No fuss as Royal Scots march into history

IAN BRUCE
Defence Correspondent
Glasgow Herald
11 January 2006

THE Scottish soldiers of Britain's oldest infantry regiment are to be handed new cap badges and tartan flashes in desert camps in Iraq in two months' time to mark, without fuss or ceremony, the effective end of their 373-year history. Campaigners have criticised the lack of recognition.

The 500 men of the Royal Scots, now on patrol and escort duty around Basra and Baghdad, will be ordered to exchange their own insignia for those of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland on "formation day" at the end of March.

Lieutenant-Colonel George Lowder, their commanding officer, confirmed there are no plans for any special parades and that the troops will simply don the new unit's badges and continue with their daily tasks.

The Royal Scots left for Iraq last week and are due to remain there for up to five months, patrolling the area around the giant Shaibah logistics base outside Basra, providing protection for senior British officers and diplomats inside Baghdad's "green zone" and escorting supply convoys between Kuwait and UK bases in southern Iraq.

Jeff Duncan, organiser of the Save the Scottish Regiments campaign, yesterday criticised the way the soldiers were being treated. "One minute the oldest regiment in the British Army with three centuries of history and tradition … and the next reduced to a cog in the greater, anonymous military machine. It's disgraceful."