Authors and Contributors this page: T.F. Mills
Page created 15 July 2000. Corrected and updated 04.12.2005
 
The  Black Watch 
(Royal Highland Regiment)
crest and tie
by A. Melville-Brown
United Kingdom 
  Titles & Lineage
  History
  Battle Honours
  Colours, Standards & Guidons
  Uniforms & Badges
  Colonels-in-Chief
  Colonels

  Biography & Gallantry Awards
  Traditions
  Alliances
  Associations, Forums, Re-Enactors
  Museums, Monuments, Memorials
  Bibliography

How to find information about individuals who served in this corps
 
1881.07.01 The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
organised as the county regiment of Fifeshire, Forfarshire and Perthshire, encompassing its Militia and Volunteer infantry [see below] and uniting two regular battalions:
 
1935 The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment)
2006.03.28 to be united with The Royal Scots, The Royal Highland Fusiliers, The King's Own Scottish Borderers, The Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons), and The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, to form The Royal Regiment of Scotland
Note:
See 42nd Highlanders for a note on the origins of the name "Black Watch".
 
 
The Black Watch (Army site)
The Black Watch (Regimental site)
The Black Watch, by Diana M. Henderson (Scots at War)
Lineage and History (Scottish Military Historical Society)
The Black Watch (Edinburgh Tattoo)
The Black Watch, by Glenvil Roberts.
History of the Regiment (Regimental site)
History of the Regiment (Unofficial Regimental site)
The Black Watch Regiment, by Rich Hawkins.
The Black Watch, 1881-1975 (Unofficial Regimental site)
The Black Watch, by Chris Baker (The British Army in the Great War).
The Black Watch, by Brad Chappell (The Regimental Warpath 1914-1918)
The Black Watch, by Dave Depickere (World War II Analyzed)
Black Watch Chindits, by Stewart Cochrane.
Service In World War II - Korea, by 42nd Black Watch Highland Society Inc.
The Black Watch in World War II (7th Bn Black Watch Living History Association)
     
  RHQ and Depot:
    RHQ: Balhousie Castle, Perth
    42nd Regimental District at Perth [1881-1905]
   
    N Group at Edinburgh [1946-1948]
    Highland Brigade at Bridge of Don [1948-1968]
    Scottish Division at Edinburgh [1968-2006]
     
  Regulars:
  1st Battalion [1881-2006]
2nd Battalion [1881-1948]
Militia and Special Reserve:
  3rd Battalion (The Royal Perthshire Rifle Regiment of Militia) [1881-1953]
 
  • Lineage (Scottish Military Historical Society)
Territorials and Volunteers:
The Territorial Soldiers (Unofficial Regimental site)
Lineage, 1859-1908 (Scottish Military Historical Society)
  1st (Dundee) Volunteer Battalion [1881-1908]
  2nd (Angus) Volunteer Battalion [1881-1908]
  3rd (Dundee Highland) Volunteer Battalion [1881-1908]
 
  4th (Perthshire) Volunteer Battalion [1881-1908]
  5th (Perthshire Highland) Volunteer Battalion [1881-1908]
  6th (Fifeshire) Volunteer Battalion [1881-1908]
  4th (City of Dundee) Battalion [1908-1921, 1939-1946]
  4th/5th (Dundee and Angus) Battalion [1921-1939, 1947-1967]
  5th (Angus and Dundee) Battalion [1908-1921, 1939-1946]
 
