A Brief Military History
By Cathy Wood
Clearance
In 1829 Lord Reay sold the last of his estates to the Sutherland family. The clearances began in Mackay Country in earnest.
Force was used to drive the people out of the straths and such as could re-settled around the coasts. Most left Mackay Country for the towns or cities or emigrated to Canada, America, Australia, or New Zealand. Soldiers returning from twenty or twenty five years service with the Sutherland Highlanders would return to their native land and discover that their families, houses and crofts were gone.
When the government required men for the Crimean War in 1854 hardly any could be recruited in Mackay Country. It is said that an old man told the Duke of Sutherland on his recruitment drive that:
‘I do assure your Grace that it is the prevailing opinion in this country, that should the Czar of Russia take possession of Dunrobin Castle and of Stafford House next term, that we could not expect worse treatment at his hand than we have experienced at the hands of your family for the last fifty years.’
During World War II - Lan Watt, son of Joy Watt (nee MacDonald)
Photographed in dress uniform. Lan Watt was a member of the Seaforth Regiment. He was killed during the war and buried in Germany
Kindly donated by: Kim Campbell or Morrison ED31A4
Ina Mackay (MacLeod), Corporal in RAF (WAF)
Ina was a driver based in Wick, drove officers to Coldbackie Registrars at Rhitongue re. Plane Crash on Ben Loyal
Kindly donated by: John MacLeod TF12B
War Grave of Angie Sutherland
War graveyard in France, possibly near Arras Taken in 1993
Text reads: "S/16452 Private A Sutherland Seaforth Highlanders 23rd April 1917 Age 17" Small wooden cross reads: "RIP Angie, Sunday 13-6-93 Gone but not Forgotten, Remembrance from all the Sutherland family, Scullomie, Tongue, Scotland
Kindly donated by: Sandra Munro TF18N
‘The Highlander as Soldier’
Extract from Issie MacPhail’s PhD thesis
During the eighteenth century, the identification of ‘the Highlander’ (as male and) as a ‘natural soldier’ emerged. This transformed the ‘threat’ into a useful and ‘loyal’ commodity. James Wolfe fought at Falkirk and Culloden under Cumberland in 1746, as a boy of sixteen years. It is reported that when asked, in Canada, where Britain might find good, hardy recruits, General Wolfe replied:
“The Highlanders. They are a hardy and intrepid race, and no great mischief if they fall”. [1] [1] See p15 MacLeod J. 1993 No Great Mischief If You Fall: The Highland Experience Mainstream Edinburgh – a book passed onto me by my grandfather, or a recent novel, MacLeod A. 2001 No Great Mischief Vintage London.
By 1759, Wolfe was a General, leading a Highland company – the 78th or Fraser’s Highlanders – onto the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. The attack was a famous success for the British Empire, though General Wolfe was mortally wounded. A monument to General Wolfe was raised in Westminster Abbey. It includes a ‘sculpted Highlander’ to represent the 78th.[2] By the late 19th century this association, in terms of the management and mobilisation of the British Empire, was so strong that even ‘Lowland’ regiments were ordered to wear tartan and the trappings or symbols by then attributed to ‘the Highlands’.[3]
[1] See p15 MacLeod J. 1993 No Great Mischief If You Fall: The Highland Experience Mainstream Edinburgh – a book passed onto me by my grandfather, or a recent novel, MacLeod A. 2001 No Great Mischief Vintage London.
[2] See p70 Hunter J. 1994 A Dance Called America: The Scottish Highlands. The United States and Canada Mainstream Edinburgh.
[3] p130 Withers C. W. 1992 The Historical Creation of the Scottish Highlands in Donnachie I. and Whatley C. 1992 The Manufacture of Scottish History Polygon Edinburgh.
