THE ROYAL SCOTS
One of the titles bestowed on the Royal Scots, that of "Pontius Pilate's
Bodyguard," marks the claim of the regiment to antiquity. Under
Marlborough, in the French war in America, at Corunna, through the
Peninsular war with Wellington, at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, in India,
the Crimea, and in China, have the battalions of the Royal Scots upheld
the honour of the British Army; and it stands to their credit that in
the South African campaign, in which they were engaged practically from
start to finish, there was not a single case of surrender of a party of
the Royal Scots.
The history of the regiment in the present war begins at Landrecies and
Mons, and it is worthy of note that the first story of a man of the
regiment that comes to hand concerns the bravery of men of other units.
The man in question was twice wounded himself before being invalided
home; but, declining to talk about himself, he remarked that for real
British pluck he had never seen anything to equal that of the Middlesex
regiment. He saw them digging trenches near Mons when a mass of Germans,
who seemed to come from nowhere, came down on them. He conjectured that
the Germans had been apprised of the position of the Middlesex men by an
air scout, and he saw how the Germans came on the Middlesex, who were
totally unprepared in the matter of equipment, and had to face fixed
bayonets with no apparent means of reprisal. But the sergeant of a
company set the fashion by the use of his fists, and "downed" two of
the attacking Germans; the whole of the company followed suit, but they
were badly cut about by the Germans, and the sergeant was bayoneted.
Near by were the Connaughts, who, after six guns had been taken by the
Germans, charged down on the enemy and took back the guns, with the aid
of artillery fire. But, regarding the doings of the Royal Scots at the
time, the man of the regiment who tells this story has never a word to
say.
A corporal of the 1st Royal Scots tells how Lieutenant Geoffrey Lambton,
nephew of the Earl of Durham, died. It happened in the third rearguard
action after Mons that the lieutenant was in charge of his men in a
wood, and was directing fire from a mound. Before and beneath the Scots
the Germans were in strong force, and were preparing to attack, when
Lambton gave the order to fire, and, picking up a rifle himself, set
the example to his men. Fatally wounded by a German bullet, he knew
that he had not long to live, so handed over to the corporal his
pocket-book, note-book and sketch-book, to take back to his people.
Another corporal of the regiment testifies to the spirit of its men at
Landrecies, where in company with about fifty others he was cut off from
the main body, and engaged in desperate street fighting. The party
joined up with the Grenadier Guards, and in the streets of Landrecies
German officers called on them to surrender, but the officers answered
that "British never surrender--fix bayonets and charge!" So well did
they charge that the streets were piled with German dead. The Royal
Scots were heavily engaged at Landrecies, and accounted for a great
number of the enemy there.
Graphically is the story of the retreat told by one Private Stewart, who
was invalided home after the battle of the Marne. "After Mons," he
says, "the hardships of fighting on the retreat began. We had little
time for sleep; both day and night we retreated, and as they marched the
men slept. If a man in front of you happened to stop, you found yourself
bumping into him. I didn't have my clothes off for six weeks, and my kit
and overcoat have been left on the field. At one place where we halted
for the day the lady of the farmhouse was washing, so some of us took
off our shirts to have them washed. While they were hanging up to dry
the order came that the troops had to move on, and the wet garments had
to be put on just as they were. Mine was dry next morning. Two of my
mates were killed in the trenches by one shell, which burst close to
them. We were not deeply entrenched, and the German artillery fire was
so heavy that we had to lie on our sides like pitmen and dig ourselves
in deeper. We had a chance to look up occasionally when our guns
replied. Another time the Royal Scots were having a meal by the
roadside, when we got orders that we must be finished in five minutes.
In less than that time the Germans opened fire, but fortunately the side
of the road was an embankment, and so formed a natural trench. We lay
there during the rest of the day and the greater part of the night,
keeping off the attack by constant fire. My company captured about forty
German cyclists, who offered no resistance--this was after the Marne,
when the Germans retired. The British had been blazing away for some
time at what appeared to be the helmets of the men in the trenches, when
an officer saw that the helmets were not moving. He gave the order to
advance, and when we got up we found that the Germans were retiring, and
had left their helmets as a blind. Many prisoners were taken that day."
