Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 23 on 14/10/2005.

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Set for the history books

In the latest in our series on the Scottish regiments, Mark Nicholls looks at the Royal Highland Fusiliers and Glasgow, the vibrant city where it still recruits many of its soldiers

As an independent regiment, days are numbered for the Royal Highland Fusiliers.

With the planned merger of Scotland’s six infantry regiments into one ‘super regiment’ next year, the RHF is set to be absorbed.

However, it is somewhat ironic that it owes its existence and name to the last major reorganisation of the British Amy in 1959 when the Royal Scots Fusiliers and The Highland Light Infantry became the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret’s Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment).

With its regimental headquarters in Glasgow, the RHF recruits in the city and Ayrshire, as the name suggests.

Undoubtedly, there will be a determination to uphold its traditions, despite becoming a battalion of the planned new Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Its formal motto is Nemo Nos Impune Lacesset – “No one molests us with impunity.” But it also proudly proclaims “we continue to uphold the reputation of our forefathers.” And post-reorganisation, that is unlikely to change.

Under the process, the Royal Scots and the King’s Own Scottish Borderers would merge and form one battalion of the new regiment with the other four battalions made up by the Black Watch, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Highlanders and the RHF.

The RHF can trace its history back almost 330 years. The Royal Scots Fusiliers, the 21st Foot, were raised by the 5th Earl of Mar in 1678 in response to internal instability in Scotland. They gained the distinction of becoming a fusilier regiment, the term fusilier d.....

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By Mark Nicholls

Section : Scottish Regiments

Page number : 65