The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

dave nicol · Joined: 22 Jan 2009 Posts: 2

my grt grt grandfather is listed as being a seargent in them ,i think they had a training camp in king st aberdeen,but can find no info on this regiment ,was mentioned in 1851,any help greatly appreciated.

LondonScot · Joined: 12 Feb 2009 Posts: 12 Location: Essex

I have the regimental history published in 1884. Covers the period 1798 to 1882. From 1803 to 1855 the title was the Aberdeenshire or 55th Regiment of Militia. Between the years 1834 and 1855 no formal training took place, indeed the militia was in a deplorable state, exisiting on paper only. In 1855 the Scottish Militia was embodied and recruiting of officers and rank and file took place. In 1882 the regiment became the 3rd Battalion The Gordon Highlanders.

anne park · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:39 pm Post subject: William S Gilbert

As a child, Gilbert travelled in Europe with his parents (they finally settled in London in 1849). He was educated at Boulogne, France from the age of seven (he later kept his diary in French so that the servants could not read it),[11] then Western Grammar School, Brompton, London, and then at the Great Ealing School, where he became head boy and wrote plays for school performances and painted scenery. He then attended King's College London, graduating in 1856. He applied for a military commission in the Gordon Highlanders, but, with the unexpected end of the Crimean War, fewer recruits were needed, and only a line commission was available to Gilbert. He served instead in the Civil Service for four years and hated it. In 1859 he joined the newly formed Volunteer Army, with which he remained until 1878 (in between writing and other work), reaching the rank of Captain.[12] In 1863 he received a bequest of £300 that he used to leave the civil service and take up a brief career as a barrister (he had already entered the Inner Temple as a student), but his legal practice was not successful, averaging just five clients a year.