The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's: Encyclopedia II - The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - Regimental history

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - Regimental history

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - Foundations

In 1856 a Highland Rifle Company — forerunner of the present regiment — was formed in Hamilton, Ontario.

Between 1880 and the First World War, as part of this heightened self-consciousness by Scots-Canadians and a rising interest in militarism generally, several kilted regiments were raised in cities across Canada. Hamilton had had a kilted military presence since 1856 when James Aitchison Skinner organized a Highland company; it later became a company of the 13th Royal Regiment, later the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

The idea for a full Highland regiment in Hamilton first took shape among the members of the St. Andrew's Society (of which James Chisholm was the long-time treasurer) and the Sons of Scotland [of which, he was also a member]. Late in 1902 meetings were held and prominent members of the city's Highland-Canadian community were asked to "take hold of the matter."

James Chisholm and his partner, William Logie (a captain in the XIII Regiment), took a leading, perhaps predominant, role in organizing locally and in lobbying Ottawa. With the support of local Scottish organizations and clan societies, a deputation was sent to Ottawa bearing a petition to the minister of Militia. The minister, Frederick Borden, was less than enthusiastic about the potential cost and the Highland character of the proposed unit (he wanted the militia in a common uniform). Col. W. D. Otter, whom Logie canvassed for his opinion, was skeptical of the group's ability to "get either the officers or the men and if we got both [of] these we could not get the money …"

Hamilton's Scottish-Canadian elite moved quickly to fill the ranks of the officer corps and to raise the necessary funds to outfit the regiment in full Highland dress. Those who came forward included: Chisholm, Logie, J. R. Moodie, Walter W. Stewart, E. M. Dalley, Roy Moodie, E. F. Lazier, John Inglis McLaren, and many others from all walks of professional and business life.

A draft letter written by either Chisholm or Logie to local MPs noted that the proposed "officers are a fine lot of fellows and of good standing and large influence in the community." The group obtained (as of 25 March 1903) over 700 names for the rank and file. The "men are a particularly fine class drawn chiefly from the better class of Scotchmen who own their own homes and have a stake in the community." Chisholm and Logie were well-connected within the Liberal Party and maintained steady pressure upon local politicians to forward the group's cause. Chisholm monitored all communications with Borden. When the minister curtly informed a local lawyer to forward his support of the proposed Highland regiment "through the regular official channel," Chisholm promptly asked the minister of Militia for an explanation particularly as Borden had already written to Chisholm indicating that a Highland regiment would be raised. Borden denied having done so but by 17 August 1903 he reported (confidentially to Logie) authorizing the establishment of a Highland regiment. Chisholm, Logie, and the Scottish community were unrelenting and, in the end, they won the day.

The regiment was formed on 13 September 1903 and gazetted three days later as the 9lst Regiment Canadian Highlanders.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - Early days

In winning the day, Chisholm and Logie used every reasonable tactic at hand. They were particularly adept at putting pressure at the highest possible level, usually the minister, thus circumventing the normal channels of the Department of Militia and Defence. They continued this newly-established tradition after the Regiment was formed. When they wrote to the minister in 1904 concerning an account of $9.55 for plumbing in the officers' quarters, an exasperated senior aide wrote to Logie suggesting that "your Regiment should come into line . . . ." He went on to say, "It would be simply impossible to run this Department if other Regiments went about these matters as yours does." Nothing, however, changed. When in 1906 the Department of Customs insisted upon charging duty upon a snuff mull sent to the 91st by the British Argylls, Logie and Chisholm appealed to Chisholm's friend, Adam Zimmerman, MP, who took up their case with the Assistant Commissioner of Customs. A compromise was eventually reached.

Chisholm began his service with the 91st on 16 September 1903 as its paymaster holding the rank of honorary captain. For the rest of his life, the Regiment was a major part of his life. Logie served as the Regiment's first commanding officer until 1911 so for a time Chisholm and Logie's office on James Street was an alternate battalion headquarters. Two evenings a week, Chisholm could be found at the James Street Armouries — the 91st was quartered in the recently built addition (designed in part by his architect brother-in-law Walter Wilson Stewart, also a member of the 91st). As well as the matters of weekly administration, there was an endless round of ceremonial functions and Chisholm took (and maintained) a particular interest in the Pipe Band. Finally, the 91st provided a rich social life in the elegant officers' mess, whether the normal course of socializing after weekly parades, full mess dinners, special functions, balls, or the annual celebration of Hogmanay.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - Regimental life

Like the militia generally, the Regiment has suffered or prospered according to the dictates of government policy. Peace, fortunately, has been the norm during most of the Regiment's history. Thus, the contours of the unit's weekly and seasonal existence has been marked mainly by a routine of ceremony, drilling, lectures, training, exercises, administration, and recruitment, to say nothing of the rigours of mess life and an always full Regimental social calendar.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - World War One

During the First World War, the Regiment acted as a recruiting depot providing 145 officers and 5,207 other ranks for service in the numbered battalions of the C.E.F., especially the 16th, 19th, and the 173rd Highlanders. The latter was broken up for reinforcements, much to the chagrin of its men. Although the Argylls perpetuate both the 19th and the 173rd, it is the former which provides the Regiment its most intimate connection with the Great War. The 91st gave the 19th all four of its commanding officers and its pipe-major, Charles Dunbar, D.C.M., a pipe-major of international renown.

