Largs (Scotland) recruitment

[Steven Broomfield]

A random question, but which infantry regiment would have recruited in Largs? As it is (I think) in Ayrshire, my assumption would be the Royal Scots Fusiliers. There was no infantry TF unit with a recruiting/drill station there (artillery of the 4th Highland (Mountain) Brigade, RGA were the only unit listed in Westlake's book, The Territorial Force 1914).

 

The 4th RSF did have a drill station at Kilbirnie, about 5 miles to the south east, but the 5th (Renfewshire) Battalion of the Argylls had a drill at Inverskip, about 5 miles to the north of Largs.

 

Looking at the Largs Memorial site HERE there seems to be no really obvious answer: if anything, the RSF slightly outweighs other regimental recruitments, but most Scottish regiments are represented.

 

I ask the question because THIS thread in the regular series of Scottish war memorials shows the Largs Memorial having a kilted soldier as one of its figures. Why would this be if local men recruited into a lowland and non-kilted regiment?

 

As I say, completely random, but it intrigues me - is the power of the kilt such that a Lowland town, recruiting largely to Lowland regiments should feel the need to incluse a Highlander on its memorial?

[Heid the Ba]

My initial thought is Royal Scots Fusiliers, but I know why.  Yes, kilts have that power.

Edited 23 December , 2018 by Heid the Ba

[CSMMo]

Steven, I have posted a photo of the Largs Detachment of the Bute Mountain Battery, 4th Highland Mountain Brigade at the outbreak of war. As you can see it is a large portion of the male population of Largs and each battery had a kilted pipes and drums unit.  I don't know about Largs as it was on the mainland, but Isle of Bute was mainly Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. I believe they had a TF detachment in Rothesay as well as the 4th Highland Mountain Brigade HQ and the Bute Mountain Battery HQ. (But don't hold me to that!)

Mike Morrison

 

 

[MBrockway]

Largs is just on the RSF side of the border between the recruiting areas of the RSF and the A&SH.  Viz.

 

 

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe the recruiting territory border here coincided with that between historic Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.

 

I'll see what I have on the VF/TF in North Ayrshire.

 

Certainly the VF in the Irvine Valley E of Kilmarnock, where my family comes from, were RSF - my GGG-uncle Major John SHIELDS was a Major in the 1st Ayrshire RVC, which became 1st Volunteer Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1887, then 4th Bn., RSF in 1908.  He enlisted in the 1870s or 1880s and was too old to go overseas in the Great War.  I have done no research as yet on his VF/TF career in more detail.

 

Kilts were worn in my family by the boys and younger men for Sunday best, so the Lowland/Highland thing is probably trumped by the Scotland thing

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

Edited 23 December , 2018 by MBrockway

[MBrockway]

5 minutes ago, CSMMo said:

Steven, I have posted a photo of the Largs Detachment of the Bute Mountain Battery, 4th Highland Mountain Brigade at the outbreak of war. As you can see it is a large portion of the male population of Largs and each battery had a kilted pipes and drums unit.  I don't know about Largs as it was on the mainland, but Isle of Bute was mainly Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. I believe they had a TF detachment in Rothesay as well as the 4th Highland Mountain Brigade HQ and the Bute Mountain Battery HQ. (But don't hold me to that!)

Mike Morrison

 

 

Mike - you'll see my map above appears to show the Cumbrae islands in the RSF recruiting territory.  I'm highly dubious about that as Buteshire was definitely Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders turf!

 

The map is from a recruiting poster, so I suspect some of the kinks in the boundary lines have been 'smoothed'

 

Mark

 

[MBrockway]

Here's a fun newsreel from 1953 Letter From Ayrshire showing the boys in Ayr wearing kilts to church on Sunday ...

 

Enjoy!

 

Minor point: the earlier footage of the lace mills in Newmilns mistakenly pronounces the 'N' at the end of Newmilns.  This is wrong!  It was pronounced new mills.  The lad speaking the commentary is clearly NOT a real Ayrshire local!

 

Mark

 

PS My mother was born about 400 yds from this church

 

 

Edited 23 December , 2018 by MBrockway

[MBrockway]

More on kilts in the Lowlands - my grandparents later in life had a long spell in Kirkcudbrightshire and my first bespoke kilt (up to then I'd had hand-me-downs!) was made in the 1980s by Mr McDavid the local kiltmaker in Creetown.

 

He obviously did general tailoring as well, but his main business was kilts, so clearly there was demand ... and it'd be hard to get further south anywhere in Scotland!

 

 

[MBrockway]

 

1860 - 4th Ayrshire RVC formed as one company at Largs and became part of the 1st Admin Bn., Ayrshire RVC

1873 - 1st Admin Bn divided into 1st Admin Bn (the South Ayrshire corps) and 2nd Admin Bn (the North Ayrshire corps incl 4th RVC) with Bn HQ at Kilmarnock

1880 - became 'C' Coy, of new 1st Ayrshire RVC, which was a redesignation of the 2nd Admin Bn.

1887 - 1st Ayrshire RVC redesignated as 1st Volunteer Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers

1888 - the battalion switched from trousers to trews adopting the uniform of the RSF with VF distinctions, but without the RSF's raccoon skin cap.  The diced glengarry was the sole head-dress.  The trews were in the Government sett, aka Black Watch.  The Scottish Tartan Authority states the trews were in Black Watch "with the addition of a bluish line", but none of my tartans books mention this minor variation.

1900 - 'C' Coy moved from Largs to Stewarton

1908 - transferred to TF as 4th Bn., RSF

 

RSF plate from the STA website (looks like a standard Simkins drawing) :

 

 

HTH

Mark

 

Edited 24 December , 2018 by MBrockway

[Steven Broomfield]

Thanks chaps - appreciated. I just found it slightly odd, because memorials in places such as Glasgow and other Lowland towns all seem to depict blokes in trousers rather than kilts, and it seemed odd to me that Largs went for the kilt.

 

Interesting discussion though.

[Heid the Ba]

8 hours ago, MBrockway said:

More on kilts in the Lowlands - my grandparents later in life had a long spell in Kirkcudbrightshire and my first bespoke kilt (up to then I'd had hand-me-downs!) was made in the 1980s by Mr McDavid the local kiltmaker in Creetown.

 

He obviously did general tailoring as well, but his main business was kilts, so clearly there was demand ... and it'd be hard to get further south anywhere in Scotland!

 

 

From the “Scotland is a village” file: I worked in that area in the 1980s and knew him and his family.

 

As a wee laddie in Kirkintilloch (outside Glasgow) kilts were Sunday best in the 1960s.

 

Dumfries’s war memorial has a KOSBie in breeks so not everyone fell for the charms of the kilt.  It also commemorates “Thomas Ross, Royal Australian Regiment” who was killed in Viet Nam in 1965, which if not unique is certainly unusual.

Edited 24 December , 2018 by Heid the Ba