In an unexplained incident now under investigation by the Ministry of Defence Continue reading
Category Archives: The Argylls
Military Cross for Lt James Adamson of The Argylls – and issues to consider
24 year-old Lieutenant James Adamson of the Argyll Continue reading
Daily Telegraph publishes excusive footage of a Helmand gun battle by the member of the Argylls who took it
The Daily Telegraph has published exclusive video footage of a fierce ongoing gun battle near Musa Qala in Afghanistan’s northern Helmand Province.
It was filmed by Corporal Billy Carnegie, a section commander in D Company, the 5th battalion of The Royal Regiment of Scotland (5 Scots). He has been collaborating with The Telegraph in a communications experiment by sending regular video reports about what life on the front line is like for him and his men during their six month tour of Afghanistan.
See the video, read the article and access the rest of Billy Carnegie’s story.
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The Argylls exerise their Freedom of Dumbarton by marching through the town
On the 11th December, in a series of proud marches through citis and towns with which the are associated, The Argyll and Sutherland HIghlanders marched through Dumbarton on the fringes of Argyll. They were met and applauded by wellwishers lining both sides of the road on their route. The townsfolk also clapped to the marching rhythm of the accompanying pipe band’s music.
The high point of the march was the presentation of arms for inspection before the reception at Dumbarton Burgh Halls.
Granted the Freedom of Dumbarton, the Argyls, now the 5th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland (or 5 Scots), were exercising their right to march through the town. The series of such marches made by the Argylls includes welcomes in the cities of Canterbury and Stirling.
Photographs of the opccasion can be viewd on the Argyll and Sutherland HIghlanders’ Veterans Website.
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The Argylls come north to march in Stirling
Fresh from their march through Canterbury on Sunday to a private service of thanksgiving and remembrance, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders celebrated their return from Helmand Province in Afghanistan by marching through Stirling.
They saluted the Lord Lieutenant of Stirling and Falkirk, Marjory McLachlan; the Provost of Stirling, Fergus Wood; and their own Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Coonel David Richmond.
Stirling gave The Argylls – then a regiment, now the 5th battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland – the Freedom of the City in 1947. This gives them the right to march through the city. At a civic reception after the march, held in Stirling’s Albert Halls, the Provost of the city said: ‘I’m delighted that the Argyll’s have exercised their right to the Freedom of the City with this parade. It was a magnificent spectacle with thousands turning out to welcome home our local battalion, which has a special place in our hearts’.
The Argylls’ Major Bob Elliot said: ‘The communities of Stirling can be very proud of the officers and soldiers who have carried the name of the Argylls once again into conflict’.
What is striking in the photographs of the marching soldiers both at Canterbury and Stirling is the emptiness in the eyes of so many of these young men. This contrasts painfully with the delight in the faces of their families, delighted to see them home again. The returning soldiers have images before their eyes which they cannot set aside and which we wish they had never had to see.
They may not be based in Argyll but they carry its name and Argyll is a major host to a wide variety of defence establishments. The Argylls should be honoured here. Many communities throughout Argyll and the Islands have seen young members serve in Afghanistan and Iraq. They would want to see this happen.
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The Argylls, back from Afghanistan, march to thanksgiving and remembrance at Canterbury Cathedral
Around 500 members of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders – now the 5th battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland (or 5 Scots) – marched through welcoming crowds in Canterbury on Sunday 7th December 2008.
Based at Howe Barracks in Canterbury, The Argylls were on their way to a private service of thanksgiving and remembrance at Canterbury Cathedral.
The battalion returned from a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan at the end of October and last month, in November, it was given the Freedom of the City of Canterbury in recognition of its service to the nation.
Sunday’s parade came to a halt while Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, General Andrew Graham, was presented wth the Freedom Scroll by the Lord Mayor of Canterbury, Carolyn Parry.
In June, during their recent six-month tour to Afghanistan, thirty-one year-old Glaswegian, Lance Corporal Jimmy Johnston, was killed by an anti-personnel mine. He was part of a vehicle checkpoint patrol at the time, in the capital of Helmand Province, Lashkar Gar. Prayers were said for him by Padre Colin MacLeod at the service in Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday.
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Last member of Argylls explosives conspiracy jailed at Maidstone
Andrew Quinn was sentenced to six and a half years in jail today (30th October) at Maidstone Crown Court. He pled guilty at the court in June to conspiracy to possess explosives and conspiracy to dishonestly undertake or assist in the retention, removal, disposal or realisation of stolen goods. Quinn was the last of four men to be jailed for their part in this conspiracy.
A former member of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (now the 5th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland) and now unemployed, Glaswegian Quinn’s co-conspirators were all serving members. Earlier this week, two of these were sentenced to twelve years each and one to four years.
Sentencing Quinn today, Mr Justice Akenhead said: “Your involvement was a pivotal one. It involved procuring them [the explosives] from contacts in the Army, the paying of soldiers and selling them on. You knew that the people to whom you supplied would use them only for criminal purposes to spread death and violence’.
