Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 99/397

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ARMY HISTORICAL RESEARCH

possible reinforcements for America: ‘I should imagine that two or three independent Highland companies might be of use; they are hardy, intrepid, accustomed to a rough country, and no great mischief if they fall’. 5 When a definite scheme arose in 1756 to raise such troops for the British Army the Earl of Hardwicke reported to the Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle: I found by Mr. Pitt that there is a design, whether fixed or not I can’t tell, to raise three [sic] new regiments in the Highlands to be sent to North America. I told him that was a dangerous resource and put him in mind of Lord Loudoun’s regiment, raised in 1744, which in 1745 deserted, almost all, both officers and private men, to the Pretender. He distinguished between the cases and thought they would do well enough in North America, and that it would be a drain and not many of them would return. I said that was prophesying as bad success as we had. This scheme will gain the Scotch . 6 Hardwicke’s grudging concession that the availability of commissions for Scottish Highland gentlemen and employment for their clansmen might bring some of them round to a more acceptable way of thinking was a pragmatic way of regarding the proposal. By the time of the Elder Pitt’s death, however, his willingness to trust the Highlanders had been accorded a status little short of genius: Was it not he who devised that lofty and generous scheme for removing the disaffection of the Highlanders by enlisting them in regiments for the service of the Crown? Those minds which Culloden could not subdue at once yielded to his confidence; by trusting he reclaimed them ... And Pitt himself asserted that’ they cheerfully bled in defence of those liberties which they had attempted to overthrow but a few years before’. 7 Whoever can claim the prize for having first mobilised the military potential of the Highlanders, and prior claims can easily be put forward on behalf of Lord President Duncan Forbes of Culloden and Field Marshal George Wade, there is no doubt that Highland manpower has been of inestimable benefit to the British Army. The 105th Foot was one of the Highland regiments raised during the Seven Years War. Its Establishment was, unlike all the other new Scottish regiments, set at two battalions, though only of six companies each. The first battalion raised in October 1761 was commanded by the colonel, David Graeme, and included the regimental staff of a lieutenant-colonel, a major, a chaplain, an adjutant, a quartermaster, a surgeon and two surgeon’s mates. The second battalion, raised concurrently and into November, was presumably, in practice, intended to be

5 Beckles Wilson, The Life and Letters of James Wolfe (London: Heinemann, 1909), p. 141. 6 P.C. Yorke, The Life and Correspondence of Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913), Vol. II, p. 378. 7 Both quotes are taken from Lloyd, ‘The raising of the Highland regiments’ – see footnote 2.