The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders: A Concise History

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William James Duffy Add to this record. I am trying to find out if he actually left on the Lancastria or another boat? He always maintained he sunk three times during the Second World War and I wondered if the Lancastria was one. Anyone with any ideas please email me. Kerr Add to this record. Stephen Simpson 8th Btn. He was always spoken about in the family as a very gentle human being in that he was a keen follower of the Methodist order. My grandparents, as one can understand, were devastated by the loss of this son who still resided at home with them.

But in an other sense classed themselves as lucky as they had another two sons serving in the forces at this time: Their coming home well helped to cushion the death of Stephen. Unfortunately, they were never financially well off enough to visit their son's grave and both died ignorant of any information about how, when, or where he was killed. Richard Simpson Add to this record. He was with the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders who responded to Hitler's invasion of Poland in A German MD nursed him back to health when the prison camp was abandoned and reunited him with the British.

He moved to Coventry and stayed there, alone, until he died in the 's or 70's. He never really recovered from his ill treatment as a POW. He was probably in the 6th, 7th or 8th Battalion each of which lost many in the retreat to Dunkirk, between the 5th and 7th June Dr Denis P Curran Add to this record. Allan Forster 2nd Btn. Forster nee Wilson of Jarrow.

Vin Mullen Add to this record. He lived in Plymouth, Devon. It seems that speculation still surrounds the subsequent actions of the Japanese pilots as they did not interfere with the rescue of survivors. The rescuing destroyers took them to Singapore naval base. They took part in a series of land actions against the Japanese. They were ill prepared for tropical warfare and without air-cover so it was a mission doomed from the onset.

Subsequently on February 15th , the Argylls were led by a piper from Tyarsell Park Singapore, into 3 and a half years incarceration. Henry was held in the flowing camps: He died aged 28 and is buried in Sfax War Cemetery. He died aged 28 and is buried in Enfidaville War Cemetery. He was sent to Stalag Lamsdorf. He served with the 7th Battalion Argyll and Southerland Highlanders.

Christine Rae Add to this record. He survived this ordeal. When he returned home my mother said she never recognised him. I don't think he ever fully got over it. Christine Alford Add to this record. The pictures I have included are from a scrapbook he kept whilst he was a POW. It is currently held by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum in Stirling Castle who were nice enough to send me the photos when I contacted them about the book. My mum always told me that John had been Douglas Bader's batman while he was a POW and looking at the dates and camps listed in the book it certainly seems possible as they were both in some of the same camps at the same time.

I'm not sure when he was captured. I think he took part in the desert campaign and the song in his book seems to support this. From his book John appears to have been in the following camps: He was wounded in Normandy just after D-Day and died of his wounds 14th June John's father and one of his older brothers, James had both joined the Argyll's in September John Snr was in his fifties but lied about his age while James had been a Territorial before the war. Inevitably John Snr was invalided out due to poor health but James was posted to France and was killed in action 6th March Bill Robertson Add to this record.

John Dunion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders d. Our family is very proud of everybody who fought in the war and are always in all our memories. Vanessa Bartholet Add to this record. He had previously served in North Africa so I think he was involved in the push in to southern Italy before his capture. That's all we know and would be interested to know more! David Bevin Add to this record. He died in due the his lungs being damaged. I am looking for information or his family who could help me. Roy Baker Add to this record.

He never talked very much about his time there and I have been fascinated to learn what things were link thanks to your project. They had escaped from the German prison camp at Hildeheim near Hanover, which they reached after a terrible march from East Prussia and Silesia - over miles in ten weeks. I would be interested to hear from anyone with any further details. James Tracey Add to this record. Francis Dennis Klapper 6th Btn. While serving in WWII he kept a diary from the beginning of to the end of This time frame includes the time of his capture by the Germans until his release and the end of the war.

By coincidence, this camp was located only a short distance from Cieplowody, Poland in Silesia where his family originally lived before coming to the UK in The following is an exerpt from his diary: From here after days of travelling we arrived at Armentieres where we stayed for a few weeks, then we moved to a village by the name of Auberchicourt near Douai where we remained until May 10th. Planes in morning, several shot down.

