Book description
The Royal Scots are Scotland's oldest infantry regiment, with a
tradition that stretches back to 1633. This first concise history of
the regiment is based largely on the recollections of several
generations of Royal Scots - men like Private McBane, who carried his
three-year-old son into battle at Malplaquet, and Private Begbie, the
youngest soldier to serve in the First World War. These first-hand
accounts take the reader through the great wars of the eighteenth
century, when Britain was a rising global power, through the setbacks
and the triumphs of the Napoleonic Wars and on to the glorious years
of the nineteenth century.
The two world wars of the twentieth century saw the Royals expand in
size, and there are full accounts of its meritorious service on all
the main battle fronts. More recently, the regiment has been involved
in operations in the Balkans and Iraq.
In 2006, in one of the most radical changes in the country's defence
policy, the Royal Scots will be amalgamated into the new Royal
Regiment of Scotland. Royal Scots is, therefore, a timely
celebration of the British Army's most venerable regiment, right of
the line and second to none.
Trevor Royle has built up an outstanding reputation as a historian of
war and empire. His recent books include
The Civil War: The War of
the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660
,
Patton: Old Blood and Guts
and the ground-breaking
Crimea: The Great Crimean War 1854-1856
. He lives in Edinburgh.
