THE YPRES TIMES
S. G.
By Charles Douie (Author of The Weary Road).
39
In 1877 Queen Victoria restored to the regiment its original name, The Scots
Guards, which it bears until now.
The 1st battalion was brigaded with other battalions of Guards under the
command of the Duke of Connaught in the Nile Campaign, 1882-5, fighting in the
battles of Hasheen and Tamai and taking part in the expedition to Suakin.
The next active service of the regiment brings us to modern times and the
South African War where their chief engagement was at the battle of the Modder
River. Their casualties in that battle were thought heavy at the time, something
less than a hundred. The war against the Boers seems to shrink in significance
when compared with the Great War with the Germans which followed it. But it
was a turning point toward modern war when soldiers began to wear Khaki
instead of the magnificent regimentals of the Crimean War, and men must seek
cover and use their wits rather than move forward shoulder to shoulder in an
unbroken line.
But it is not within the intended scope of this series to enumerate the exploits
of regiments in the recent conflict. It wiil be enough to say that the Scots Guards
were employed continuously throughout and enhanced their established fame, from
Mons and the First Battle of Ypres to the occupation of Cologne. At first the
two battalions were brigaded in separate divisions. Thus the second went out with
the immortal seventh," but later as is generally known a Guards division was
formed, and the two battalions were not separated to the extent that had been
witnessed in previous wars.
It will be seen that the Scots Guards have played a glorious part in their
country's history and that there has not been much scrapping in which they
did not take a part. They are popularly known as the Jocks." They wear a
Tartan ribbon. They march past to the strains of Hieland Laddie. Their pipers
are among the best in the world.
IT was the morning of Palm Sunday, 1929. A little crowd was gathered on the
pavement before the Church of St. George at Ypres. A service of dedication
was in progress behind the closed doors. A psalm was dimly heard, then the
low murmur of prayers. Louder came the most familiar of English hymns. The
door of the Church opened, and the buglers of the York and Lancaster Regiment
took up their position fronting the Church. There was silence, broken only by
the rustle of the crowd baring their heads. The buglers played The Last Post.
Ypres heard again the call which once echoed daily through the ruins. Reveille.
followedthen God Save the King. The crowd resumed their hats, but two
civilians, conspicuous for their old clothes among the neat and orderly Belgian
crowd dressed in their Sunday best, bared their heads again and stood to attention,
as the Commander of the Second Army, the defender of Ypres, appeared in the
porch and answered the salute of the soldiers drawn up in the road.
