THE COVENANTER
Some readers may remember that as sadness of being at the last drumhead service
Adjutant at the time of disbandment, I of my son’s Regiment, The KOSB, and sung
was commended by some of the press, the same psalms as at Douglas on 14th May
(Scotsman and Herald, I think), for my 1968. I felt desolate! That weekend Ian
obedient reaction to the very unwelcome Farquharson took me to communion at St
order we had received. I have to confess that Giles. There occurred an incident which went
I was following William Cleland’s advice un-noticed by the rest of the world, but set
before Dunkeld. ”A soldier’s business is to my heart at rest. The communion elements
obey orders and fight the enemy – not to were processed into the Cathedral, led by an
murmur and question.” So that is what I officer of the Cameronians, none other than
did, although it seemed quite clear to me my friend Ian. (And this in the same Kirk in
that the enemy was in fact Whitehall! But which Jenny Geddes had thrown her stool
I must confess at a remove of forty years, in 1637!) That would not have happened
that inwardly I was seething with a desire to even in 1689, but that it finally came about
fight this disbandment tooth and nail. in 2004, seemed to say to me that it had all
been worthwhile, and all the sacrifice from
Over the years I have heard many men Drumclog in 1679, to Aden in 1967, had not
whom I respect greatly say, “We did the right been wasted.
thing.” I am still not sure that we did! The
Argylls were ordered to disband at the same Call it an old soldier’s rambling if you like,
time as us, and had we fought the decision, but now I understand what Gen Sir George
might we not also have survived? My son Collingwood and Col Leslie Dow meant
now commands a company of Argylls, when they talked about our ”ghosts.” They
albeit in the guise of 5 SCOTS. He was KOSB, are still around!
and when I visited 1 KOSB in Omagh some yours etc,
years ago, soldiers kept coming up to me DAVID CHRISTIE.
and saying, “Hello, sir. You don’t know me,
but you know my father.” It turned out that Editors Note:
60% of 1 KOSB were from Lanarkshire! Many readers will recall that this is covered
in depth by Lt Col JCM Baynes in Volume
But as Philip Grant has put it so well, “some IV of the Regimental History. It says {page
Regiments are more unique than others,” 211}:
and I suppose there is no way that The
Cameronians, with our fiercely independent ‘Within the battalion, questionnaires
origins could have been part of a Royal were sent down to the rank of corporal to
Regiment? obtain the opinion of serving members
about what should be done in the event of
A far as I can ascertain, the Peter Christie the Cameronians becoming involved [in
who appears on the 1689 Muster Roll of the expected reduction in the number of
the Lt-Col’s Company was my great x 7, battalions]. When these questionnaires had
grandfather, so I may lay claim to a family been returned and analysed the Colonel
connection with the Regiment, quite of the Regiment visited the battalion and
literally from the first day to the last. I only held discussions with officers and non-
discovered this whilst researching the pre- commissioned officers. Eventually, after
regimental Cameronians and earliest days much heart-searching, it was decided that,
of the Regiment, for I really wanted to know in the circumstances as they then pertained,
the truth. Were the earliest Cameronians a the Colonel of the Regiment would
bunch of religious bigots, or did they make recommend that the Cameronians preferred
a meaningful difference? My conclusion, disbandment to amalgamation with any
(which I realise will be hotly resisted by other regiment.’
most of academia, the Kirk, and all Jacobite
enthusiasts), was that Dunkeld was as pivotal Whatever the view now it was clear that
to ultimate religious freedom in Scotland, as the majority then saw this as the only or
Bannockburn was to Scottish independence. anyway the least objectionable option. With
So my conclusion is that we have indeed a hind-sight some might now have chosen
heritage to boast of. otherwise but, in view of the treatment
meted out in recent years to the remains of
This was confirmed for me on my last visit the Scottish army, surely we were right to take
to Edinburgh. I had just endured the great our leave when we did and with our heads
98
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