Dates for your Diary - The Royal Scots

As We Were
As the final act of the 350th Anniversary activities a time
capsule containing various documents was sealed and
placed in the vaults of The Bank of Scotland with the
intention that it should be opened on the 400th
Anniversary. In the event for obvious reasons it was
opened on our 373rd birthday and the documents
distributed early to the intended recipients. In the bottom
of the box was a letter from the late Colonel Bill Fargus of
which the following is an extract:
“As the capsule is sealed, I have a memory of The Royal Scots
dating back 60 years, starting at Aldershot in 1923 where my
father was 2IC of the 2nd Battalion. We lived in Wellesley
Road, and I clearly remember being taken by my governess
to see a CO’s parade in Goojerat Barracks, and to see my
father’s charger “Fusilier” and give him some sugar. Later I
lived at Glencorse Barracks, Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow and
Talavera Barracks, Aldershot until my father retired as CO of
the 1st Battalion in 1933.
There was then a 4 year gap until I was commissioned.
I served in the Regiment from 1938 until retirement in 1973
and subsequently for 10 years, until 31 August 1983, was
firstly Assistant Regiment Secretary and then Regimental
Secretary at Regimental Headquarters in Edinburgh Castle.
I should like to record a few thoughts and memories,
covering those 60 years, first of The Royal Scots, and then of
Army Life in general.
I spent most of the war with the 8th Battalion, who were quite
magnificent. I came home from Hong Kong in mid 1941, and
after a year instructing at an Officer Cadet Training Unit in
Dunbar was posted to the 8th Battalion and soon became
Adjutant, a post I held throughout the NW Europe campaign.
We trained hard, under Lt Col “Jumbo” Delacombe. He was
ruthless and a martinet. We did not like him, but he did a
wonderful job, and raised the standard of training to such a
pitch that when he was wounded in Normandy in July 1944,
the Battalion survived nearly 5 months, under a totally
incompetent (non-Royal Scot) CO, without any disaster
occurring. In 11 months of this campaign, the rifle companies
had 200% casualties. No officer and only one sergeant
survived from Normandy to the end. The fighting spirit of the
battalion never flagged. Never once did they fail to capture
their objective; we were the only battalion in the Army who
did assault crossings of the 3 major water obstacles, the
Seine, the Rhine and the Elbe.
It is strange that in my whole career, I only spent 9 months
with the 1st Battalion, commanding a company over a period
which included the ill-fated ‘Suez’ expedition of 1956. The
general public now believe this to have been a military
failure. This was far from the case. Militarily it was a
complete success, despite being launched by the politicians
at a moment designed to give the army impossible
administrative and logistic problems. It was sad that such a
fine officer as David Pinkerton, undoubtedly destined to be
a General, was killed so unnecessarily.
During my 10 years in Regimental Headquarters from 1973-83
I have seen more of the 1st Battalion than at any time in my
life. This has covered the tenures of 3 Colonels, Bill Campbell,
David Young and Bob Richardson, and 5 CO’s, Nigel Stisted,
Philip Davies, Stuart McBain, Francis Gibb and Mike Ashmore.
The battalion has been outstanding throughout this period.
It has been a busy time with seven tours in Northern Ireland,
and two major ceremonial events, the presentation of new
colours by HRH The Princess Anne in 1980, and the 350th
Anniversary Review by HM The Queen. Both events were
outstanding successes.
But there can have been no more splendid parade that the
Trooping of the Colour, and the firing of a Feu de Joie on 30
June 1983. Colonel Johnnie Johnston, a Grenadier, from the
Lord Chamberlain’s Office came several months in advance,
on behalf of The Queen, to approve the format of the parade,
and said quite openly that he thought we were being overambitious.
But he certainly had to eat his words. The Feu de
Joie was the greatest success. Few had ever seen this done
before, and it was fired with breathtaking precision, and it
sounded all the more impressive with Salisbury Crags behind
as a backdrop. During the review the Queen leant over to
Princess Anne who was sitting beside her, and remarked
“You will never see a better parade than this!”
I cannot help reflecting that in the 45 years since I joined the
Army, more changes must have come about than at any
other time in history. I joined the 2nd Battalion in Hong Kong
in March 1938. Little progress had been made since World
War One. The tempo was slow. ‘Professionalism’ in the Army
was non-existent. Apart from about 6 weeks in Camp each
year, and when firing on the range, work stopped at lunch
time, and thereafter time was devoted to fatigues, under
Sergeant Majors, and sport. Wednesday was a whole holiday
each week. But as subalterns we had to dine in Mess five
times a week, wearing Mess Kit on Mondays, Tuesday,
Thursdays and Fridays. The Regiment was at this time a
Machine Gun Regiment. We had three companies of Vickers
Guns, and one company, in theory, an Anti-tank company –
but in the absence of anti-tank weapons they were armed
with Lewis Guns. The Bren Gun was introduced into the Army
in 1939. We did our first training on the Bren Gun with
Czechoslovakian made guns captured from the Chinese as
they escaped over the border into Hong Kong from the
Japanese.
We had no mechanical transport, no radios and no mortars.
The first MT, about 8 trucks, and the first mortars arrived in
1938 and 1939. Movement on exercises was all on foot.
Baggage and stores were carried on mules of the Hong Kong
Mule Corps, with Indian leaders. In the more difficult terrain
we normally had to allot one entire company to mule
leading, the allotment for the Battalion being about 180.
The signal platoon communicated with signal flags and
heliographs. In static positions cable was laid for field
telephones.
A private soldier’s basic pay was 2/- (10p) per day. The only
extras he could get were 3d (just over 1p) a day Educational
Proficiency Pay, 3d Military Proficiency Pay and 3d Special
Proficiency Pay. After compulsory stoppages for Barrack
Damages and other items, it was rare for more than 10/-
(50p) a week to be paid over the pay table.
Since 1900 there has been a ‘Fargus’ serving in or on behalf
of the Regiment for 79 years. I now pass on and the only
family connection is my nephew by marriage Ian MacKichan.
I hope his career will be as enjoyable as mine.”