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Remembered Today:

Officers 4th Volunteer Bttn, Black Watch


rolt968

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At the Angus Archives, I have been looking a formal group photo which is titled: Officers -4th Volunteer Battalion, the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). the title is embossed on the frame together with the names of the subjects.

It comes from photos which originated in Arbroath, but that does not necessarily mean that the subjects were from Arbroath. There is a label on the back indicating that it came into some (council?) collection in 1959 and giving its date of origin as 1914-1918.

My initial reaction was that it must be a late (and wrongly dated) photo of the officers of the 4th Volunteer Battalion Black Watch, which became the 6th (Perthshire) Black Watch TF on the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908.

However I do not think that it is a pre 1908 Volunteer photo.

All the officers are wearing khaki service dress jackets (open collar + shirt & tie), Sam Browns, trousers or breeches and dark glengarries (except the chaplain and MO who are wearing SD caps). All the battalion officers are wearing Black Watch glengarry badges, Black Watch collar badges and V below the collar badge where a TF officer would have a T.

They all have cuff rank badges and the cuff stripes seem a bit bright. I have not been able to make out any shoulder titles.

Many of the officers are quite elderly. The CO, Major D W Fairweather VD, is grey haired and not the oldest. There are one or two very grey haired 2nd Lieutenants and there is one 2nd Lieutenant with a greying beard. A number of the younger officers have glasses.

The adjutant (presumably a regular), Captain J A C Fraser seems to be wearing a Seaforth glengarry and badge. He has a wound stripe. The quartermaster is Hon Lieutenant T Woodside (Seaforth Highlanders), although he is wearing a BW glengarry and badge.

A so far very cursory search of the Army Lists found a J A C Fraser commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders in 1915.

Can someone please tell of what unit these are the officers? Is this another manifestation of the Volunteer Corps/Force?

(Or is it wrongly labelled?)

Roger.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Is it the image on page 6?

There's another 4th B.W. pic on page 3 and a pic of WW1 soldiers likely B.W. on page 9.

angus archives

Edited by Derek Black
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At the Angus Archives, I have been looking a formal group photo which is titled: Officers -4th Volunteer Battalion, the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). the title is embossed on the frame together with the names of the subjects.

It comes from photos which originated in Arbroath, but that does not necessarily mean that the subjects were from Arbroath. There is a label on the back indicating that it came into some (council?) collection in 1959 and giving its date of origin as 1914-1918.

My initial reaction was that it must be a late (and wrongly dated) photo of the officers of the 4th Volunteer Battalion Black Watch, which became the 6th (Perthshire) Black Watch TF on the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908.

However I do not think that it is a pre 1908 Volunteer photo.

Can someone please tell of what unit these are the officers? Is this another manifestation of the Volunteer Corps/Force?

(Or is it wrongly labelled?)

Roger.

2/1st Bn, Forfarshire Volunteer Regiment became 4th V.B.,The Black Watch(Royal Highlanders) in July 1918 - H.Q. located the Drill Hall, Market Gate, Abroath.

The 1/1st Forfarshire Volunteer Regiment became the 3rd V.B., The Black Watch(Royal Highlanders) in July 1918 - H.Q. located the Drill Hall, Forfar.

Both were disbanded 5th February 1920.

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Is it the image on page 6?

There's another 4th B.W. pic on page 3 and a pic of WW1 soldiers likely B.W. on page 9.

angus archives

Well done Derek,

Many thanks.

I had forgotten that the small versions of these were on line.

I was actually looking at the large group on page 3, which is actually a 12 X 9in. picture. I think I've missed the one on page 6, but I had seen the one on page 9 which is much more clearly WW1 Black Watch.

Roger.

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2/1st Bn, Forfarshire Volunteer Regiment became 4th V.B.,The Black Watch(Royal Highlanders) in July 1918 - H.Q. located the Drill Hall, Market Gate, Abroath.

The 1/1st Forfarshire Volunteer Regiment became the 3rd V.B., The Black Watch(Royal Highlanders) in July 1918 - H.Q. located the Drill Hall, Forfar.

Both were disbanded 5th February 1920.

Very many thanks Graham,

I had wondered if it was something like that. It also explains why it is in the Arbroath group of photos.

I'll look for the other picture of them mentioned in the post above.

They can only have been taken in relatively short time span. I wonder if they were taken to celebrate the end of the war or standing down or something like that.

Roger.

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  • 1 year later...

The gallery has now moved to here: http://archive.angus.gov.uk/history/gallery/Arbroath%20Photo%20Gallery%20Sept%202012.pdf

No route to it from the website's standard navigation tools - I had to get devious to track it down :whistle:

And here's the picture, though blowing up a thumbnail inevitably leads to a rather grainy result ...
post-20192-0-42327500-1440695419_thumb.j

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