1633-2006 жылдар аралығындағы британ армиясының жаяу әскер полкі

Infantry regiment of the British Army from 1633 to 2006

The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment), once known as the Royal Regiment of Foot, was the oldest and most senior infantry regiment of the line of the British Army, having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles I. The regiment existed continuously until 2006, when it amalgamated with the King's Own Scottish Borderers to become the Royal Scots Borderers, which merged with the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment), the Black Watch, the Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons) and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

In April 1633, Sir John Hepburn was granted a warrant by Charles I to recruit 1200 Scots for service with the French army in the 1618–1648 Thirty Years War. The nucleus came from Hepburn's previous regiment, which fought with the Swedes from 1625 until August 1632, when Hepburn quarrelled with Gustavus Adolphus. It absorbed other Scottish units in the Swedish army, as well as those already with the French and by 1635 totalled around 8,000 men. Sir John was killed in 1636 and succeeded as Colonel by his brother George, then, after his death in 1637, Lord James Douglas; following the custom of the time, the unit became known as the Régiment de Douglas. James died in a skirmish near Douai in 1645 and was replaced by his elder brother Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, who remained in Scotland and had little contact with the regiment, other than supplying recruits. In 1653, he assigned the Colonelcy to his younger half brother, George Douglas, later Earl of Dumbarton. In 1660, Charles II was restored as king; in January 1661, Douglas's was sent to England in response to Venner's Rising, an attempted coup by Fifth Monarchists. The revolt was quickly crushed and it returned to France, since the recently elected Cavalier Parliament quickly disbanded the New Model Army but refused to fund replacements. It remained in France until 1679, apart from a period during the 1664 67 Second Anglo Dutch War when it was based at the naval dockyard of Chatham. The diarist Pepys met George Douglas in Rochester and recorded that "Here in the streets, I did hear the Scotch march beat by the drums before the soldiers, which is very odde." In 1667, the regiment was accused of looting after the Raid on the Medway and ordered back to France; while awaiting transport, over 700 of the 1,500 men deserted. During the 1672 74 Third Anglo Dutch War, Douglas's was part of the British Brigade that fought with the French, commanded by the Duke of Monmouth. It served in the Rhineland throughout the Franco Dutch War, even after the Anglo Dutch war ended in February 1674; it became the Régiment de Dumbarton in 1675, after George Douglas was made Earl of Dumbarton. The 1678 Treaties of Nijmegen required the repatriation of all Scots and English units from France; reluctant to lose veteran troops, this was made as hard as possible. Dumbarton's was posted to the Dauphiné in Southern France before being disbanded and its men prevented from travelling for 30 days thereafter; many chose to remain, while those who arrived in England did so without money or possessions. The regiment was listed on the English military establishment as the First Foot or Royal Scots, a temporary measure during the Exclusion Crisis of 1679–1681. Four of its twenty one companies joined the Tangier Garrison in April 1680, with another twelve in September. It was awarded a battle honour for 'Tangier' in 1908, but the colony and its garrison was evacuated in 1684. A war diary for 1680 was kept by its commander, Sir James Halkett, allegedly one of the first examples to survive. On its return, the unit was renamed His Majesty's Royal Regiment of Foot in June 1684. When James II succeeded Charles in 1685, the regiment fought at the decisive Battle of Sedgemoor that ended the June Monmouth Rebellion; a second battalion was raised in March 1686 and posted to Scotland. It was the only unit where the majority remained loyal to James during the November 1688 Glorious Revolution; Dumbarton followed him into exile and one of William's subordinates, Frederick Schomberg, was appointed Colonel. While awaiting transport from Ipswich to Flanders, it mutinied on 15 March 1689, a combination of not being paid and dislike at being commanded by a foreigner. However, the mutineers were treated with leniency and later agreed to the move. At the start of the 1688–1697 Nine Years War, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Robert Douglas commanded the first battalion at the Battle of Walcourt in 1689. After Schomberg was killed in Ireland, he was promoted Colonel in July 1690. The second battalion arrived from Scotland in 1690 and both battalions fought at the Battle of Steenkerque in 1692, where Sir Robert was killed. They then fought at the Battle of Landen in 1693 and at the Siege of Namur. When the Treaty of Ryswick ended the war in 1697, it was transferred to Ireland.

The regiment was reduced sharply in size following the Armistice; during 1919, the 3rd Battalion disbanded, as did all bar one of the Territorial battalions (the one exception being the 2/10th, which was finally disbanded in February 1920). In September 1919, the 1st Battalion again embarked for imperial service, taking up garrison duties in Rangoon, and in August 1920 the 2nd Battalion was sent to Ireland for service in what would later become the Anglo Irish War; they would remain there until January 1922. The three battalions not retained in 1921 were converted to support units outside the regimental structure. The 4th/5th Battalion was later, in 1938, transferred to the Royal Engineers and converted into an anti aircraft role, becoming the 4th/5th Battalion, The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) (52nd Searchlight Regiment). It was later transferred to the Royal Artillery in August 1940 as the 52nd (Queen's Edinburgh, Royal Scots) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery. The 1st Battalion moved from Rangoon to Secunderabad in 1922, then to Aden in 1925. They finally returned to the UK in 1926, barracked at Maryhill in Glasgow, where they saw duty in the General Strike. Under the Cardwell system, it was common for one battalion to remain at home while the other one served overseas, and accordingly in January 1926 the 2nd Battalion moved to Egypt, then to China in 1928. In 1930, they moved to Quetta, then Lahore in 1934, and finally Hong Kong in January 1938. At the same time, the 1st Battalion was deployed to serve in the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, where it would remain for a year, until January 1939, when it became part of the 4th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. whilst the other formed a duplicate 8th Battalion on 2 August 1939.

At the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots was at Aldershot as part of 4th Infantry Brigade, alongside the 1st Border Regiment and 2nd Royal Norfolk Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division; accordingly, it deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It moved to Lecelles in September, and in May 1940 moved into Belgium during the Battle of France. The BEF were heavily hit by the German Army's breakthrough, however, and fell back towards the coast; the battalion was deployed at Le Paradis, near Béthune, on 25 May to protect the flanks of the Dunkirk evacuation. After being heavily hit by armoured attacks, the battalion ceased fighting on the afternoon of 27 May. The adjacent unit, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolks, had almost one hundred men taken prisoner and later shot by their captors in the Le Paradis massacre. Recent research has suggested that around twenty Royal Scots suffered a similar fate. The remnants of the battalion were reconstituted in Bradford in June. The two Territorial Army units, the 7th/9th, which was the 7th and 9th battalions merged, and 8th Battalions, mobilised in Scotland in September; the 7th/9th was briefly deployed to France with the 155th Infantry Brigade, alongside the 4th and 5th King's Own Scottish Borderers, of the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division before the collapse of the French government, but was quickly withdrawn. Most of 1941 passed without active duty for the regiment, and with growing concerns about the stability of the Far East, the 2nd Battalion, still based at Hong Kong, moved into defensive positions around the colony. On 8 December, the Battle of Hong Kong began a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor; after bitter fighting, the garrison surrendered on Christmas Day. The newly formed 12th Battalion was disbanded and reformed as the 2nd Battalion in May 1942. as a 2nd Line duplicate of the 7th/9th Battalion. They remained in the United Kingdom as part of 44th (Lowland) Infantry Brigade, alongside the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers and 6th King's Own Scottish Borderers. The brigade was a part of the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, which would gain an excellent reputation in the campaign, and itself was formed a 2nd Line duplicate of the 1st Line 52nd Division. In June 1944, they landed in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord and fought in the Battle for Caen in Operation Epsom and later at the Second Battle of the Odon and Operation Bluecoat. They then fought in the North West Europe Campaign, from Paris to the Rhine, until the end of the war; it entered Belgium in September, crossed the Rhine in March 1945 and advanced to Hamburg by the end of the war. The 7th/9th (Highlanders) and 8th Battalions were reconstituted in the Territorial Army in 1947. Both battalions remained until 1961, when the latter was absorbed and the single battalion retitled the 8th/9th Battalion. In 1967 this was disbanded and reconstituted as two separate companies, A Company (The Royal Scots) of the 52nd Lowland Volunteers, and A Company (8th/9th Royal Scots) of The Royal Scots and Cameronians Territorials. By 1971, both companies were in the battalions of the 52nd Lowland Volunteers, and though the Royal Scots name was retained in the title the regiment no longer had a Territorial Army element. The 1st Battalion briefly saw service in the Korean War in 1953, as part of 29th Infantry Brigade; after a brief spell in Egypt, they deployed to Cyprus from June 1955 to February 1956. They then spent two years in England, two in Berlin, one in Scotland, two in Libya, and four in England. In 1964, they deployed to Aden, then back to England and a three year spell in Germany with the British Army of the Rhine. 1970 to 1974 was spent in Britain as part of the Allied Command Europe Mobile Force, with the battalion undertaking two four month tours of duty in Northern Ireland. The battalion was then posted to Cyprus in early 1974. Unfortunately, Turkey invaded the island and created the "Green Line", which still partitions the island. During the action of moving service families and holidaymakers to safety from Limassol, Piper Malcolm Halliday played at the roadside becoming known as "The piper of Cyprus". This had put the Regiment on a war footing and they were involved in riots attacking RAF Akrotiri and protection of the Sovereign Area Base of Episkopi. They were relieved in early 1975 returning unexpectedly to Kirknewton near Edinburgh and did a further four month tour of Northern Ireland, where three soldiers were lost in a roadside bomb attack. They moved to Münster in mid 1976 as the Nuclear Convoy Battalion charged with the protection of 8 Regiment RCT. However almost immediately the Ministry of Defence moved to amalgamate the two battalions. This was not a new idea: the origins of the combined entity, Royal Scots Borderers, dates from the 1990 Options for Change review, when it was initially announced that the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers would amalgamate. That amalgamation was subsequently rescinded. The Royal Scots Battalion and King's Own Scottish Borderers Battalion duly amalgamated on 1 August 2006 – upon their amalgamation, the new battalion took the name Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland. The remaining Territorial element of the Royal Scots, a rifle company of 52nd Lowland Regiment, was likewise amalgamated, becoming A (Royal Scots Borderers) Company of 6th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland.