As part of the 4th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division, the 19th went from the mud and misery of Salisbury Plain, England, to the mud and blood of Flanders. The Battalion saw its first action at St Eloi in April 1916 and went on to distinguish itself on the Somme, at Courcelette, Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Passchendaele, Drocourt-Quéant, and the pursuit to Mons, to name but a few. In December 1918, its pipe Band played a victorious Canadian Corps across the Rhine and into Germany. The 19th, unfortunately, still awaits its historian.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - Inter-war years

The Regiment went through the inter-war years, endured the general militia reorganizations, and prospered. Not only was it large in numbers, (rarely below 400, at times exceeding 600) it benefited from a considerable cadre of First War veterans of all ranks. Tradition continued to play a pre-eminent role and the Regiment enjoyed a visible civic profile through weekly parades on the streets, a close attachment to the city's elite, and the activities of three highly active bands (pipe — still under Dunbar, brass, and bugle).

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - The Second World War

Although the unit perpetuates several of the numbered battalions which fought in the First World War, in a real sense, it is the Second World War which provides the Regiment with its defining characteristics. When the drums of war beat again in 1939, the Argylls were ready for mobilization — the structure, the men, and the numbers were all there — but for little else. Prior to mobilization in June 1940, there were occasional calls out. Argylls in kilts with Ross rifles and fixed bayonets, for instance, performed guard duty on the local canal and electrical facility. The problems of active duty were myriad: First War tunics and kilts for uniforms, Ross rifles for weapons, hollow pipes and bricks for the mortar platoon, and too many people with too little training.

The first months of the war were spent in and around Niagara-on-the-Lake, a dreary round of guard duty on the Welland Canal and local power facilities. There was little training and almost no new equipment. The first Bren guns, for example, arrived in December 1940. But there was time for setting the foundations for excellent administration and for addressing the usual range of problems associated with turning civilians into soldiers. It was during this period that the notorious "Mad Five" went AWOL, made their way to the Sunnyside amusement park in Toronto and telegraphed the CO — "Having a great time. Wish you were here." In May 194l the lst Battalion entrained for Nanaimo, B.C., where it underwent several tedious months of route marches alternating with inspections.

September 1941 to May 1943 brought a sojourn in the sun — garrison duty in Jamaica. During this period, the reality of war was brought home by the fate of the Winnipeg Grenadiers (which unit the Argylls replaced in Jamaica) in Hong Kong, and of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (a sister unit from Hamilton) at Dieppe. It would have been easy for the Battalion to languish here, rum-sodden. Instead, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ian Sinclair, the unit received new weapons and modern equipment, improved its administration, and began a complete program of small unit tactics, fitness, and training of all sorts. In addition, the Battalion acquired a cohesiveness at all levels impossible to achieve under other conditions.

The men of the 1st Battalion returned to Hamilton in May 1943 as soldiers. In preparation for overseas service, it lost its CO and all senior officers as well as all senior NCOs except its by now legendary RSM — Peter Caithness McGinlay. In August 1943 the unit passed inspection in England and joined the l0th Brigade, 4th Armoured Division. Advanced training, specialized courses, and schemes up to the divisional level became the order of the day, all of which were overseen by the new Commanding Officer, J. David Stewart. The Argylls' affection for him was instantaneous, broadened during training, and deepened with the experience of battle. His intuitive sense of battle (which could not be taught), his cool imperturbability, and his refusal to fight according to preconceived notions brought dramatic results.

The unit's first actions in early August 1944 were small successes fought along the road to Falaise. The first major action, Hill 195 on 10 August, was a brilliant and unorthodox success; Stewart led the Battalion single file through the darkness of night and German lines to capture the hitherto, unassailable strong point. It was an act which historian John A. English has called "the single most impressive action of [Operation] TOTALIZE." Less than ten days later in the Falaise Gap, a battle group comprised of "B" and "C" companies of the Argylls, and a squadron of South Alberta Regiment tanks captured St Lambert-sur-Dives and held it for three days against desperate counter-attacks.

Night over daylight fighting; infiltration rather than frontal assault; innovation when orthodoxy failed; superb leadership; doggedness; great spirit; excellent administration; and close cooperation with the tanks of The South Alberta Regiment (whom the Argylls revered above all others) — these were the benchmarks of Argyll success, and they were all evident in that first month of battle.

