THE COVENANTER
Rifles and mounted in a unique album,
That so many of us, like myself, were at which has been in my family archives all
pains not to lose touch with the Regiment this time. The old brown and white
after our service ended, speaks volumes for photographs, which are very clear and in
the regard in which the Cameronian name excellent condition, mainly show the
is held at all parts of the United kingdom. regiment in camp at a place called
Therefore, it is with pride that I am certain Greylingstad, where they were stationed
that I speak for the large majority of the after the relief of Ladysmith to protect the
‘Attached’, for as to able to say we were proud main railway line on which the British Army
to have been ‘Cameronians, by whatever relied to support the Natal army’s advance
means. The no nonsense approach to solving to Johannesburg and Pretoria. In 2001 my
difficulties by simply ‘getting on with it’ in wife and I, together with our eldest son went
the manner of the Cameronian tradition, to Natal, ostensibly to visit Spionkop, to
has stood me, and I sure some many of us retrace my father’ footsteps. We spent two
in good stead in our future liveswhether days in the area, staying near Ladysmith in
military or civilian. The late Dr.George B&Bs, and visited Colenso and Vaalkrans,
Jolly, one of us ‘Attached’, who served as the sites of two battles in which the Regiment
Medical Officer of the 7th Battalion in the was engaged, most of our time was spent on
later stages of the North West European Spionkop at which battle the Scottish Rifles
campaign, summed it up succinctly in an had suffered heavily.”
article written shortly before his death three
years ago - ’May I wish good luck to all you (3 officers and 23 men killed, 7 officers and
Cameronians, you are the Salt 54 men wounded)
of the Earth’.
Cliff Pettit “In March the following year we returned,
this time to re-visit Greylingstad, having
The 2nd Battalion The
found it quite by accident the preceding year,
Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
with the aim on this occasion, of honouring
the retired South African Veterans who
Spionkop and Greylingstad 1900 - 1901 not only knew about the Scottish Rifles
Revisited over one hundred years later but also call themselves the SR Moths and
hold monthly meetings on the site. The fact
The South African War began on the 12th that the hillside bears the large letters SR in
October 1899. The 90th united with the 26th white painted stones was for me a cause of
in 1881 were renamed The 2nd Battalion much excitement, not least because those
The Cameronians (Scotch Rifles) later to stalwart South African veterans had kept the
become (Scottish Rifles) At this time they Regiments name alive for so many years. In
were known as the 2nd Scottish Rifles. a letter to the Chairman of the SR Moths I
Their adventures are recorded briefly in proposed, on behalf of the Regiment, that we
Volume I of the Regimental History. should honour the SR Moths by organising a
commemorative ceremony to be conducted
More recently: Major Hugh Worthington by Captain The Reverend David Christie, an
Wilmer writes “I have been lucky enough to ex regular officer of the Regiment. During
spend part of the winter months of the last the ceremony, we proposed the replacement
few years in South Africa, escaping from the of the Star of Douglas now missing from
cold and icy winters of Canada. I have had the cairn erected by the Scottish Rifles in
a life long ambition to visit the Boer War memory of their stay there, so many years
battlefields, and follow in the footsteps of ago.
my father who was serving with the 2nd
Battalion the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles),
referred to, and I believe officially in 1899
and 1901, as the Scottish Rifles”.
(Formerly the 90th of Foot or the Perthshire
Volunteers)
“This ambition was prompted by
photographs taken by my father while he
was serving as a subaltern with the Scottish
86
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