South Africa and Scotland in the First World War

This chapter discusses the powerful and long-lasting impact Scottish military symbolism on the formation of military culture in South Africa. Drawing on the work of John MacKenzie and Jonathan Hyslop’s notion of ‘military Scottishness’, this chapter analyses how Scottish identity both interacted with the formation of political identities in South Africa, and ‘looped back’ to connect with changing forms of national identity in Scotland itself. In particular, it addresses how the South Africans’ heroic role at Delville Wood, during the Battle of the Somme, became a putative symbol of this racialised ‘South Africanism’. The South African Brigade included a battalion of so-called ‘South African Scottish’ which reflected the phenomenon of military Scottishness. Overall, the chapter looks at the way in which the representations of the role of the South African troops involved an interplay between British empire loyalism, white South African political identities, and Scottishness.

‘A military fervour akin to religious fanaticism’: Scottish Military Identity in the Australian Imperial Force

This chapter highlights the long-term influence of Scottish military traditions and identity in Australia, dating back to the arrival of a battalion of the 73rd Highland Regiment in New South Wales in 1810. From the 1860s, several home-grown ‘Scottish’ volunteer militia units were established in the Australian colonies. This coincided with a peak period of Scottish emigration to Australia with some 265,000 settling between 1850 and 1914. With the outbreak of the First World War, Australia quickly raised a contingent to assist the Empire. Several Scottish-Australian militia regiments sought incorporation into the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) but with limited success. This chapter highlights how the existence of Scottish military identities conflicted with the desire of the AIF that its identity be entirely Australian as means of forging the identity of the new Commonwealth of Australia. At the same time, a small number of AIF units managed to maintain some small degree of Scottish flavour about them. Those such as the 4th, 5th and 56th Battalions which had many join en- masse from the pre-war ‘Scottish’ militia regiments, provide examples of how this identity survived and was influenced by some key officers and NCOs of Scots heritage.

The Scottish Soldier and Scotland, 1914–1918

This chapter addresses Scottish military service during the First World War, showing how from having underperformed before the war, Scotland overperformed during the war’s first two years. Particularly striking was how many recruits came from agricultural backgrounds, although in absolute terms the big cities still contributed more men. As the Territorial Army (TA) was the principal Scottish route into the army, the battle of Loos in October 1915 had an enormous local impact: this was Scotland’s equivalent of the Somme. Every Scottish infantry regiment was represented, and both the 9th and 15th Scottish Divisions were TA Lowland Divisions. From Loos came the literary representation of the war, especially Ian Hay’s The First Hundred Thousand and John Buchan’s war poetry. The effect of the First World War, with Scottish infantry regiments raising twenty-plus battalions, was to disseminate those regimental identities much more widely across Scottish society. An enhanced Scottish identity was created, and it emerged in a military context. Overwhelmingly this identity was set within the context of the Union and the empire.

Forging Nationhood: Scottish Imperial Identity and the Construction of Nationhood in the Dominions, 1880–1914

This chapter demonstrates how, in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, Scots remained highly conspicuous and distinctive in imperialist imagery by virtue of the Highland dress and military music, extensively reported battlefield exploits, the pervasiveness of the ‘martial races’ ideology and the so-called ‘Highlandism’ of Lowland regiments. During the post-1881 era, the sense of Scottish national identity was reinforced by royal patronage in the prefixes of the new regimental titles, in Victoria’s predilection for kilted regiments, and in the ceremonial roles performed by Scottish regiments across the empire. The pervasive use of cultural symbols – kilts, trews, broadswords, and bagpipes - was also important with many of these accoutrements adopted by diasporic units overseas. The British army thereby ensured that Scottish regiments embodied twin identities (Scottish and British), and that their fighting prowess was harnessed to a collective imperial purpose.