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

Heard Germans invaded Belgium and Holland. Passing through Orchies, bombed. Took billets in Lessines for refugee control duties. Saw one or two air battles. Lessines bombed first morning. Church and shops gutted.

ARGYLL AND SUTHERLAND COMRADES

Next week set off through Habsolth to wood. Ammunitions truck went up. Retreat to Lessines, through Engaden in flames. Bombed as we left.

Next to Grammont to cover withdrawal. Next day set off for France. Roads bombed and gunned. Lost two trucks and two men. Back to Brumes as reserve coy; down to Douai for armoured units. Brumes to cover withdrawal on way to rest-camp, turned back to front near Gavion then to farm near Bethune for two days rest.

Pleinar gunned and shelled. Set off for Bethune, just bombed. Driving down road, were machine gunned and shelled. Dived in ditch with two other fellows. One on truck hit by mortar. Tried to crawl along ditch but blocked at one end and truck on side, blazing at other. Own guns used on us.

Got some soup, bread, marge, cheese. Heard Gray killed and Graham escaped. Officer said they had been waiting all morning for us. Shed for night, coffee in morning. Dennis then keeps a nearly daily diary until 15th June He was moved from Lamsdorf in July in a closed wagon on a train to a camp at Reigersfeld and sent to work on road and canal building and was then taken by horse truck in very cold weather with other POWs in January from the camp at Reigersfeld, to Klausburg, a coal mining camp. From now until the camp was evacuated in he was to work in the mines. He wrote an account of his experiences on the Long March, in the course of which he lost toes to frostbite.

Dennis also contracted TB in the camps, he was invalided home because of his lungs aggravating or being aggravated by malnutrition more so than the frostbite. Dennis became a postman in Gateshead and died unmarried in He never recovered from his experiences. Josie Driscoll Add to this record. He worked for a couple of Arbeitskommandos, one at Reigersfeld and one at Klausberg, working first on roads and then down a mine until on 22nd January they began the long march west and eventually came home.

While in the Klausberg camp, one of his colleagues Arthur Lewis died in a coal fall at the Niederbank mine and Dennis went to his funeral. Among my uncle's papers there is a photograph of the grave of Arthur Lewis, and I wonder if his family have seen this or knew about it.

I would be more than happy to let any family members have this photo.

I joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Then I was wounded and taken prisoner in Crete in The next two years were spent in forced labour camps. Two years were spent in Stalag 4B, Muhlberg. I got out of the camp when the guards ran off because the Russians were advancing and reached home on VE Day. Tom Barker Add to this record. Frank James Mann 2nd Btn. He died in battle in Italy aged He was a very jolly man and left behind his wife, Emily, before they managed to have any children. As a young girl I knew Emily, who gave me great uncle Frank's medals.

Although I wanted to keep them, I sent them to my uncle Franks's nephew who was bed-ridden and severely disabled with multiple sclerosis and lived in Australia. I know those medals meant a lot to him. Rest in peace Uncle Frank. Janet O'Donnell Add to this record. He was captured at Dunkirk. He spent all of the war as a POW. I have only one postcard that he sent to his parents from the camp.

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He died in Elizabeth Fox Add to this record. John Fairlie, from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He was force-marched miles across Germany on the infamous death march. He refused to discuss details of his experiences. Ian Fairlie Add to this record. Charles Clifford "Spike" Partington 7th Btn.

I know he was in either the 7th or 8th battalion, and was captured, but that is all the information I have. Julie Brown Add to this record. Tom Barker 1st Btn. I was wounded and captured on Crete in June. For two years I worked slave labour, then Harry Tenny - who had been shot down during a raid - swapped identities with me so he could get back to the UK and the RAF, so that he could bomb Germany again. I told him "If you do come back to bomb, just look out for me wavin' me hanky and don't drop any near me. Cooper 51st Highland Div. He spent nearly five years in Stalag IXc.