Of the experience of battle, Cpl H. E. Carter wrote to his mother on 13 August: "That life in the front is not fun, not glamorous — it's dirty, and fierce and anyone that says they're not scared is crazy. But I'm not going to talk much about that. We try and keep our spirits up, joke and enjoy yourself under fire and we do an exceptionally good job of it." That very same day Capt Mac Smith put it best when he wrote to his wife: "The men are simply wonderful. They have done well, and are getting better. They grumble . . . and dig, and advance and dig, and advance. They stand shelling mortaring and occasional bombing, and then stand up in their trenches and ask where the hell the food is."

These first weeks gave the Argylls a hard core of cynicism and self-satisfaction. The depth of the former was best revealed when Stewart wrote of trying to protect his men "from our two enemies, the Germans and our own Higher Command." He saw his trust as "to save lives and get a job done." Like all infantry battalions, the Argylls suffered inescapable losses but the Battalion was never shattered in battle.

Canadian Army Historian C.P. Stacey, in his autobiography A Date With History commented that the only time he saw what could be considered a war crime committed by Canadian soldiers was after the very popular Commanding Officer of the Argylls, Lieutenant Colonel F.E. Wigle, was shot dead during the battle of Friesoythe on 14 April 1945, allegedly by a German civilian. Several civilian dwellings were burned to the ground by the Argylls as a reprisal.

Through Moerbrugge, the Scheldt, Kapelsche Veer, and the Hochwald Gap to Friesoythe, the Kusten Canal, and Bad Zwischenahn, the Argylls were successful against the enemy — but there was more. Their losses (267 killed and 808 wounded) were the lowest in the l0th Brigade and their successes constant. Cynicism is a soldier's rightful lot and the Argylls' never lost it. Self-satisfaction came with, and was sustained only by, success — a success sustained despite the successive wholesale turnovers in the rifle companies. Neither quality was lost during ten months of battle. It made them as Capt Claude Bissell once remarked "a happy regiment and a formidable one in action."

The 1st Battalion provided the headquarters and one rifle company for the Canadian Berlin Battalion, a composite battalion which represented the Canadian Armed Forces in the British victory celebrations in Berlin in July 1945. The Battalion returned to Hamilton in January 1946 where it was dismissed.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - Post-war

The Regiment now reverted to its traditional peacetime role with the primary reserves. By the early 1960s the reservoir of veterans had dried up. Numbers shrunk with the various changes in defence policy and equipment became outdated. By the 1980s the worst was over. Numbers have increased and there is new equipment. With the Total Force concept has come a renewed emphasis upon individual and collective training, and the professional development of soldiers whatever their rank. While retaining its Highland traditions, the unit reflects the modern face of Canada and Argylls serve Canadians whether combating natural disasters at home (66 deployed during the 1998 ice storm and many volunteered during the Red River flood) or augmenting UN or NATO deployments abroad. Since the 1950s, Argylls have been deployed on active service augmenting Canada's regular forces in places such as Cyprus, Germany, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Princess Louise's - Argylls and Hamilton

A strong tradition of reciprocal local support (from 1902 to the present) is exemplified in the 91st Highlanders Athletic Association (which runs the oldest indoor track meet in North America) and the annual Greater Hamilton Tattoo. At such events, the Pipes and Drums are the unit's greatest symbol. For almost a century, in peace and war, the band has represented the community as well as the unit at gatherings across the country and internationally i.e. the famed Edinburgh Military Tattoo (four appearances since 1950, the most recent of which was in August 2000) and various events in Europe.

Community support has been symbolic, material, and artistic. In 1972, Hamilton granted the Argylls the Freedom of the City. The Ontario government has erected heritage plaques to two Argylls (Pipe-Officer Charles Davidson Dunbar, D.C.M. and Acting Sergeant John Rennie, G.C. 1919-1943) on the Armouries' outer walls (the only regiment in the Hamilton-Wentworth, Niagara, Toronto area to be so distinguished). Past Colours hang in three Hamilton churches and there is a continuing affiliation with Central Presbyterian Church. The local business community contributed generously to the Argyll Regimental Foundation. Local, provincial, and national funds underwrote the project (1984-91) and publication (1996) of Black Yesterdays, a unique history of the Regiment in the Second World War which is soon to be turned into a feature-length film by an independent Canadian film company.

The modern Highland regiment is much different from the clan war party of 300 years ago. The broadsword and dirk have given way to modern weapons, the men and women of the Regiment are no longer exclusively of Highland origin, and Gaelic is now a language reserved for ceremonial occasions. But, for all of that, much remains the same. The emphasis upon courage, loyalty, and duty are yet with us as are the great symbols of the Highland war party of old — Highland dress and the bagpipes.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Regimental history", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki