The
26th Regiment of Foot was an
infantry regiment of the
British Army. It was raised as the
Cameronian Guard in
1688 by the
Lords of the Convention and named after the followers of
Richard Cameron. The following year it entered British service under
King William III and on
21 August 1689 defeated
Jacobite forces at the
Battle of Dunkeld, a turning point in the
Jacobite rising of that year. Although the regiment took the name of its first
colonel as
The Earl of Angus's Regiment, it became popularly known as
The Cameronians until
1751, when it was ranked as the 26th Foot. The regiment was known as the 26th (Cameronian) Regiment until
1881, when it merged with the
90th Regiment of Foot to form
The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles).
Because of its origins in a religious movement, the regiment issued bibles to all of its new soldiers as part of their kit, a tradition that continued after amalgamation. Also, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) were the only regiment in the British Army that carried their weapons into church. This was a tradition that started in the Covenanter days when the Covenanters posted armed pickets at the beginning of worship services to keep a lookout for foes. The tradition continued until the regiment disbanded.
Battle Honours
- Blenheim1, Ramillies1, Oudenarde1, Malplaquet1, Egypt2, Corunna, China3, Abyssinia
1. awarded 1882
2. the Sphinx badge superscribed "Egypt"
3. the Dragon badge superscribed "China"
References