Black Watch: The Inside Story of the Oldest Highland Regiment in the British Army [Paperback]

This is a readable, and exciting account of the legendary 42nd Regiment of Foot, Royal Highland Regiment (Black Watch). Robert Parker writes on many elite forces in the world and here has decided to write on this storied and famous regiment. Form its origins as a policing force in the turbulent Scottish Highlands in the aftermath of the 1715 Jacobite Rising, Parker points out that the Black Watch has always been very good in this role. Policing and building trust in the communuty goes back to the origins of the Watch. No small wonder that US forces called upon the regiment to assist in recent actions in Iraq where their skills in this regard far surpassed their own. As a combat unit the Watch is second to none as this book amply shows.

The author glides quickly through various parts of the regiment's history.
I would have preferred a bit more detail on the colonial period in North America, and in particular the Revolution. It was here that the Watch declined any battle honors after the conflict was over because they believed that none should be boasted in a war against "kith and kin". This helped to establish the Watch's very special place in US history.
Unfortunately the author does not mention this in what is a brief chapter on the period.

The Napoleanic and Crimean periods get more attention, and there is some mention of service in Queen Victoria's Little Wars, but a lot is omitted. We do hear in detail the Ashanti campaign of 1871, but little about service in India on the frontier against the Afghans.

All through this period the author freely mentions the use of the pipes and drums in battle situations, yet there is no evidence that the pipers played toghether with the drummers until at least the 1850s in the Crimean War. It was not until this time that a pipe major and six pipers were officially allowed on establishment in all Scots regiments. Of course more pipers were likely maintained off the lists, and the drums were also there, so it is reasonable to assume that at some earlier point they might have combined their assets, but there is no certainty in this regard. Still, popular piping and drumming today owe so much to the Black Watch and other Scots regiments who maintained and developed this ensemble over so long a time.

Much emphasis is placed on the great sacrefices of the Great War, where close to 25 battalions were raised. The author uses several dairies at length to describe this conflict which are both moving and evocative of the struggle. In general, diaries and memoirs are freely used throughout which gives a lot of color to the narrative. The story continues with WW2 where Black Watch battalions endured the full gamult of defeat, trial, and ultimate victory. The post war policing of the downsizing empire gets some attention.

Parker brings his story up to the present with the recent tours of Northern Ireland, which show the Watch in its best form as a policing element, able to work with a difficult community. Service in BAOR and changing army enviroments provide some interesting up to date information.

The recent controversy in Iraq, where the regiment was called upon to do several tours gets special emphasis. It was during the last tour near Fallajah in late 2005, where the Watch were putting all their skills against a hostile enviroment that rumor came true concerning all the Scottish regiments being merged into one. Public outcry against Whitehall and MoD (Ministry of Denfense) fell upon deaf ears as the Blair adminstration insisted upon changing and downsizing the British army, all the while increasing their duties! The regimental system, that trusted espirt-de-corps built over centuries in the British army was largely ended in one of the worst decisions ever made by any government in Britain's history. Yet somehow Blair and co. got away with it.

Today the Black Watch survives in the new Royal Regiment of Scotland where it is accorded 3rd battalion status in order of seniority with the other Scottish regiments in the parent formation. Not a winning situation, but at least the historic name of the Black Watch lives on for the moment.

This book provides a very good, readable history in what is a long and inspired story. All those interested in Scottish soldiers and Highland units should find this book worthwhile. There are some nice pictures included, and the appendix lists allied units in Canada and elsewhere. Deffinately a good read with a lot of exciting moments and memorable characters that reach down through the centuries. The Black Watch takes second place to no other elite formation out there, whether Special Forces or Marines! War saw the 42nd!

This is NOT a good history of the Black Watch.

As the first reviewer indicates, the author has made an idiosyncratic selection from the Regiment's past relying heavily on long blocks of first hand accounts, particularly from the world wars. The recounting of those individual experiences is of course interesting and important but the printing of blocks of raw material does not make a work of history, any more than a writing style which is undeniably fluent and vivid. The material from the world wars, in particular, would be better published giving full credit to the soldiers concerned - and donating some of the proceeds to a suitable cause.

The above writer mentions the author's treatment of the American Wars of the 18th century. I too was disappointed by the superficial treatment of the American War of Independence in the Regiment's history which alone lasted longer than the Second World War. The chapter is not merely sketchy, it is garbled and erronious, even getting events in the wrong order. This is indicative of what I find to be the superficial nature of this author's approach, which can also be seen in his book on a related subject 'The Desert Rats'. Both works would seem to have been put out hurriedly to cash in on events in the headlines. He clearly has enthusiasm for his subject but the men he is writing about deserve better.

The first reviewer mentions anomalies regarding the Pipes and Drums. I know nothing of this but Parker also fails to engage with the mystery of the origins of the Red Hackle and does not present even one version of the story adequately. Opinions having polarised in the last half century, this definitly merited revisiting.

The Linklater history of 1977, now out of print but obtainable on Amazon, remains the best one volume history of The Black Watch. It is handsome and readable, although obviously it does not cover the events of the last thirty years. Read in conjunction with this work, Parker's book is worth having.