Scottish Yeomanry

The Scottish Yeomanry
Active	1992-1999
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Army
Type	Yeomanry
Role	Light reconnaissance
Size	One Regiment
Part of	Royal Armoured Corps
Regimental Headquarters	Inchdrewer House
Motto(s)	All seeing
March	Garb of Old Gaul
Vehicles	Land Rover Defender
Commanders
Honorary Colonel 1992-97	Lieutenant General Sir Norman Arthur KCB
Honorary Colonel 1997-99	Brigadier Melville Jameson CBE
Insignia
Abbreviation	SCOTS YEO
Regimental Tartan (Murray of Atholl)
Stable Belt Colours

The Scottish Yeomanry (SCOTS YEO) was a Yeomanry Regiment of the British Territorial Army formed in 1992. It served until 1999 when it was amalgamated with the Queen's Own Yeomanry (QOY).

History

The Scottish Yeomanry was raised on the 1 November 1992 as a result of Options for Change with Headquarters at Inchdrewer House, Colinton Road, Edinburgh. It was a Land Rover based reconnaissance regiment with a home defence role. The Regiment consisted of a Headquarters and three Sabre Squadrons.

Headquarters Squadron (Edinburgh) was named for the Lothian and Border Horse Yeomanry and was formed by the re-roling of 225 Squadron, 154 (Lowland) Regiment Royal Corps of Transport.

"A" (Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry) Squadron (Ayr) was transferred into the new regiment from the QOY where they had been serving on both CVR(W) Fox and other CVR(T) variants.

"B" Squadron (East Kilbride) was named for both The Lanarkshire Yeomanry and The Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry and was formed by the re-roling of 222 Squadron, 154 (Lowland) Regiment Royal Corps of Transport.

"C" Squadron (Cupar) was named for the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry and Scottish Horse and was formed by the re-roling of 239 (Highland Yeomanry) Squadron, 153 (Highland) Regiment Royal Corps of Transport. Until 1999 "C" Suadron also maintained part of the lineage of the Lovat Scouts.

The regiment served in its home defence role with annual exercises in the UK but many of its members also seized on the opportunities opening up to the TA to serve on operational tours in the Balkans.

On 27th June 1998 The Scottish Yeomanry paraded at the Racecourse in Ayr to celebrate the Bicentenary of The Ayrshire Yeomanry. The parade was reviewed by Maj Gen Mark Strudwick, GOC Scotland.

On the 1 July 1999, after nearly seven years of service, the Regiment was amalgamated with the QOY as result of the Strategic Defence Review. "A" Squadron returned to the QOY and were joined by "C" Squadron. HQ Squadron was disbanded and its building taken over by the Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming. "B" Squadron was re-roled to become 52 Squadron of 32 (Scottish) Signal Regiment.

Uniform

The Scottish Yeomanry had a number of distinctive elements to their uniform.

The capbadge of the regiment consisted of the Lion Rampant of Scotland upon crossed lances under the Scottish Crown. It was the only British Army Capbadge, at the time, to show the Scottish crown. The capbadge of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland is very similar.

In working dress the regiment wore the grey beret of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

The regimental stable belt which was adopted was a reversed version of the Ayrshire Yeomanry belt. This was the colour of the 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars' belts and with their pending amalgamation a ready stock was available.

The ceremonial uniforms (No1 and No 2 Dress) were based upon Ayrshire Yeomanry patterns with Squadron distinctions such as collar badges. B Squadron only wore the collar badges of the Lanrkshire Yeomanry with every squadron wearing buttons with the badge of The Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry in order to represent that regiment's history.

Mess Kit in the patterns of the predecessor regiments could be worn but the accepted pattern was again that of the Ayrshire Yeomanry.

This basis of uniform upon the Ayrshire Yeomanry made the Scottish Yeomanry a "Gold Regiment" in that its accoutrements and lace were gold and not silver as is normally the case with Yeomanry regiments.

The scarlet hussar cap of the Ayrshire Yeomanry was adopted with subalterns wearing silver peaks, as worn in the QOY, and field officers and above wearing gold peaks as would have been correct for the Ayrshire Yeomanry.

In "C" Squadron a red-white-green diced balmoral bonnet with cock feather was often worn in place of the scarlet cap.

Through their service as Scottish Infantry Battalions in the [[First World War] each of the Squadrons could claim the rights to a Regimental tartan; Hunting Erskine tartan from the Royal Scots Fusiliers for the Ayrshire and Lanrkshire Yeomanries, Mackenzie of Seaforth tartan from the Highland Light Infantry for the Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry and Government tartan from the Black Watch for the Fife & Forfar Yeomanry. However the Scottish Horse had a direct claim to the Murray of Atholl tartan, through their historic linkage with the Dukes of Atholl, and this became the regimental tartan. As a Cavalry Regiment there would be little opportunity to wear tartan in uniform but a patch of Murray of Atholl tartan was often worn on the upper arm of combat dress in a precurser of today's TRFs.

Memorials

Scottish National War Memorial, which was built after a proposal in 1917 by the Duke of Atholl in Edinburgh Castle contains a memorial and book of remembrance to all Scottish Yeomanry's antecedent Regiments.

Affiliated Regiments and Formations

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards

Affiliated Cadets

Now The Scottish Yeomanry's name is only continued by the Army Cadet Force who were affiliated to C Sqn of the Scottish Yeomanry.