Brief as an official report is this story, and as pithy, giving as it
does an outline of the work in which the Royal Scots have been engaged
from the time of Landrecies onwards. For it is not what is actually
written that counts in such a sincere piece of writing as this, but the
facts that appear between the lines. The brief reference to the
hardships of the retreat, the queer washing day, and the interrupted
meal, are chapters of war in themselves, reported with a brevity and
conciseness which stamp the document as authentic.
Another man of the regiment was in the first of the fighting at
Landrecies, and went on to the positions of the Marne and the Aisne,
returning wounded from the latter, with four splinters of shrapnel in
his back, one in his ribs, and a bullet wound in his head--surely
enough to send any man back from the firing line. At Landrecies he and
his fellows encountered a looting party of Germans, who carried large
quantities of jewellery, clothing, and other articles: practically every
account of the first of the fighting tells of German attention to
details of this kind.
At the position of the Aisne, the Royal Scots had a stiff struggle in
the holding of a pontoon bridge, and the man who tells this story was
wounded there during a rain of shell fire to which his battalion was
subjected. After he was hit, he lay unconscious for seven hours, and in
order to escape after regaining his senses he had to propel himself,
feet first, along a sort of furrow or ditch. It was a weary business,
and, exposing himself momentarily, he was hit again on the head by a
bullet, though the lead failed to penetrate to any depth; and during his
journey he was for a time between the fire of Germans and British. He
came on a German trench full of dead men, and was struck by the
elaborate arrangement of the trench, for there were tables and chairs,
and a quantity of champagne bottles, both full and empty--the trench was
well stocked with wine.
Previously to being wounded, this man made one of a party that captured
a number of Germans, one of whom spoke English well, and told his
captors that he had a wife and five children in Glasgow, and that the
only way to get back to them was to court capture. This German had been
in employment in Glasgow, and was called up _five months_ before the war
broke out--a significant fact when it is remembered how German statesmen
are still insisting that Britain made the war.
A man of the Royal Scots has told how Captain Price of the regiment
died. While in the trenches, and under a hot fire, Captain Price ran
forward to help a corporal who had been shot in the arm, and in kindly
fashion the captain was preventing the corporal from seeing his
wound--shielding the injured arm while it was being dressed. While so
engaged Captain Price was struck in the head by a piece of shrapnel, and
he died while being carried to the field hospital. On the testimony of
the men of the regiment, a braver or kindlier officer than Captain C. L.
Price, D.S.O., has never worn uniform.
With regard to the work of the regiment in the trenches of the Aisne,
and the enemy they have had to face, one man of the regiment speaks.
"The Germans are good range finders with their big guns," he says, "and
their fire is very effective--but you could get boys to give them points
with the rifle. One thing has made an impression on me, and that is that
the enemy has no respect whatever for the Red Cross. Our men were
proceeding along a road, when they came on a Red Cross waggon lying on
its side, with several Red Cross men lying dead beside it. There was one
brave incident I witnessed, and although I do not know the name of the
fellow who showed such pluck, I know he belonged to the Royal Scots. I
saw him carry one of his comrades across a field for about three hundred
yards, though the fire from the German ranks was simply awful at the
time."
Here, again, is an instance of the way in which the men tell of each
other's deeds but make no mention of their own. The French soldier, as a
rule, knows when he has done a brave action, and talks about it--the
quality does not make him less brave, but it is one that is inconsistent
with British character. The average British soldier is usually quite
unconscious that he has done anything worthy of note, and, even if he
knows the value of what he has done, he is very shy of speaking about
it, and usually prefers to talk about the things somebody else has
accomplished.
A certain Private Kemp, invalided home to Berwick, testifies to the way
in which tobacco and cigarettes have come to be regarded by the men in
the firing line. He tells how, when out scouting, he was captured by
three Uhlans, who took away his arms and equipment, and were just about
to take him away as a prisoner when a shot was fired, and the Uhlans
took to their heels. Kemp, wounded in the leg, fell, and after lying for
an hour and a half, he was picked up by advancing British troops. "One
great hardship," he says, "was the lack of tobacco all the time. I and
many of my comrades have been reduced to smoking dried tea-leaves
wrapped in old newspaper. A real smoke would have been a blessing."
