Glasgow Highlanders

The Glasgow Highlanders was a former infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Territorial Force, later renamed the Territorial Army. The regiment eventually became a Volunteer Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) in 1881. The regiment saw active service in both World War I and World War II. In 1959 the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) was amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment). The Glasgow Highlanders was later amalgamated into the 52nd Lowland Volunteers in 1967.

The regiment was originally formed as the 105th Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, also known as the Glasgow Highland Regiment, which was formed in 1868 by a group of Highland migrants to Glasgow as part of the civilian Volunteer Force and initially wore the uniform and based its cap badge upon that of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment). It consisted of 12 companies. Most of the Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs) had been raised following an invasion scare in 1859–60, so the 105th was a latecomer but it had the advantage of a cadre of experienced Volunteers when 187 Highlanders transferred to the new unit from G, H and I Companies of the 4th (Glasgow, 1st Northern) Lanarkshire RVC. These companies had been raised as kilted units in 1860 as the 60th (Glasgow, 1st Highland), 61st (Glasgow, 2nd Highland) and 93rd (Glasgow Highland Rangers) Lanarkshire RVCs. (After the Highlanders left the three companies of the 4th adopted tunics and trews instead of doublets and kilts.) When the RVCs were consolidated in 1880, the battalion was renumbered as the 10th (Glasgow Highland) Lanarkshire RVC. The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 introduced a Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war. In peacetime these brigades provided a structure for collective training. Under this scheme the Volunteer Battalions of the HLI were included in the Clyde Brigade, later the Glasgow Brigade based at Hamilton. In 1902 the HLI battalions split from the rest of the Glasgow units to form their own Highland Light Infantry Brigade, still based at Hamilton.

When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908, the unit became the 9th (Glasgow Highland) Battalion, Highland Light Infantry. By now the battalion was back at 81 Greendyke Street. During the Great War of 1914–18 another two home based battalions were recruited, which were used to supply manpower to the 1st Battalion in France, who served with distinction with the Highland Light Infantry under the 2nd Division at the battles of Festubert and Loos. In May 1916 the battalion was transferred to the 33rd Division and fought at the Somme (at High Wood), Arras and the Third Battle of Ypres. After the end of the war, the Glasgow Highlanders were disbanded along with the rest of the Territorial Force. The story of the battalion in the Great War would later be dramatised in the 1995 Bill Bryden play, The Big Picnic, starring Jimmy Logan.

In 1920, the Territorial Force was re established as the Territorial Army, and the Glasgow Highlanders re raised a single battalion. It later moved to a new Headquarters, (in what became known as Walcheren Barracks) in Maryhill in 1935. Still part of the 157th Infantry Brigade of 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division, the 1st Battalion was sent overseas to France in 1940 as part of the Second British Expeditionary Force (see Operation Aerial) to cover the withdrawal of the BEF being evacuated from Dunkirk. With the rest of the division, the 1st Battalion spent the next four years training in the United Kingdom and, from May 1942 until June 1944, was trained in mountain warfare and later in airlanding operations. In early October 1944 the 52nd Division was sent to Belgium, coming under command of the First Canadian Army, and saw service most notably during the capture of Walcheren Island during the Battle of the Scheldt. In the spring and summer of 1939, the Territorial Army was ordered to be doubled in size, in order to meet the threat of Nazi Germany. As a result, the 1st Battalion raised a duplicate unit, the 2nd Battalion which was assigned to the 46th (Highland) Infantry Brigade, 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division. With the division, the 2nd Battalion remained in the United Kingdom until it was sent overseas, to France, in June 1944. The battalion fought in the Battle of Normandy in Operation Epsom and the Second Battle of the Odon, followed by Operation Bluecoat and the subsequent Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine. The battalion later played a small part in Operation Market Garden, later taking part in Operation Veritable and crossing the Rhine in Operation Plunder, finally advancing into Germany in the Western Allied invasion of Germany. During Operation Epsom "the 2nd Battalion, The Glasgow Highlanders lost 12 officers and sustained nearly 200 casualties, mainly around the hotly contested village of Cheux. Total strength of this battalion was approximately 35 officers and 786 other ranks; thus one day's losses amounted to 34% of their officers and nearly 25% of the entire rifle battalion."