Book description
In May 1968, as part of cutbacks to the British Army, The Cameronians
(Scottish Rifles) was disbanded at a moving ceremony held at the same
spot in Douglas in Lanarkshire at which it had been raised in 1689.
And yet, although the regiment is no more, its place in history is
unassailable. The ceremony embraced the history of one regiment, The
Cameronians, which had its origins in the turbulent period that
accompanied the rise of the House of Orange at the end of the
seventeenth century, while its other component part - the 90th
(Perthshire Light Infantry) - was raised as a light infantry regiment
during the war against Revolutionary France.
Following amalgamation in 1881, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
quickly built up a solid reputation as a fighting regiment. During the
First World War it raised 27 battalions and during the Second World
War its battalions served in Europe and Burma. In the course of its
long history, the regiment provided the British Army with many
distinguished soldiers including three field marshals: Viscounts Hill
and Wolseley and Sir Evelyn Wood.
Always tough and enduring in battle, it reflected the character of
its main recruitment area - Glasgow and Lanarkshire - and in later
years it took self-conscious pride when the Germans nicknamed its
soldiers Giftzwerge, or poison dwarfs.
The Cameronians puts its story into the context of British
military history and makes use of personal testimony to reveal the
life of the regiment.
Trevor Royle is a respected historian of war and empire. His is the
author of many other books, and
The Cameronians
is the eighth in a series of regimental histories.
