The Atholl Highlanders | |
---|---|
Active | 1839–present |
Country | Scotland |
Type | Ceremonial Infantry |
Role | Personal bodyguard |
Size | One company |
Part of | Private army |
Garrison/HQ | Blair Atholl |
Motto(s) | Furth Fortune and Fill the Fetters |
March | The Atholl Highlanders |
Commanders | |
Current commander | Lieutenant Colonel The Earl of Kinnoull |
Colonel-in-Chief | The Duke of Atholl |
Insignia | |
Tartan | Murray of Atholl |
The Atholl Highlanders is a Scottish private infantry regiment. A ceremonial unit, it acts as the personal bodyguard to the Duke of Atholl, chieftain of the Clan Murray, a family that has lived in Perthshire for roughly seven centuries. [1] Although it has no official military role, this hand-picked body of local men are armed with Lee–Metford rifles, and the regiment includes a pipe band. Joining the Highlanders is by invitation-only from the Duke, who specially selects men with ties to the estate or the local area.
The regiment is not part of the British Armed Forces but under the command of the Duke of Atholl, and based at Blair Castle, Blair Atholl. [2]
The regiment was raised in Perthshire by John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl as the 77th Regiment of Foot (or Atholl Highlanders, or Murray's Highlanders) in December 1777. [3] The regiment was formed as a relief for other regiments serving in North America, and spent most of its existence in Ireland. [4] The terms upon which the regiment was raised stated that the men were to be employed for either three years or the duration of the war in America. [4] In 1781, the original three-year term ended, and the men expected the regiment to be disbanded. [4] However, the regiment was transported to England and marched to Portsmouth to be embarked for service in India. [4] Upon learning of this, the men mutinied, and the embarkation orders were countermanded. [4] The regiment was marched to Berwick, where it disbanded in 1783. [4]
More than 50 years later, in 1839, George Murray, 6th Duke of Atholl, as Lord Glenlyon, re-formed the regiment [3] as a bodyguard which he took to the Eglinton Tournament at Eglinton Castle, Ayrshire. [5] Three years later, in 1842, the regiment escorted Queen Victoria during her tour of Perthshire and, in 1844, when the Queen stayed as a guest of the Duke at Blair Castle, the regiment mounted the guard for the entire duration of her stay. [6] In recognition of the service that the regiment provided during her two visits, the Queen announced that she would present the Atholl Highlanders with colours, thus giving the regiment official Scottish regiment status, in perpetuity. [6] The regiment's first stand of colours was presented by Lady Glenlyon in 1845. [6] It received new colours in 1979 from Myra Butter, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Perth and Kinross. [7] A third stand of colours was presented in 2006 by the Duchess of Atholl. [8]
Under John Stewart-Murray, 7th Duke, the regiment regularly provided guards for royal visitors to Blair Castle (which was a convenient stopping point on the journey to Balmoral). The regiment also attended the Braemar Gathering, while the annual Atholl Gathering was held in the first week in September in which the regiment paraded, then participated in various trials of strength and stamina. Following the First World War, parades of the regiment became fewer, although it did provide guards when the Crown Prince of Japan and King Faisal of Iraq visited Blair Castle in 1921 and 1933 respectively. [9]
After many years of inactivity the regiment remained in abeyance until in 1966, when it was reformed by Iain Murray, 10th Duke of Atholl. The 10th Duke made the decision to revive the regiment’s annual parade. [6] To this effect eight local men mostly estate employees and all with previous military service training were invited to join, seven accepted. They paraded on 8 April 1966 at Blair Castle for the first time in 33 years. [10] They marched past the Duke led by two Atholl Highlander pipers. In 1973 the regiment returned to the Braemar Gathering and took part in a march past in front of the Queen and other members of the royal family. [10] The Atholl Gathering was re-introduced at Target Park in June 1984. [10]
It was feared that the regiment would be disbanded following the 10th Duke's death in 1996, until his successor, John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl, wrote to the estate trustees insisting that he would continue his traditional role. [11] [12] The 11th Duke, although resident in South Africa, visited Blair Atholl almost every year to inspect the regiment's annual parade until his death. [11] The 12th Duke continues this tradition. [13]
The Atholl Highlanders continue with the current Duke of Atholl, as their Colonel-in-Chief. [13]
Duke of Atholl, named after Atholl in Scotland, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland held by the head of Clan Murray. It was created by Queen Anne in 1703 for John Murray, 2nd Marquess of Atholl, with a special remainder to the heir male of his father, the 1st Marquess.
Pitlochry is a town in the Perth and Kinross council area of Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. It is historically in the county of Perthshire, and has a population of 2,776, according to the 2011 census.
Blair Atholl is a village in Perthshire, Scotland, built about the confluence of the Rivers Tilt and Garry in one of the few areas of flat land in the midst of the Grampian Mountains. The Gaelic place-name Blair, from blàr, 'field, plain', refers to this location. Atholl, which means 'new Ireland', from the archaic Ath Fhodla is the name of the surrounding district.
