Images - Left - A sentry at ease, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), 1892. by Harry Payne - Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Public Domain, Wiki Commons: Badges from left - 42nd Royal Highland Regiment of Foot (Black Watch) (Courtesy Military Badge Collection); 73rd Foot (Perthshire); Black Watch King's Crown (Courtesy of Military Badge Collection);

The Black Watch

3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland

British Army - The Royal Regiment of Scotland

Black Watch at Fontenoy, 1745.

Image above - by William Skeoch Cumming (1864-1929) Public Domain, Wiki Commons

Including
(Reflecting historic name changes)

2nd Battalion 42nd Foot

42nd Foot (Royal Highland) (The Black Watch)

42nd Regiment of Foot

42nd (The Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot

The 42nd Royal Highland Regiment of Foot (Black Watch)

43rd Regiment of Foot

73rd Foot (Perthshire)

73rd (Highland) Regiment of Foot (Col. Sir G Osborne)

73rd Regiment of Foot

The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment)

The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)

The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland

Earl of Crawford's Regiment

Lord H Semphill

Lord J Murray

Please link profiles of those who served in the The Black Watch (including those in the "included" list above), to this project regardless of rank, conflict or nationality. People of note can be individually listed in Alphabetical Order below.
See

Regiments and Corps of the British Army

The Royal Regiment of Scotland

Getting Involved

Feel free to follow, request to collaborate

To join the project use the request link under "actions" at the top right of the page.

Visit

Geni's Project Plaza

Working with Projects

Wicked Wiki

Geni Wikitext, Unicode and images which gives a great deal of assistance.

See the discussion Project Help: How to add Text to a Project - Starter Kit to get you going!

The Black Watch

The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Prior to 28 March 2006, the Black Watch was an infantry regiment – The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) from 1881 to 1931 and The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) from 1931 to 2006. Part of the Scottish Division, it was the senior regiment of Highlanders.

Motto - Nemo Me Impune Lacessit - ("No One Provokes Me With Impunity")

Royal Colonel HRH The Duke of Rothesay

Timeline

8.1.3. The Black Watch

1725-1729 - Raised by General George Wade (authorised by George II) as six independent "watch" companies of Highlanders (Popularly known as the Black Watch - derived from the Gaelic as Am Freiceadan Dubh, "the dark" or "black watch"), following the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. These were to patrol the Highlands of Scotland. Three were from the Clan Campbell, one from Clan Fraser, one from Clan Munron and one from Clan Grant.
1739 - Brought together as the Earl of Crawford's Regiment.
Also known by Colonels names until 1751

• 1741 - Lord H Semphill
  
• 1745 - Lord J Murray
  

1747 - Ranked as 43rd Regiment of Foot
1749 - Renumbered - 42nd Regiment of Foot
1751 - formally named 42nd Regiment of Foot
1758 - re-designated 42nd (The Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot
1861 - Badge - 42nd Foot (Royal Highland) (The Black Watch)

1881 - Amalgamated with 73rd Foot (Perthshire) to form 1st and 2nd Battalions The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders).

73rd Foot (Perthshire)

Timeline
1779 - 2nd Battalion 42nd Foot raised in Perth
1786 - re-designated 73rd (Highland) Regiment of Foot (Col. Sir G Osborne)
1809 - 'Highland' sub-title removed - 73rd Regiment of Foot
1806 - Badge - name changed to 73rd Foot (Perthshire)
1881 - Amalgamated with 42nd Foot (Black Watch) to form 1st and 2nd Battalions The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders).

1902 - Badge change -King's crown
1936 - Re-named The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment)
after 1952 - Badge change - Queen's Crown

2006 - Re-named The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland Amalgamated with

1. The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
2. The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
4. The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
5. The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland

Forming The Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Battle honours

The battle honours consist of the combined battle honours of the 42nd Regiment and the 73rd Regiment, together with:

