Highland Furies, Schofield Victoria

As the oldest of the Highland Regiments, The Black Watch has an enviable roster of battle honors and a mystique born of repeated service on behalf of King, Queen, and country. Victoria Schofield, author of the acclaimed biography ofField Marshal Earl Wavell, traces the story of the Regiment from its early 18th-century beginnings through to the eve of the South African War at the end of the 19th-century. Originating as companies of highland men raised to keep a watch over the Highlands of Scotland, they were formed into a regiment in 1739. Its soldiers would go on to fight with extraordinary bravery and elan in almost every major engagement fought by the British Army during this period, from the American War of Independence, the Peninsular Wars, Waterloo, the Crimea, and Indian Mutiny, to Egypt and the Sudan. Drawing on diaries, letters, and memoirs, Victoria Schofield skillfully weaves the multiple strands of this story into an epic narrative of a valiant body of officers and men over one-and-a-half centuries. In her sure hands, the story of The Black Watch is no arid recitation of campaigns, dates, and battle honors, but is instead a rich and compelling record of the soldiers experience under fire and on campaign. It is also a celebration of the deeds of a regiment that has played a unique role in British history and a vivid insight into the lives of the many remarkable figures who have marched and fought so proudly under its colors.