  6th (Perthshire) Battalion [1908-1921, 1939-1946]
  6th/7th (Perthshire and Fife) Battalion [1921-1939, 1947-1967]
  7th (Fife) Battalion [1908-1921, 1939-1946]
  8th (Cyclist) Battalion [1908-1909]
  13th (Scottish Horse) Battalion [1916-1919]
  14th (Fife and Forfar Yeomanry) Battalion [1917-1919]
  3rd (T) Battalion [1967-1971]
3rd (V) Battalion [1994-1999]
51st Highland Volunteers [1967-1994]
51st Highland Regiment [1999-2006]
Hostilities-Only Units (First and Second World War, including T.A. duplicates):
2/4th (City of Dundee) Battalion [1914-1917]
4th (City of Dundee) (Reserve) Battalion [1915-1919]
2/5th (Angus and Dundee) Battalion [1914-1915]
5th (Angus and Dundee) (Reserve) Battalion [1915-1916]
5th (Dundee and Angus) Battalion [1939-1947]
2/6th (Perthshire) Battalion [1914-1917]
6th (Perthshire) (Reserve) Battalion [1915-1916]
2/7th (Fife) Battalion [1914-1918]
7th (Fife) (Reserve) Battalion [1915-1916]
7th Battalion [1939-1947]
8th (Service) Battalion [1914-1919]
8th (Home Defence) Battalion [1939-1941]
9th (Service) Battalion [1914-1919]
9th (Home Defence) Battalion [1939-1941]
10th (Service) Battalion [1914-1918]
10th Battalion [1943-1946]
11th (Reserve) Battalion [1914-1916]
12th (Labour) Battalion [1916-1917]
13th (Scottish Horse) Battalion [1916-1919]
14th (Fife and Forfar Yeomanry) Battalion [1916-1919]
15th (Service) Battalion [1918-1918]
30th Battalion [1941-1943]
50th (Holding) Battalion [1940-1943]
70th (Young Soldier) Battalion [1940-1942]
 
Cadets:
Black Watch Battalion, ACF (ACF Scotland)
[combined battle honours of 42nd Regiment and 73rd Regiment, plus:]  

Guadaloupe 17591, Martinique 17621, Havannah1, North America 1763-642, Mysore5Busaco3, Salamanca4South Africa 1846-76, 1851-2-36 Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882 '84, Kirbekan, Nile 1884-5, Paardeberg, South Africa 1899-1902

The Great War [25 battalions]:  Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914 '18, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Ypres 1914 '17 '18, Langemarck 1914, Gheluvelt, Nonne Bosschen, Givenchy 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozières, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Thiepval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916, Arras 1917 '18, Vimy 1917, Scarpe 1917 '18, Arleux, Pilckem, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 '18, St Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Rosières, Lys, Estaires, Messines 1918, Hazebrouck, Kemmel, Béthune, Scherpenberg, Soissonnais-Ourcq, Tardenois, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenberg Line, Épéhy, St Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Courtrai, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Doiran 1917, Macedonia 1915-18, Egypt 1916, Gaza, Jerusalem, Tell'Asur, Megiddo, Sharon, Damascus, Palestine 1917-18, Tigris 1916, Kut al Amara 1917, Baghdad, Mesopotamia 1915-17

The Second World War:  Defence of Arras, Ypres-Comines Canal, Dunkirk 1940, Somme 1940, St. Valery-en-Caux, Saar, Breville, Odon, Fontenay le Pesnil, Defence of Rauray, Caen, Falaise, Falaise Road, La Vie Crossing, Le Havre, Lower Maas, Venlo Pocket, Ourthe, Rhineland, Reichswald, Goch, Rhine, North-West Europe 1940 '44-45, Barkasan, British Somaliland 1940, Tobruk 1941, Tobruk Sortie, El Alamein, Advance on Tripoli, Medenine, Zemlet el Lebene, Mareth, Akarit, Wadi Akarit East, Djebel Roumana, Medjez Plain, Si Mediene, Tunis, North Africa 1941-43, Landing in Sicily, Vizzini, Sferro, Gerbini, Adrano, Sferro Hills, Sicily 1943, Cassino II, Liri Valley, Advance to Florence, Monte Scalari, Casa Fortis, Rimini Line, Casa Fabbri Ridge, Savio Bridgehead, Italy 1944-45, Athens, Greece 1944-45, Crete, Heraklion, Middle East 1941, Chindits 1944, Burma 1944

The Hook 1952, Korea 1952-53, Al Basrah, Iraq 2003

4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Battalions:  South Africa 1900-02

1.  awarded 1909 for services of 42nd Regiment.
2.  awarded 1914 for services of 42nd Regiment.
3.  awarded 1910 for service of 42nd Regiment.
4.  awarded 1951 for service of 42nd Regiment.
5.  awarded 1889 for service of 73rd Regiment.
6.  awarded 1882 for service of 73rd Regiment.