The Museum of the Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) and the Royal Regiment of Scotland is located in Edinburgh Castle. Operating as an independent museum, the exhibits include dioramas, uniforms, medals, weapons, drums, ceremonial regalia and silver. Displays focus on the regiment's activities since its founding in 1633 up to contemporary Army life.

The regiment is known by the nickname Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard which apparently was the result of a 17th century boasting contest with the French Régiment de Picardie regarding the respective seniority of each regiment. Picardie, the senior French infantry regiment, was formed in 1562, whereas the Scots had been raised in 1625 as Hepburn's Regiment and only entered French service in 1635 but, it is said, claimed a lineage from Scots in French service dating back to the C13th. Versions of this tradition vary but the story turns on the existence of either one regiment or the other dating back to service under Pontius Pilate at the time of Christ's crucifixion. The most common version tells of the name 'Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard' being tossed by the French as a jibe against the Scots. They replied that if their regiment had been on guard the night of the Crucifixion, the Sepulchre would not have been empty the next morning. The 2nd Battalion was sardonically referred to as The First to Foot It during the Battle of Hong Kong.

The football team of the 1st Battalion was a member of the Irish Football League for the 1899–1900 season, while deployed in Victoria Barracks, Belfast. The 2nd Battalion team won several competitions in the 1890s, including the Surrey Cup, Malta Cup, Secunderabad Cup, Harris Cup, and Bombay Rovers Cup.

White facings on a red coat were worn until "royal blue" distinctions were adopted in the early 18th century. The Scottish thistle of St Andrew featured on belt plates and other parts of the uniform. The standard red/scarlet and blue uniform of most line infantry regiments was retained until "Lowland" dress was adopted in 1881. For the Royal Scots this included a scarlet doublet, tartan trews and (from 1904) a dark blue Kilmarnock bonnet with diced band, scarlet toorie and black cock feather.