London Scottish return home

[Steven Broomfield]

From today's Times. The record, of course, refers only to the 1st Battalion; the 2nd Battalion and its two VCs receive no mention.

 

100 years ago today.

 

Strike Sure.

 

The cadre of the 1st Battalion of the London Scottish came home yesterday. London gave their old favourites a hearty welcome, and for once remembered how to cheer. Soon after lunch a crowd began to collect in Charing Cross Station and the yard outside. By 3 o’clock the western end of the Strand was choked with people, and every hotel and restaurant with the prospect of a view was filled with sightseers. At a quarter past 3 the drums and pipes of the London Scottish took up a position on the platform. Outside the crowd was still growing and a grandstand was made in the station yard of taxi-cabs and private cars drawn up in a line. At last, after every demobilized London Scot had shaken hands with his friends still in uniform, and the men had made a hasty meal, there was a thundering of drums, a skirling of pipes, a torrent of cheering, and the men swung in fours out into the sunshine. They marched through Trafalgar Square to Piccadilly, down to Hyde Park Corner, and so to their headquarters at Buckingham Gate. Cheers and crowds followed them all the way. Flowers and kisses were gaily thrown from the throng. It was evident that London still dearly loves her fighting men. Princess Louise (Duchess of Argyll) addressed the men at Buckingham Gate. She said she was delighted to welcome them home. She had followed with pride the accounts of their exploits in France and Belgium, and had heard how, at the battle of Ypres, when the situation became desperate and reinforcements imperative, it was the London Scottish who were sent into the breach.

The battalion went to the front in September, 1914. They have seen much fighting and suffered many casualties. Of the original 1st Battalion but five remain. They first went into action in October, 1914. At Messines they suffered 350 casualties. Later they fought at Givenchy, Neuve Chapelle, Richebourg, Loos, Gommecourt, the Somme, Arras, Moeuvres, Queant, and Cambrai. Since January they have been at Cologne with the Army of Occupation. Over 10,000 men served with the London Scottish, the casualties being 4,800, of whom 1,380 were killed; 115 prisoners only were taken. More than 2,000 NCOs and men obtained commissions.

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