| The First
Regiment of Guards (later the Grenadiers) and
the Coldstream Guards nicknamed the Scots
Guards the 'kiddies' when they first came on
the strength of the English Army at King
James II's camp outside London in 1686. The
First and Coldstream had been raised more
than 25 years previously, at the Restoration;
but in fact, the Scots Guardsmen proudly
traced their ancestry still further back, to
the Marquess of Argyll's regiment raised in
1642 as Charles II's personal bodyguard for a
projected campaign in Ireland. The motto
'Nemo Me Impune Lacessit' means 'No one
molests me with impunity.'
Argyll's regiment fought Cromwell's forces
as Charles Stuart's 'Lyfe Guard of Foot',
until finally beaten at Worcester in July
1651.
With a Stuart king back on the throne in
Scotland, in May 1662 the 'Scotsd Guards'
were raised again to garrison Edinburgh and
in 1666 a further seven companies were added.
They were now officially established as the
Scottish Regiment of Foot Guards, the name
they were to retian until 1831
The Third Regiment, like the Scots Guards
of today, combined ceremonial duites with
military prowess. From the first battle of
Namurin 1695 to Waterloo in 1815, they fought
the soldiers of France on many battlefields.
The epic stand of the Second Battalion (2
Bn) Grenadiers with 2 Bn Third Guards at the
farmhouse of Hougemont proved vital to the
victorious outcome of Waterloo and to this
day the farmhouse bears a Scots Guards
commenorative plaque.
in 1831 the regiment became the Scots
Fusilers Guards and donned bearskins. They
got their pipers in 1856 and in 1877 at last
became the Scots Guards.
They fought in the Crimea winning two VCs
at the Alma; they were at Telel kebir in
1882; they fought in Mahdi in 1885 and they
were involved in the Boer War. The hard
lessons learned in South Africa made the
British Army of 1914 the most professional in
its history - and the Guards, at its cutting
edge, suffered accordingly. At the first
battle of Ypres, for example, the Scots
Guards lost three quarters of its strength.
In World War I the regiment won 5 VCs on the
Western Front.
In World War 2, Scots Guards fought in
Norway, the Western Desert and Tunisia -
where they specialized in antitank gunnery.
They landed at Anzio and Salerno and fought
the long slog up Italy. The Third Battalion
fought in tanks with the Sixth Grenadier Tank
Brigade from Normandy to the Baltic
Scots Guardsmen (with a high percentage of
National Servicemen) fought in the post-war
Malayan emergency, in the runup to Suez in
1956 and in Borneo in 1964-5. More often than
not since 1971, a Scots Guard battalion has
been rotated through Ulster
On 1 June 1982 2 Bn landed at the San
Carlos bridgehead with the Fifth Infantry
Brigade. On the nights of 5/6 and 6/7 June
the Scots were taken by assault ship to
Fitzroy, advancing to take Tumbledown
Mountain against stiff opposition on the
night of 13/14 June.
The 2nd Bn were disbanded during the last
Defence review.
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