The history of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
The Regimental Museum in Stirling Castle
Princess Louise's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 1881
As a result of the wide-ranging Cardwell reforms of the British Army the 91st and 93rd were merged in 1881.
The 91st became the 1st Battalion and the 93rd the 2nd Battalion.
Territorial regrouping gave Sutherland to the Seaforths as their recruiting area. The counties allotted to The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were Argyllshire, Stirling, Clackmannan, Dumbarton, Renfrew and Kinross. Significantly, the recruiting area remains the same today. Stirling Castle became the Depot and the home of the Regiment.
They became Princess Louise's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The Princess took a close interest in Her Regiment which they repaid with respect and very real affection. She designed the new regimental badge herself, elegantly combining the Argyll Boar's Head and the Sutherland Wild Cat, surmounted where suitable by her own cipher and coronet. The motto of the new Regiment was the old 91st "Ne Obliviscaris" and 93rd "Sans Peur". In the matter of uniform the 93rd prevailed: The Sutherland tartan was very similar to the original 'dark green Campbell tartan with the black line' in which Lochnell had first raised the 91st. The Swinging Six sporran with its six white tassels and the feathered bonnet both derived essentially from the 93rd as was the badgerhead sporran worn by the officers and senior NCOs. The Kilmarnock bonnet disappeared and all ranks wore the glengarry whenever they were in trews and for less formal parades.
The Dining Room in the centre of the Museum has a magnificent display of silver, paintings and porcelain which have been drawn from all the different elements of the Regiment throughout its 200 years of history.