Poppy Scotland 2008 launches with Scotland’s first thanksgiving for service lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan
Tomorrow afternoon, 27th October, at the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling, there will be Scotland’s first ceremony of thanksgiving for the lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan by those in the armed services, including the Argylls. The ceremony, an ecumenical one, has been organised by the parents of Mark Wright, killed in a minefield in Afghanistan in 2006 – Jem and Bob Wright.
Immediately after the ceremony, the First Minister, Alex Salmond, will launch the 2008 Poppy Scotland appeal at Stirling Castle.
Chief Executive of Poppy Scotland, Jim Panton, says that veterans who fought in the early years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003 and 2004 are now leaving the service and many are struggling.
Many, for well evidenced reasons, maintain their opposition to these wars, long regarded as illegal. However, all support those who have had no choice but to go where their country sends them and do as they are instructed with whatever resources they are given.
You can donate, leave messages and plant your own poppy at Poppy Scotland‘s online Garden of Remembrance.
Seats are limited at tomorrow’s service so please phone Poppy Scotland at 0131 550 1568 if you would like to reserve a place.
Two Argylls guilty of possession and exchange of explosives for cash
Two members of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the 5th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, have been found guilty at Maidstone Crown Court of conspiring to possess explosives. A Colour Sergeant and a Lance Corporal, from the battalion and stationed at Howe Barracks in Canterbury, will be sentenced at the court on Monday 27th October.
The trail to Howe Barracks led from a drugs raid in the Glasgow flat of a former serviceman in the battalion, Andrew Quinn, where police found military explosives hidden ia suitcase.
A search of the Colour Sergeant’ locker at the barracks then found explosives including detonators, flares, smoke grenades, distraction grenades and other munitions, all belonging to the British Army.
When the Lance Corporal’s dormitory was raided, a banned 7.62mm round, smoke grenades, noise cartridges and 55 blank belted rounds were found.
Back in June a third soldier from the 5 Scots appeared in court with Quinn. Both admitted charges of conspiracy to possess explosives and conspiracy to dishonestly undertake or assist in the retention, removal, disposal or realisation of stolen goods. Both denied conspiracy to steal explosives.
The Sergeant, giving evidence for the prosecution, said he agreed to take explosives to Scotland for the Lance Corporal, after being asked to do ‘a bit of business’ for cash. He said that he and the Lance Corporal took explosives from the Colour Sergeant’s locker in the Howe barracks and that he then gave them to Quinn at Quinn’s Glasgow flat in exchange for £500 for himself. The Sergeant said he was also handed £2,500 to give to the Colour Sergeant.
The offences took place between 31 October 2007 and 16 February 2008, while the three soldiers were stationed in Canterbury.
The three will be sentenced on Monday 27th October at Maidstone Crown Court; and Quinn will be sentenced on Thursday 30th October.
SNP’s Westminster Leader warns MOD on sending Scots troops back into action prematurely
Angus Robertson, SNP MP and leader of the party’s Westminster team, yesterday warned the Ministry of Defence (MOD) that their practice of sending Scots troops back into action in Afghanistan without the recommended respite period is ‘wholly unsustainable’. As we reported yesterday, following the breaking of the story by The Herald, the Royal Scots Borderers (the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland), are to be sent back to Afghanistan next April for a six month tour. This gives them only half of the recommended respite period since their last deployment there. As we noted at the time and mentioned again in yesterday’s piece, in the recent past The Argylls have been returned to duty in Helmand Province after only eight months, one third of the 24 month recommended respite between tours.
The problem for the MOD is shortage of troops. The reason for the shortage of troops is largely the impact on recruitment and on retention of existing troops of the war in Iraq. This is still widely held to be illegal and the Brtish troops sent there have, on evidence, been very ill supplied with the most basic essentials of survival, often with fatal consequences. Their medical treatment and compensation if they are returned injured has also been, again on evidence, heavily criticised for inadequacy and lack of respect at a level to breach the so-called Military Covenant.
Mr Robertson is MP for Moray, the area with Scotland’s largest number of serving military personnel. He notes that the ‘harmony guidelines’ (the left-field name given by the MOD to its own recommendations on due respite periods between duty tours) require 24 months between tours. He says: ‘The harmony guidelines exist to preserve family life and ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of our brave servicemen and women. They should not be breached because failings on the part of the MOD have left the armed forces wholly overstretched. Sending soldiers back into action without benefit of the recommended gap is unsustainable and a matter of great concern. It is little wonder that recruitment and retention is adversely affected’.
He has now contacted Des Browne, who combines the offices of Defence Secretary and Secretary for Scotland, for confirmation that the news of the plan to deploy the Royal Scots Borderers again so soon is indeed the case. The MOD has previously refused to confirm or deny the report until their plans are officially presented to Parliament after the long summer recess.