Tag archives for Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
Bonny Mary O Argyll – do you know the words?
Me in my Tam O Shanter from when I was a part-time soldier (photo: James Kemp) Bonny Mary O' Argyll is a song I remember being sung at (grown-up) parties when I was growing up. I also remember singing it with gusto from the back of army four tonners when I went on exercise with 207 Battery RA, AKA the Glasgow gunners. Some years ago I spent ages years ago trying to find all the words, to no avail. However a more recent search showed loads of videos. It seems that filming your old army pals singing it in the pub has become a thing, so I was able to decipher some of the words from a bunch of Arglls veterans on youtube! There's another traditional folk song also called Bonny Mary O' Argyll. However this version seems to have…
Forgotten War – Fighting Japan in the Far East WW2
Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan (VJ) Day. On 15th August 1945 the Japanese Emperor Hirohito formally surrendered unconditionally. My maternal grandfather and his brother both served in the Far East. I only met my Great Uncle once when he came back from Australia for a visit when I was about 7. My Grandfather died when I was almost nine, but he spoke to me a few times about what he did in the war. Their stories are all but forgotten. Private David Coats, 2 Argylls Private David Coats, 2nd Bn Argylls I have a picture of my Great Uncle in uniform, I'm not sure where or exactly when it was taken but my suspicion is that it is a post-war photo (he's wearing a 2 year good conduct stripe). The details have been forgotten. On the back…
Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Condor Blues – British soldiers at war
A very interesting book about the British Army experience from the point of view of two platoons embedded in training the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) in the aftermath of the invasion (so the first half of 2004 approximately). Both platoons belonged to the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, but one was on secondment from the PWRR. From the content of the book it is clear that it was not authorised by MOD as it is highly critical in places. Also none of the main players come out of it looking terribly good, you see their flaws and the bad side as well as the bravery and the compassion in places (as well as other emotions at other points). For example, after a severe contact two of the Iraqi insurgent casualties were found to be carrying ICDC identity cards – which…