• Guadaloupe 17591, Martinique 17621, Havannah1, North America 1763–64, Mysore5, Busaco³, Salamanca4, South Africa 1846-476, 1851-2-36 Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882 '84, Kirbekan, Nile 1884-85, Paardeberg, South Africa 1899–1902
• The Great War [25 battalions]: Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914 '18, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Ypres 1914 '17 '18, Langemarck 1914, Gheluvelt, Nonne Bosschen, Givenchy 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozières, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Thiepval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916, Arras 1917 '18, Vimy 1917, Scarpe 1917 '18, Arleux, Pilckem, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 '18, St Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Rosières, Lys, Estaires, Messines 1918, Hazebrouck, Kemmel, Béthune, Scherpenberg, Soissonnais-Ourcq, Tardenois, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenburg Line, Épéhy, St Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Courtrai, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914–18, Doiran 1917, Macedonia 1915–18, Egypt 1916, Gaza, Jerusalem, Tell'Asur, Megiddo, Sharon, Damascus, Palestine 1917–18, Tigris 1916, Kut al Amara 1917, Baghdad, Mesopotamia 1915-17
• The Second World War: Defence of Arras, Ypres-Comines Canal, Dunkirk 1940, Somme 1940, St. Valery-en-Caux, Saar, Breville, Odon, Fontenay le Pesnil, Defence of Rauray, Caen, Falaise, Falaise Road, La Vie Crossing, Le Havre, Lower Maas, Venlo Pocket, Ourthe, Rhineland, Reichswald, Goch, Rhine, North-West Europe 1940 '44–45, Barkasan, British Somaliland 1940, Tobruk 1941, Tobruk Sortie, El Alamein, Advance on Tripoli, Medenine, Zemlet el Lebene, Mareth, Akarit, Wadi Akarit East, Djebel Roumana, Medjez Plain, Si Mediene, Tunis, North Africa 1941–43, Landing in Sicily, Vizzini, Sferro, Gerbini, Adrano, Sferro Hills, Sicily 1943, Cassino II, Liri Valley, Advance to Florence, Monte Scalari, Casa Fortis, Rimini Line, Casa Fabbri Ridge, Savio Bridgehead, Italy 1944–45, Athens, Greece 1944-45, Crete, Heraklion, Middle East 1941, Chindits 1944, Burma 1944
• The Hook 1952, Korea 1952–53; Al Basrah, Iraq 2003

Recipients of the Victoria Cross

The following Black Watch servicemen were awarded the Victoria Cross:

• Francis Farquharson, Indian Mutiny Lucknow, 9 March 1858
• John Simpson, Indian Mutiny Fort Ruhya, 15 April 1858
• Alexander Thompson, Indian Mutiny Fort Ruhya, 15 April 1858
• James Davis, Indian Mutiny Fort Ruhya, 15 April 1858
• Edward Spence, Indian Mutiny Fort Ruhya, 15 April 1858
• William Gardner, Indian Mutiny Bareilly, 5 May 1858
• Walter Cook, Indian Mutiny Sissaya Ghat, 15 January 1859
• Duncan Millar, Indian Mutiny Sissaya Ghat, 15 January 1859
• Samuel McGaw, Ashanti War Amoaful, 31 January 1874
• Thomas Edwards, Egyptian Campaigns Tamaai, 13 March 1884
• John Ripley, First World War Rue du Bois, 9 May 1915
• David Finlay, First World War Rue du Bois, 9 May 1915
• Charles Melvin, First World War Istabulat, 21 April 1917
• Lewis Evans, First World War Zonnebeke, 4 October 1917
• Bill Speakman, Korean War, 4 November 1951

Notable Personnel

Names with Bold links are to Geni profiles. Other links take you to external biographical web pages.

A

• Alfred Anderson, Scotland's last surviving World War I veteran (d. 2005)

B

• Bernard Fergusson, Baron Ballantrae, the last British-born Governor-General of New Zealand
• Jim Baxter, Scottish footballer
• Fergus Bowes-Lyon, older brother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

C

• Duncan Campbell, Scots nobleman and British Army officer

D

• Harold Davis, Scottish former professional football player
• Henry Davie, Liberal Member of Parliament for Haddington

E

F

• Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher, social scientist and historian
• Al Foreman, British lightweight boxing champion, assigned as a non-combat drummer boy at the end of WWI at age 14, very brief service. Later received Distinguished Flying Cross with Royal Air Force in WWII.

G

• Stewart Granger, actor

H

• J. B. S. Haldane, British-born geneticist and evolutionary biologist

L

• Christopher Logue, English poet

M

• Fulton Mackay, Scottish actor
• Gillean Maclaine, the 25th hereditary Chief of Clan Maclaine of Lochbuie
• Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821
• Robert Munro, the original Black Watch commander, Colonel Sir Robert Munro
• John Murray, theologian

N

• Brian Nelson, Northern Irish loyalist
• Eric Newby, English travel author

R

• Simon Ramsay, Conservative politician and colonial governor
• Neil Ritchie, British Army officer during the Second World War
• William Rose, screenwriter

S

• Bertie Snowball, golfer
• Rory Stewart, Scottish diplomat, Harvard Professor and Conservative MP

T

• Frederick Tait, Scottish soldier and amateur golfer

W

• Arthur Wauchope, British soldier and colonial administrator
• Archibald Wavell, British field marshal during the Second World War

Sources, References and Further Reading

• Brereton, J M A Guide to the regiments and Corps of the British Army on the Regular Establishment (Bodley Head) 1985
• Griffin, P D Encyclopedia of Modern British Army Regiments (Sutton Publishers) 2006
• Lumley, Goff Amalgamations in the British Army 1660-2008 (Partizan Press 2009)

this project is in History Link