Scottish Ethnic Associationalism, Military Identity and Diaspora Connections in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

This chapter examines the emergence and evolution of Scottish associational culture among the different geographical components of the Scottish diaspora, placing particular emphasis on the range of associations and their distinct functions. It focuses particularly on the role Scottish ethnic associations played in facilitating Scottish military identity within a diaspora context during the period c1910 to 1920. It explores the themes of pre-war military recruitment activities pursued by Scottish ethnic associations; the promotion of Scottish regiments; war and post-war relief schemes; and initiatives in support of the war effort. In combination these themes permit analysis of how Scottish ethnic associations actively fostered Scottish military culture to promote a broader spirit of patriotism not only within their respective site of settlement, but also throughout the diaspora and in Scotland itself.

Canada, Military Scottishness and the First World War

This chapter discusses how the outbreak of the First World War led to the widespread use of the imagery of ‘military Scottishness’ in Canada, not only as part of recruiting efforts, but also for other wartime purposes, including propaganda and fund-raising. In some cases, materials made use of Scottish cultural references, even when explicitly “Scottish” images were not present. In a country with numerous identified and self-identifying cultural identities, it is worth noting that many of the materials that made use of “Scottish” imagery were not explicitly targeting Scottish Canadians. This was not always the case for recruiting efforts using imagery associated with other identifiable groups, and suggests that for some at least a Scottish military identity could embrace non-Scots. Much of the chapter’s focus is on the uses and expressions of military Scottishness in First World War Canada, but it also places this experience within a wider context, including the Second World War and into the present day. Overall, this chapter addresses a number of questions about military identity and its relationship to other competing national and cultural identities within Canada.

Introduction

This introduction provides an overview of the phenomenon of military Scottishness in four key nations: Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand, as well as the often neglected ‘near diaspora’ of England. It highlights the potency and successful export of Scottish martial identity since the latter half of the nineteenth century, they also explore how the outward expression of military Scottishness related to competing national and cultural identities within the new areas of settlement. It also illuminates the close ties between Scottish military identity and Scottish associational culture.

Performing Scottishness in England: Forming and Dressing the London Scottish Volunteer Rifles

This chapter examines expressions of Scottish difference through the dress and activities of ‘the London Scottish’, a volunteer corps established in 1859. It addresses its connections with the Caledonian Society of London and the Highland Society of London, a revival of links between Scottish associational culture and military volunteering established in London during the late Georgian era. The evolution of the peculiar grey highland uniform worn by the London Scottish from 1859 is traced as an accommodation between competing conceptions of what London-based Scots could offer a citizen army, between an ethos of modernity, camouflage and marksmanship filtered through the elite highland sporting interests of founding-figure Lord Elcho on the one hand, and the desire of the middle-class membership to perform a more traditional Scottish military role on the other.

Military Scotland in the Age of Proto-globalisation, c. 1690 to c. 1815

This chapter considers the way in which military service acted as an agent of mobility and a means of extending global networks. In the long eighteenth century. The so-called military economy allowed Scots, who were over-represented in the British officer corps, to use existing regional and kinship connections to extend a form of ‘gentlemanly capitalism’. Service in the armies of the East India Company provided Scots from the emerging middle class a means for social mobility. The creation of these networks allowed Scottish localities to connect directly to the remotest areas of the British empire.

Ngāti Tūmatauenga and the Kilties: New Zealand’s Ethnic Military Traditions

This chapter address the relative influence of both Scottish and Maori traditions on the development of New Zealand’s military forces before, during and after the First World War. Although New Zealand's Scots formed military units that drew on Scotland's proud martial heritage, there was an alternative warrior tradition from New Zealand's indigenous Maori that also fed in to the evolving identity of New Zealand's armed forces. This chapter examines the waxing and waning of the two warrior traditions, from armed conflicts in New Zealand during the colonial period, through two world wars abroad, and into the present day. It concludes that while Scottish military traditions still resonate in New Zealand, the Maori strand has proven more enduring in shaping the country's distinctive modern military identity.