One officer of the regiment, wounded while out in front of the trenches
studying the position of the enemy with field-glasses, was carried back
into shelter, and laid in the trench until the field ambulance should
come to remove him to the rear. "He lay there smoking cigarettes," says
one of the men, "and shouting--'Good old Royal Scots--well done!'
whenever anything came off." And in this and incidents like it lies the
spirit that makes the Royal Scots what they are--it is the spirit of men
who do not know when they are beaten, who will never admit defeat. It is
the spirit that Findlater showed at Dargai.
Yet another private of the regiment, writing with no address and no date
to his letter, says: "In the last scrap I was in we had a terrible time
one way and another. After marching from the Sunday to the Tuesday
night, we got anchored near a farm, and the next morning, just when
breakfast was ready, we had to leave it lying and get stuck into our
trenches, as the Germans had come on us. We could see them moving up on
our front, and our artillery were not long in getting their range and
sending them out of it. Our big guns were going finely until the
afternoon, when they seemed to stop all at once, compared with the guns
the Germans had brought up. They started to shell a village behind us
with their siege guns, and they just blew holes in it. We had a church
for a hospital, and that went up too--but that is their usual dirty
game. They have no respect for a Red Cross waggon, and, as far as I can
see, they seem to take them for targets. We had to retire after being
shelled for about eight hours, and we lost a good few men, but had the
consolation of knowing that, as usual, the enemy had lost a good many
more. We are having a rest now, and have not seen the battalion for two
weeks. It is a very sad sight to see the people here going about
homeless; most of them are of the poorer class, and it must be an awful
time for them."
Writing later, the same man says: "We have come through four days' hard
fighting, and have been relieved--we drove the Germans out of all their
positions. At one place the French were trying to shift the enemy, so
our lot were brought up to assist; and although we lost a good few men
in the open fields, our chaps stuck it well. General Smith-Dorrien sent
along a message--'Good, Royal Scots!' and then when we took the other
side of the bridge he said 'Bravo, Royal Scots!' so we have not done so
badly."
And there, for the present, the record of this oldest regiment of the
service must be broken off. It tells of work from Mons and Landrecies,
through the great retreat to the position of the Marne, and on to the
Aisne--and there it ends, for the present. We know that many of the
regiments along the line of the Aisne have been moved up to assist in
the great Flanders battles, and in all probability there have been Royal
Scots in that Flanders line as well as along the Aisne.
There is one story of this first regiment of British infantry which,
though it is nearly fourteen years old, should always be told in any
account of the deeds of the regiment. It concerns a certain Sergeant G.
Robertson, placed in command of a party of about twenty men who were
acting as railway escort to a train from Pretoria. The train was bound
for the Eastern Transvaal, and, on reaching Pan, it was stopped by Boers
blowing up the line. The Boers attacked in force, being concealed in a
trench a few yards from the train, and the escort at once, under orders
from Sergeant Robertson, opened fire. The Boers, who greatly outnumbered
the escort, called on Robertson to surrender, but he answered--"No
surrender!" Almost immediately afterwards, he was shot through the head.
A similar case concerns Major Twyford, an officer of the Royal Scots,
who in April of 1901 was attacked by a commando under Jan de Beers in
the Badfontein Valley. Twyford and his party numbered eight all told,
mounted men, and they took up a position among the ruins of a farmhouse
which afforded some shelter from the fire of the enemy. The commando of
Boers closed in on them, and, having in mind the enormous disparity of
the forces, called on them to surrender. Major Twyford declined to do
so, and went on firing on de Beers' commando until shot dead by the
enemy.
Captain Price, of whom mention has already been made, was a lieutenant
at the time of the South African war, and was recommended at that time
for the Victoria Cross for especial gallantry in leading "E" company at
the action at Bermondsey. Three of the non-commissioned officers and men
were specially mentioned for their gallantry in this affair, a certain
Corporal Paul was promoted sergeant for his bravery, and Lieutenant
Price, recommended for his V.C., obtained the D.S.O. France saw him
brave as ever, and the regiment will keep his memory as that of one of
its most gallant officers.
But, if one begins to tell the story of the deeds of the regiment of
Royal Scots in previous campaigns, the story is without end, and space
will not admit of it. It were unwise to say that the Royal Scots are
first in bravery in action, as they are first in seniority among line
regiments; but at least, in the matter of courage, they are equal with
any, as the present campaign in France has proved.