I have his wartime log and he gives a short description of the march and places marched through. William Cooper Add to this record. Jack Webber 8th Btn. Mike Webber Add to this record. Jimmy Kelly 8th Btn. He was taken to Stalag IXc and spent some time in the salt mines.

Graham Kelly Add to this record. Frank Kevin Dunne 2nd Btn. He is commemorated in Athens War Cemetery. Geoff Rooks Add to this record. Billy Hart Add to this record. Henry Harper 7th Btn. He was captured at Dunkirk and sent to Stalag 9c.

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He was prisoner and spent the war there until 16th September when he was repatriated to the UK on health grounds. David Coyle Add to this record. I believe he was a captain in the press corps. Ian Douglas Neil Add to this record. He took part in the death march from France, through Poland and ended up in a camp in Germany. He was liberated by the Americans at the end of the war.

Hilary Gavin Add to this record. Phil Beaney Add to this record. Fred McAllister 8th Btn. Does anyone know Sgt. McAllister or would like a copy of his poems? Maureen Hughes Add to this record. I don't have much information as he rarely talked about his experiences in the war. He was a POW for most of the war after being shot and captured at Abbeville as part of the rearguard action at Dunkirk. He was sent to Stalag 8b where he worked in a mine and was involved in several escape attempts - the most "successful" of which saw him escape through a tunnel and reach the Swiss border before being recaptured and sent back to 8b.

I believe this escape may have been immortalised in the film "The password is courage". I am trying to find any information. Gordon Robertson Add to this record. I have his diaries and records and have much information about these camps which I'm willing to share with other interested parties.

My book Notify Alec Rattray is the story of his survival. Meg Parkes Add to this record. I have some photos from the camp days. I have been trying to trace his army records as he returned all his medals when he received them and I would like to try and find them again.

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Nadia Goodman Add to this record. William Porter 7th Btn. I Muir Add to this record. He survived the war and lived till The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Princess Louise's was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from until amalgamation into the Royal Regiment of Scotland on 28 March , from when it became a single battalion in the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment was created under the Childers Reforms in , as the Princess Louise's Sutherland and Argyll Highlanders , by the amalgamation of the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders Regiment of Foot and 93rd Sutherland Highlanders Regiment of Foot , amended the following year to reverse the order of the "Argyll" and "Sutherland" sub-titles.

The 1st Battalion served in the 1st Commonwealth Division in the Korean War and gained a high public profile for its role in Aden during Following a further round of defence cuts announced in July the 5th Battalion was reduced to a single public duties company called Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

It was formed in by the amalgamation of the 91st Princess Louise's Argyllshire Regiment and the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders Regiment as outlined in the Childers Reforms. The regiment was one of the six Scottish line infantry regiments, and wears a version of the Government Sett Government No. It also had the largest cap badge in the British Army. The uniform included the Glengarry as its ceremonial headress. At the Childers reform amalgamation the Argyll and Sutherland Highlander' already had a well-earned reputation for valour in the face of the enemy, most notably the 93rd later 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the Crimean War.

Here, the 93rd earned the sobriquet of "The Fighting Highlanders" and carried with it the status of having been the original " Thin Red Line ". This title was bestowed following the action of the 93rd at Balaklava on 25 October in which this single battalion alone stood between the undefended British Army base at Balaklava and four squadrons of charging Russian cavalry. This action was witnessed by The Times correspondent, William Howard Russell , who reported that nothing stood between the Russian cavalry and the defenceless British base but the "thin red streak tipped with a line of steel of the 93rd" a description immediately paraphrased and passed into folklore as "The Thin Red Line".

This feat of arms is still recognised by the plain red and white dicing worn on the cap band of the A and SH Glengarry bonnets. The 1st Battalion arrived in the Cape in November and formed part of the 3rd or Highland Brigade. In June , the battalion was transferred to a new brigade under Brigadier General George Cunningham. They operated around Pretoria and from April , in the Eastern Transvaal. Sections of Argylls formed parts of the 2nd and 12th Battalions Mounted Infantry and a detachment, along with the Black Watch , formed an escort for Captain J E Bearcroft's naval guns during the advance to Pretoria.

