Royal Regiment of Scotland, Scottish Division, Army

IAN BRUCE,
Defence Correspondent
Glasgow Herald
March 13 2006

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save one of Scotland's oldest regiments from amalgamation have abandoned their landmark legal challenge against the Ministry of Defence.

Veterans from the King's Own Scottish Borderers Association in Edinburgh had disputed the constitutional right of a Whitehall government to disband a regiment raised by an independent Scottish parliament in 1689 – 18 years before the United Kingdom was established by the Act of Union.

Their year-long action was due to be the subject of a judicial finding by Glasgow's sheriff-principal next week.

But the seven former officers who raised the constitutional challenge have decided to drop it in recognition of the fact that the army is increasingly overstretched and facing simultaneous combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The KOSB is due to become a component battalion of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland on March 28, before its identity is further diluted in a merger with the Royal Scots on August 1.

Colonel Clive Fairweather, who commanded the KOSB in the late 1980s as it reached the 300th anniversary of its founding, said yesterday: "Our continued legal action would not be in the best interests of the army at this critical time.

"Things have changed drastically in the past few months, with the long-term commitment of troops to Afghanistan and Iraq on the verge of civil war coupled with a chronic and worsening retention and recruitment problem across the regiments."

He added: "We hope our decision will be seen as a gesture of goodwill from veterans alarmed by the dwindling resources devoted to our armed forces – and to the infantry in particular – while they are overstretched by commitment to two conflict zones simultaneously."

The KOSB was enlisted 317 years ago, only a few hundred yards from where the Scottish Parliament now stands, to defend Edinburgh against marauding clansmen.

The regiment was authorised by the then-separate Scottish legislature.

That parliament passed a crisis act ordering David Leslie, the Earl of Leven, to raise a body of infantry to protect the capital amid rumours of a Jacobite army advancing from the Highlands.

More than 800 men joined up within the space of two hours on March 18, 1689, attracted to the rallying point near Holyrood Abbey "by beat of drum".

Colonel Fairweather, who is also a former deputy commander of the SAS, said it had been his "sad duty" to write to the current descendant of the Earl of Leven to inform him that the legal battle to save the regiment's heritage was over.

The MoD announced last year that the six existing Scottish infantry regiments were to merge into a single, "large regional regiment" as part of an overall restructuring of infantry forces.

The KOSB and the Royal Scots are to face a further merger, effectively disbanding them both in the process, to reduce the new regiment to five rather than six battalions.

Critics claim the moves will destroy 300 years of military history and wipe out the traditions and tribal bonds which have made Scotland's soldiers the envy of the world.

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