   
Badges:
Uniform: tartan: Government (kilts, bagpipe covers, ribbons & cords), Royal Stewart (pipers' kilts & plaids)
   
   
     
   
1912.09.03 F.M. HM King George V
1937.05.13 HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
2003.07.01 Lt-Gen. HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, AK, QSO, ADC
  1881.07.01 [1st Bn:] Gen. Sir Duncan Alexander Cameron, GCB
  1881.07.01 [2nd Bn:] Gen. Sir Henry Robert Ferguson-Davie, Bt.
  1888.06.09 [1st Bn:] Gen. Sir Robert Rollo, KCB [also Argyll & Sutherland Hldrs]
  1907.02.26 Lt-Gen. Sir John Chetham McLeod, GCB
  1914.01.11 Gen. Sir John Grenfell Maxwell, GCB, KCMG, CVO, DSO
  1929.02.21 Gen. Sir Archibald Rice Cameron, GBE, KCB, CMG
  1940.08.28 Gen. Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, GCB, GCMG, CIE, DSO [also High Commissioner & C-in-C Palestine & Trans-Jordan 1931-38]
  1946.03.01 F.M. Sir Archibald (Wavell), 1st Earl Wavell, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC [C-in-C Middle East, C-in-C India, Viceroy & Gov. Gen. India 1943-47, Constable of the Tower 1948-50]
  1950.05.24 Gen. Sir Neil Methuen Ritchie, GBE, KCB, DSO, MC [C-in-C 8th Army 1941-42]
  1952.06.19 Maj-Gen. Neil McMicking, CB, CBE, DSO, MC
1960.03.31 Maj-Gen. Robert Keith (Arbuthnot), 15th Viscount Arbuthnott, CB, CBE, DSO, MC
1964.06.01 Brig. Henry Conyers Baker-Baker, DSO, MBE
1969.06.27 Brig. Rt. Hon. Bernard Edward (Fergusson), Baron Ballantrae of Auchairne and the Bay of Islands, KT, GCMG, GCVO, DSO, OBE
1976.05.06 Brig. John Cassels Montieth, CBE, MC, JP
1981.09.28 Maj-Gen. Andrew Linton Watson, CB
1992.09.28 Brig. Garry Charles Barnett, OBE, ADC
2003.09.28 Lt-Gen. Sir Alistair Stuart Hastings Irwin, KCB, CBE [also Col. Cmdt. Scottish Div; AG 2003-05]
Victoria Crosses, by Mike Chapman (VC Reference). 
VCs in the Black Watch Regimental Museum, by Iain Stewart.
 
Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit
Nicknames:
Anniversaries: Red Hackle Day (5 Jan.)
Freedoms: Dundee (23 June 1959), Perth (19 July 1947)
Marches: quick: All the Blue Bonnets are o'er the Border
  slow: The Garb of Old Gaul (Reid)
  Pipes & Drums quick: Hielan' Laddie
  Pipes & Drums slow: My Home
  Pipes & Drums slow: High Cradle Song
Musicians:
Mascot:
Miscellaneous Tradition Links:
The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada
-present
The Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment 1927-present
The Prince Edward Island Highlanders
-1946
The Prince Edward Island Regiment 1946-present
30th Infantry Battalion (The New South Wales Scottish Regiment) 1910?-1960
42nd Infantry Battalion (The Capricornia Regiment) 1939-1960
The Royal Queensland Regiment 1967-present
The Royal New South Wales Regiment 1967-present
The Transvaal Scottish 1938-1961,
1994-
The New Zealand Scottish Regiment

Black Watch Association (Regimental site)
The Black Watch Webring
42nd Black Watch Highland Society, Inc.
6th Battalion, Black Watch (Great War Association)
7th Battalion, The Black Watch, 1939-45 Living History Association [WW2], by Iain Burns.
The Black Watch Museum, Perth (Regimental site)
The Black Watch Museum, Perth (Army Museums Ogilby Trust)
The Black Watch Museum, Perth, by Henrik Teller (Simonides listing)
The Black Watch Museum, Perth (SMHS listing)
Memorial to The Black Watch at Aberfeldy, by Karl Murray
Regimental Journal:
The red hackle. 2 times a year. 1921- [selections]
Full Histories:
 
Short Histories:
 

Militia:

 

Territorials/Volunteers:

 

First World War:

 

Second World War: