Established in 1689, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers has a long rich history serving both home and abroad. The Regiment was raised to protect the city of Edinburgh at the crisis of the ‘Glorious Revolution’ as William of Orange laid claim to the Crown. The Scottish government issued a commission to form a Regiment of foot to David Leslie, 3rd Earl of Leven, one of William’s right-hand.
In 1691 the Regiment was in Ireland, again engaged against the Jacobites and fought with valour at Ballymore, the siege of Athlone and the sieges of Galway and Limerick.
With the Jacobites defeated, the old enemy France, once again came to the fore and for the next five years Leven’s men were in the Low Countries building a reputation in engagements at Steenkirque in 1692 and Neerwinden known as Battle of Landen 1693. In particular, now going under the name of their new colonel, James Maitland, they made a name for themselves at the siege of Namur on 27th July 1695, when in the course of an assault, 20 officers and 500 men were killed and wounded by an exploding mine.
It is testimony to their resilience that the survivors rallied and pressed on the attack, for which the Regiment was later awarded its oldest Battle Honour ‘Namur 1695′.
With the resurgence of the Jacobite threat, following the death of Queen Anne, the Regiment, by this stage named Shannon’s Regiment after its new colonel Lord Shannon, found itself again fighting on home soil again. In 1715 it engaged James’s army at the battle of Sheriffmuir with no side deemed an outright winner.
There followed a period of garrison duty in Ireland and Gibraltar, the highlight being the siege of the latter in 1727. By now the Regiment’s character was well established and a roll call of the officers from 1739 reads like a list of the principal Borders families. Now, known as Rothes’ foot, the Regiment was sent to garrison the West Indies, the first of many sojourns in the Caribbean. By 1745 however, it was once again fighting the French, this time as Sempill’s Regiment, as it performed with conspicuous gallantry, losing a third of its men, under the Duke of Cumberland at the battle of Fontenoy.
With the same commander it was in action again the following year, but this time in Scotland, when at the battle of Culloden in April of that year it took part in quelling the last of the great Jacobite rebellions. Indeed, it was the only Scottish Regiment to have fought against the Jacobite rebels in all three instructions.
With the introduction of regimental numbering in 1744 by order of the Crown, doing away with Regiment’s being called after the name of their colonel. Numbering was carried out using a seniority roll, we would be known as the 25th Regiment of Foot or (Old Edinburgh Regiment). However, it took some time for this to catch on, with some colonels ignoring it. The Crown’s frustration and patience had grown thin and issued a further order in 1751, stating categorically ‘No colonel to put his Arms, Crest, Device, or Livery on any Appointments of the Regiment under his Command’ and that the regiment numbering system would be officially enforced.
In July 1758 the Regiment would embark for Germany to take part in the ‘Seven Year War’ under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who commanded the Allied Army.
The 25th Regiment of Foot took perhaps its most famous battle honour at Minden on 1st August 1759. Here, in an allied force under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick.
The 25th was one of the “Famous Six” Regiment’s of the British Army, who are known to have picked roses and placed them in their headdress as they advanced to confront the might of the French cavalry on the battlefield at Minden. They received and repulsed repeated cavalry charges from some sixty squadrons of the main body of the French cavalry who were completely broken. Prince Ferdinand is quoted: “It was here that the British infantry gained immortal glory!” Henceforth on 1st August or ‘Minden Day’ become the Regimental Day, and all ranks cherish the privilege of wearing roses on that day in commemoration of their victory. (For more on the battle see the Minden link).
The Battle of Minden is additionally noted as the first engagement that soldiers of the British Army placed the butt of the firelock against the shoulder and took aim along the barrel before discharging the shot.
Following prolonged garrison duties on Minorca from 1768 to 1780 and returned to UK. In 1782 the Regiment was sent to reinforce the Gibraltar garrison in the ‘Great Siege’ against France and Spain, in this same year for a number of reasons, was retitled ‘the 25th (Sussex) Regiment of Foot’.
In February 1793 by way of new hostilities with Revolutionary France saw the Regiment ordered to furnish six detachments to serve as marines on His Majesty’s Ships. Each detachment would comprise of 3x Officers, 3x Sergeants, 2x Drummers and 74x Rank and File, although one Det had 94 ORs and on another 64. The muster rolls containing the names of the ships and the names of each detachment are held in the museum archive. The 25th Regiment of Foot’s six Marine Dets served on two Naval Fleets: The Channel Fleet and The Mediterranean Fleet. The Light Company 25th Regiment of Foot serving with the Channel Fleet on HMS Marlborough and HMS Gibraltar under Admiral Lord Howe and were involved in the famous sea battle known as ‘The Glorious 1st of June 1794’, a painting of HMS Marlborough heavily engaged crossing the bow of the French ship below. The 25th of Foot serving with the Mediterranean Fleet HMS St George and HMS Egmont under Rear Admiral Gell captured a French privateer ‘General Dumourier’ with her prize the Spanish ship ‘San-Lago’; the value in 1794 was one million sterling.
With the remainder of the Regiment in Grenada fighting a French-led slave rebellion, in 1795 a second, home battalion was formed and used to reinforce the 1st Battalion in the West Indies.
In August 1799 the Regiment sailed from the Isle of Wight to Kent, where, at Canterbury General Abercromby was assembling a force for the invasion of the Netherlands. In October 1799 the 25th won a third battle honour at the Battle of Egmont-op-Zee, fighting in the vanguard of Sir John Moore’s brigade on the sand dunes.
In 1801 the Regiment was sent to Egypt with Sir Ralph Abercromby’s force and took part in the capture of Alexandria and was awarded the Battle Honour ‘Egypt’ in 1802 distinguishable by the Sphinx on a plinth inscribed Egypt and placed on our Colours.
On the death, in 1805 of our beloved Colonel Lord Lennox, who served as colonel for 42 years, his friend King George Ill, Now commanded that the Regiment should take the name of “The King’s Own Borderers” in place of “Sussex.” Thereby it became a Royal Regiment, the facings being altered from yellow to blue. In some historical publication about this period in the Regiment’s history, the Regiment is referred to as ‘The Royal Borderers’.
1st Battalion spent the most part of the Napoleonic Wars in the West Indies. Martinique was taken in 1809, and Guadeloupe in 1811. During this campaign the Battalion lost more men through disease than as a result of enemy action.
In 1804 the 2nd Battalion was reformed with a strength of 390 all ranks and was sent as part of a force to Stralsund on the Baltic on behest of the Prince of Sweden. The Battalion was withdrawn and joined another force, command by General Sir Thomas Graham, and sailed for Holland, landing near Antwerp, advancing and taking part in the attack on Merxem and the subsequent attack at Bergin-op-Zoom in 1814. The 2nd Battalion would remain as part of the 7th Brigade in garrison near Antwerp, in reserve for the Battle of Waterloo. The 2nd Battalion then sailed for Cork in 1816 and was disbanded there on 24th February.
With the cessation of hostilities in Europe there began the period known as the long peace, lasting to the Crimean war in 1854. Once again the Regiment found itself quartered in Ireland.
In 1826 the Regiment was again in the West Indies, and sure enough disease again took its toll. Returning to Ireland, in 1839 the 25th Regiment was sent to South Africa where it took part in the Xhosa wars. In 1842 the Regiment was in India, it would be called upon to deal with disturbances in China; dispatched in 1848 and disembarked in Hong Kong, only to be diverted to Ceylon, where riots had taken place, disembarked, and arrived in Trincomalee (where it would remain for three months). On account of the scarcity of troops in Bengal, arising from the Sikh War, it was recalled to India, and a wing of the 25th was ordered to Calcutta. The remaining Borderers were dispatched to various other stations across the Madras Presidency. In April 1853 the 1st Battalion proceeded to Seringapatam, having by their exemplary conduct earned the high praise passed on to them in an order issued by the Governor on their leaving Madras. The Borderers arrival at their new station was a timely one, whereby averting a clash and slaughter between two waring fractions, the Hindoos’ and the Musselsmans, the Borderers prompt and efficient aid to the authorities of Seringapatam, averted a clash of the fractions, defusing the situation and arresting the ringleaders; a letter was conveyed to Colonel Schonswar, Commanding 25th Regiment of Foot, acknowledging the Government’s awareness of the his Regiment’s prompt action. In 1857 the Regiment was back on home soil, this was short lived when it was posted to Gibraltar (1858-63) and Malta (1863-64), in 1864 the 1st Battalion was sent to Canada to suppress the Fenian rebellions on the Canadian and USA border.
In 1859 the 2nd battalion was once again raised and received its Colours in 1863 and promptly sailed for Ceylon (now Sir Lanka), then onto India where it remained until 1875, and then returned to England the following year.
The Regiment was most active in the later period of the Victorian era with the 1st Battalion deployed to the second Afghanistan War in 1878 as part of the Bazar Valley and subsequently the Kabul Field Force were it distinguished itself. The 1st Battalion, at the start of the trooping season in 1882, set out to march across the Hindu Kush, leaving Cherat with all their equipment and rations, for the foothills of the Himalayas, proceeding to route march across Northern India. Across the Punjab they marched, to Rawalpindi, and down the Grand Trunk Road through Jhelum, Ludhiana, and Ambala, and thence to the hill cantonment of Dagshai at 6,000 feet, near Simla, a total distance of 520 miles, where it would remain until 1885.
In 1888 the 2nd Battalion arrives in Egypt and is quartered in Cairo; in November, the Battalion receives orders to proceed to the Sudan where it would help raise the siege at Suakim against the Dervish Army under the Khalifa. On the 20th December the Regiment distinguished by their scarlet doublets, advanced out into the open, gradually forming double column on the march and formed a square, took on the Dervish army a formidable enemy at Gemaiyah, and would then move to Bombay in India.
It was this Battalion which earned the battle honours for Chitral (1895) and Tirah (1897), with hard fighting in the Swat Valley India as part of the Chitral Relief Force, notably in the ‘Storming of the Malakand Pass’ in April 1895.
The 1st Battalion were deployed to India disembarked at Rangoon as part of the Chin Lushai Expedition Force; The Battalion served with the Southern Column in Burma throughout the campaign, trekking in extreme heat and stifling humidity, suffering through shortages of food and water also sickness and fatigue, while tramping long distances up and down steep jungle hills and ravines, and being ambushes on occasions by the Chins. 21 Borderers would die of sickness during this campaign, with a further 14 officers and 273 men invalided through illness.
While all this was going on Government restructuring of the Army, allocated the Regiment a Depot at York, and in 1881, when territorial titles and regimental districts were introduced, it was proposed that the 25th Foot should be re-designated ‘The York Regiment (King’s Own Borderers)’. Such was the outcry that Parliament was successfully lobbied, and on 29th July 1881 ‘The King’s Own Borderers’ moved to a new Depot at Berwick-upon-Tweed Barracks. The national origins of the Regiment were further recognised in 1887 when it acquired its lasting title ‘The King’s Own Scottish Borderers’.
From 1900 to 1902 the 1st Battalion served in South Africa fighting the Boers. Taking part in the action at Paardeberg, it went on to fight in the Transvaal and at the battle of Rustenburg in October 1900 and in May the following year at Vlakfontein and Lambrecht-Fontein. It was joined by the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, and Service Companies from the Volunteer Battalions. A considerable number of decorations were awarded, not least the Regiment’s first VC to Lieutenant GHB Coulson DSO.