John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl, was a South African-born hereditary peer of the Peerage of Scotland, hereditary Clan Chief of Clan Murray, and Colonel-in-Chief of the Atholl Highlanders. As Duke of Atholl, he commanded the only legal private army in Europe. He acceded as the 11th duke on 27 February 1996, succeeding his second cousin, once removed, The 10th Duke of Atholl.
Blair Castle stands in its grounds near the village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire in Scotland. It is the ancestral home of the Clan Murray, and was historically the seat of their chief, the Duke of Atholl, though the current chief, the 12th Duke of Atholl, lives in South Africa, where he was born and raised. The castle stands in Glen Garry, and commands a strategic position on the main route through the central Scottish Highlands.
Anne Murray, Duchess of Atholl, and known as the Lady Glenlyon between 1839–46, as the Duchess of Atholl between 1846–64 and as the Dowager Duchess of Atholl between 1864–97, was a Scottish aristocrat and courtier. For 55 years, she was a close friend of Queen Victoria, who referred to her as "the dear Duchess".
The Lonach Highlanders are members of the Lonach Highland and Friendly Society, made up of men from the Strathdon area of Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The society was formed in 1823. The principal aims of the Society are the preservation of Highland dress and the Gaelic language; to support loyal, peaceable manly conduct and the promotion of social and benevolent feelings among the inhabitants of this district. However, the Strathdon dialect of Gaelic has become extinct since their formation so it is arguable how successful they have been in that aim.
The Solomon Mahlangu Regiment is a reserve infantry regiment of the South African Army.
John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl, KT, PC, FRS, styled Marquess of Tullibardine from 1764 to 1774, was a Scottish peer.
George Augustus Frederick John Murray, 6th Duke of Atholl, was a Scottish peer, important landowner, and freemason.
Clan Murray is a Highland Scottish clan. The chief of the Clan Murray holds the title of Duke of Atholl. Their ancestors were the Morays of Bothwell who established the family in Scotland in the 12th century. In the 16th century, descendants of the Morays of Bothwell, the Murrays of Tullibardine, secured the chiefship of the clan and were created Earls of Tullibardine in 1606. The first Earl of Tullibardine married the heiress to the Stewart earldom of Atholl and Atholl therefore became a Murray earldom in 1626. The Murray Earl of Atholl was created Marquess of Atholl in 1676 and in 1703 it became a dukedom. The marquess of Tullibardine title has continued as a subsidiary title, being bestowed on elder sons of the chief until they succeed him as Duke of Atholl.
John Murray, 5th Duke of Atholl was a duke in the Peerage of Scotland, a British Army officer and a major landowner in Scotland. Declared insane at the age of twenty, he never sat in the House of Lords.
Clan Stewart is a Scottish Highland and Lowland clan. The clan is recognised by Court of the Lord Lyon; however, it does not have a clan chief recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Because the clan has no chief it can be considered an armigerous clan; however, the Earls of Galloway are now considered to be the principal branch of this clan, and the crest and motto of The Earls of Galloway's arms are used in the Clan Stewart crest badge. The Court of the Lord Lyon recognises two other Stewart/Stuart clans, Clan Stuart of Bute and Clan Stewart of Appin. Stuart of Bute is the only one of the three clans at present which has a recognised chief.
The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse is adopted as the C squadron of the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry as a Light Cavalry Squadron.
The Scottish Horse was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army's Territorial Army raised in 1900 for service in the Second Boer War. It saw heavy fighting in both the First World War, as the 13th Battalion, Black Watch, and in the Second World War, as part of the Royal Artillery. It amalgamated with the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry to form the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse in 1956. The lineage is maintained by "C" Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse Squadron of The Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry based in Cupar in Fife.
Lieutenant-General James Murray, was a Scottish soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1773 to 1794.
Bridge of Tilt is a village in Perthshire, Scotland, built around the River Tilt, near its confluence with the River Garry. It is 5+3⁄4 miles northwest of Pitlochry. The newer part of the village is continuous with Blair Atholl, only separated by the River Tilt. The village is located primarily on the B8079 between Pitlochry and Dunalastair Water, but the older part of the village is located further up the River Tilt. The A9 runs past the River Garry to the south of Bridge of Tilt, and connects the village with Newtonmore and Inverness in the north and Pitlochry, Perth and Stirling in the south.
The siege of Blair Castle was a conflict that took place in Scotland in March 1746 and was part of the Jacobite rising of 1745. It was fought between Scottish forces loyal to the British-Hanoverian government of George II of Great Britain, which defended Blair Castle near the village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire, and Scottish Jacobite forces loyal to the House of Stuart.
Bruce George Ronald Murray, 12th Duke of Atholl, is a South African-born businessman and peer who is the chief of Clan Murray. As Duke of Atholl, he has the right to raise Europe's only legal private army, the Atholl Highlanders, a unique privilege granted to his family by Queen Victoria after visiting Blair Atholl in 1844.
David Stewart of Garth was a Scottish soldier and later author and antiquarian, whose book, Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland published in two volumes by Archibald Constable and Co in Edinburgh in 1822, was responsible for largely creating the modern image of the Highlander, the clans and Scottish regiments and is considered the foundation for all subsequent work on Highlanders, clans and Scottish regiments system.