Major Ogilvie has done me the honour of asking me to write a short preface to a work which to me is of peculiar interest. To write a preface—and especially a short one—is a somewhat difficult task, but my intense pride in, and admiration for, the part played by the Battalion with which the gallant author was so long and honourably associated must be my excuse for undertaking to do my best. From his stout record as a soldier the author’s qualifications to write this history are undoubted. His rea

This short history, written by request, was started shortly after the Regiment was disbanded. For the delay in publishing it, I must plead the great mass of inaccuracies which had to be corrected and verified, entailing a considerable amount of correspondence and consequent lapse of time. It has been compiled from Official Diaries and Forms, and from a Diary kept by Lieut.-Colonel J. Younger, D.S.O., without whose assistance it would never have been completed. It will, however, recall to the rea

August 4th, 1914, marks the end and also the beginning of two great epochs in the history of every Territorial Unit. It marked the close of our peace training and the beginning of thirteen months’ strenuous war training for the thirty-seven months which we were to spend on active service abroad. The Fiery Cross which blazed across the entire Continent caught most people unawares and unprepared—but not so our headquarters. Our mobilization papers had already been made out and were despatched imme

The last few days at Fakenham were busy ones, chiefly owing to the floods of new equipment which were at last showered upon us. Two squadrons got a complete issue of new saddlery, harness, and vehicles, which meant, in the first place, handing over the old issues to representatives of the second line, and in the second place, assembling all the new saddlery (which was issued in small pieces) and packing it into sacks ready for the voyage. The rest of the saddlery was put on board without being u

From a military point of view 1916 can be summed up as far as we were concerned in two words—nothing doing. It was certainly for us the most peaceful and uneventful year. New Year saw us resting and refitting at Sidi Bishr—bathing in the Mediterranean and sightseeing in Alexandria. After a few days we moved to Mena Camp, under the shadow of the Pyramids, and at the end of the tram line to Cairo. Apart from the fact that we had two regiments of Lovat’s Scouts on one side, and three regiments of S

SENUSSI PRISONERS, DAKHLA. ToList To face page 40 THE SERGEANTS’ REEL, MOASCAR. ToList To face page 40...

New Year’s Day saw the Regiment at Moascar Camp, Ismailia, and it was there that the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry were interred “for the duration,” giving birth at the same time to a sturdy son—the 14th (Fife and Forfar Yeomanry) Battalion, Royal Highlanders. We were all very sorry to see the demise of the Yeomanry and to close, though only temporarily, the records of a Regiment which had had an honourable career, and of which we were all so proud. At the same time we realised that, in our capacity

From 4th January to 14th March when we went into the line at Khan Abu Felah, we were employed continuously on road-making. The great difficulty experienced in bringing supplies forward over the roadless mountainous country, impassable to motors and often even to camels and mules, made road-making an absolute necessity before any further advance could take place. The only metalled roads were the Jerusalem-Nablus road, running north from Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem-Jaffa road, running west and no

On disembarking at Marseilles on 7th May we opened a new chapter in the history of the Regiment. The contrast from the East was indeed marked and delightful, and the long train journey passed quickly in our joy at seeing once more green fields and green trees, villages, and farms, long fair hair and fair complexions. We could hardly have had more beautiful scenery than we had during the first day through the south of France. We kept to the branch lines to the west of the main Rhone Valley line,

Names and episodes crowd one another out—the more one writes, the more one recalls. These random jottings, however, will call up many more to the reader’s memory. Such is my hope—that, having started you in a reminiscent frame of mind you will now carry on “spinning the yarn” yourself. “Here’s tae oorsel’s! Wha’s like us! Damned few!” THE FIFE AND FORFAR IMPERIAL YEOMANRY AT ANNSMUIR. ToList To face page 158...

During the troublous times in France at the end of the eighteenth century the fear of invasion was as acute as it was during the first years of the European War. To meet this danger Pitt issued his famous appeal, and towards the end of 1793 the first yeomanry regiment was raised in Suffolk. Others quickly followed, and in 1794 we find a regiment was raised in Forfar called the Forfar Yeomanry or Angus Cavalry, which continued twenty-five years until disbanded in 1819. In Fife the first unit rais