th Highland Regiment to become the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Highland Light Infantry. The 74th, similarly to MacLeod’s, was raised originally by Sir Archibald Campbell of Inverneil. Recruitment was mainly from Campbell country, from Argyll, Knapdale and Kintyre with a large quota from Glasgow.

As Britain’s need for fighting men increased during the Napoleonic Wars, the Boer War, and World War I, a civilian army, attached to the regulars, came into being. The movement began with the Volunteers and the Militia and, eventually, evolved into the Territorial Army. In the Highland Light Infantry, the old Militia was designated as battallions of the Special Reserve while the Volunteers became the Glasgow Highlanders, Territorial Army.

Homesick Highlanders living in Glasgow had long hoped that a volunteer battalion made up of Highlanders could be formed and in 1868 just such a battalion was raised, the 105th Lanarkshir (Glasgow Highland) Rifle Volunteers. From Crosshill and Partick, from Springburn and Whiteinch, Hillhead and Queen’s Park, the eager Highlanders joined up. In 1880 the battalion received a new number, the 10th, and in 1887 it became the “5th (Glasgow Highland) Volunteer Battalion, the Highland Light Infantry”.

After World War I the regiment became known as the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) (71 and 74). In 1943 the Highland Light Infantry was, with great ceremony, given “the Freedom of Entry into the City and Royal Burgh of Glasgow on ceremonial occasions with bayonets fixed, drums beating and colours flying”.

Reductions in the British Army caused amalgamation in 1959 of the Highland Light Infantry with the Royal Scots Fusiliers to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers. One hundred and eighty-two years had passed since “MacLeod’s Highlanders” were raised. Battles had been fought from India to Africa to the Near East. The “Assays” Colour of the 74th was laid up in Glasgow Cathedral. “Glesca Keelies” in their thousands had died for their country. The Glasgow Highlanders were no more.