In , the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve ; [8] the regiment now had two Reserve and five Territorial battalions. The first action for the 1st Battalion was at Sidi Barani where they joined the battle on 10 December as part of the 16th Infantry Brigade.

On 17 May the battalion moved to Crete where they formed part of the defence based on the east side of the island at Tymbaki. Most of the Argylls marched from Tymbaki to the airfield at Heraklion on the night of 24 May to help support the 14th Infantry Brigade in the fighting at that airfield. They were successfully evacuated on 29 May from Heraklion but their convoy suffered air attacks and many casualties on the route away from Crete. The Argylls left at Tymbaki were captured when the island surrendered. The 1st Battalion was shipped to Alexandria and after garrison duties followed by a raid into the Gondar region of Abyssinia, they were sent back to the Western Desert where they were eventually attached to the st Indian Infantry Brigade , part of 4th Indian Infantry Division , and fought in the Second Battle of El Alamein.

Led by the tough Lieutenant Colonel Ian Stewart they were one of the very few British units that was prepared for the jungle warfare in Malaya. In the months before the invasion of southern Thailand and Malaya in , Stewart took his battalion into the harshest terrain he could find and developed tactics to fight effectively in those areas. This training that the 2nd Argylls went through would make them arguably the most effective unit in General Percival's Malayan Command, earning them the nickname "the jungle beasts".

During these actions the battalion became so depleted by battle that it was ordered back to cross the causeway into Singapore. Two days later, an Australian staff officer in company with the or so men of the 22nd Australian Brigade the absolute tail guard of the British forces arrived at the causeway. He was amazed to find all of the ASHR, the proud remnants of the whole battalion who had been in action almost continually since the Japanese invaded six weeks previously, camped on the Malay side of the water. When asked what they were doing still in Malaya when they could have been in the relative comfort of Singapore their commanding officer, Ian Stewart, replied "You know the trouble with you Australians is that you have no sense of history.


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The battalion surrendered with the rest of General Percival's army in Singapore in February Many Argylls died in captivity as P. W's or in the jungle trying to avoid capture.

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Stewart, where they lectured on Jungle warfare tactics. After this the evacuees became part of No. In May , the 15th Battalion, raised during the war, was redesignated as the new 2nd Battalion. This battalion joined the th Highland Infantry Brigade and became a part of the 15th Scottish Infantry Division , a formation that would gain an excellent reputation, in With the division, the battalion fought in the Battle for Caen , seeing its first action in Operation Epsom , as part of Operation Overlord.

The division ended the war on the Elbe River. They took part in the Dunkirk evacuation in June and then, after converting to become the 91st Anti-Tank Regiment and seeing action at the Normandy landings in June , they fought through North-West Europe to the River Elbe. They took part in the Dunkirk evacuation in June and then, after converting to become the 93rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery saw action in the Tunisia campaign, in the Allied landings in Sicily and in the Allied landings in Italy.

The 7th Argylls in particular suffered heavy losses during the fighting, the worst day in its history. The th Brigade managed to be evacuated to England after the 51st Highland Division was forced to surrender on 12 June The understrength th Brigade of the old 51st was merged with the 28th Infantry Brigade. They wore rucksacks to cover the markings "KG" Kriegsgefangener , "prisoner of war" on their backs. They secreted themselves in a rail wagon carrying salt to Belgium. There they managed to contact an escape line and, by the middle of the year, they were safely back in Scotland.

Between and the 1st Battalion saw service in Mandatory Palestine , during the conflicts with the Jewish paramilitary organisations Irgun , Haganah and Lehi. In , the 2nd Battalion was amalgamated with the 1st Battalion. The battalion was one of the first British units to serve in Korea, arriving there in September as part of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade.