Liverpool Scottish

Liverpool Scottish
The Liverpool Scottish, 24 April 1910.
Active	1900–2014
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Territorial Army
Role	Infantry
Size	Platoon
TA Centre	Townsend Avenue, Norris Green
Uniform	Glengarry, with blue hackle
March	The Glendaruel Highlanders Quick March: Loch Rannoch [1]
Engagements	Second Boer War First World War Second World War
Decorations	Victoria Cross: Captain N.G. Chavasse
Battle honours	South Africa 1902 The Great War: Bellewaarde, Somme 1916, Ginchy, Morval, Ypres 1917, Pilckem, Menin Road, Passchendaele, Cambrai, Lys, Estaires, France and Flanders 1914–18
Insignia
Tartan	Clan Forbes tartan
Hackle	Royal Blue

The Liverpool Scottish, known as "the Scottish", was a unit of the British Army, part of the Army Reserve (formerly the Territorial Army), raised in 1900 as an infantry battalion of the King's (Liverpool Regiment). The Liverpool Scottish became affiliated to the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in the 1920s and formally transferred to the regiment in 1937 with its identity preserved. Reflecting the Territorial Army's decline in size since the late 1940s, the battalion was reduced to a company in 1967, then to a platoon of "A" (King's) Company, King's and Cheshire Regiment in 1999. In 2006, the company was incorporated into the 4th Battalion, Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border).

Service in the First World War was extensive and the Liverpool Scottish was one of the first territorial battalions to arrive on the Western Front when it deployed in November 1914. Approximately 1,000 of more than 10,000 men who served with the Scottish died during the war.^[2] The first major battle of the Scottish during the war was on 16 June 1915 in what is officially known as The First Action at Bellewaarde, which was designed to pin down German reserves while other Allied forces were engaged elsewhere. The action is known to the Liverpool Scottish as the Battle of Hooge. Hooge being a village a few miles East of Ypres in Belgium.^[3]

The unit's most acclaimed soldier during the war was Captain Noel Chavasse, who was awarded two Victoria Crosses while attached from the Royal Army Medical Corps.^[4] Sergeant Albert Baybut, Chavasse's Medical Orderly, is technically the most highly decorated soldier in the history of Liverpool Scottish due to Chavasse's parent unit being the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). Baybut received a Distinguished Conduct Medal and Bar, together with the Military Medal for his actions alongside Chavasse during the First World War. Chavasse remains one of only three people to have been awarded the VC twice and the only recipient from the Liverpool Scottish.^[5]

Although expanded to two battalions during the Second World War, the Liverpool Scottish did not serve abroad as intact battalions. Instead, contingents were supplied to other battalions and the Army Commandos. With the commandos, the Liverpool Scottish actively served in operations in Europe, including the Norwegian Campaign and the St Nazaire Raid.