he 75th (Highland) Regiment of Foot was raised in the county
of Stirling in 1787, and embodied at Stirling in June 1788.
Their Colonel was Robert Abercromby of Tullibody, hence
the Regiment's familiar title of 'Abercrombie's Highlanders.'
The Regiment was soon dispatched to India, where they fought
in the Mysore campaign of 1799 and at Seringapatam, both
in 1792 and 1799. The Regiment, much depleted, returned
home in 1806, in 1809 their title was changed to the 75th
Regiment of Foot, and again in 1862, to the 75th (Stirlingshire)
Regiment. In 1881, they were linked with the 92nd (Gordon
Highlanders) Regiment of Foot to form the 1st Battallion
of The Gordon Highlanders.
The Army
List for 1799 shows Sir Robert Abercromby still Colonel
of the Regiment, and Nicholas Brutton as one of the Lieutenants.
In Ker Porter's great Panorama of the Storming of Seringapatam,
'Lieut Bruton 75th wounded' is
shown lying beside the tiger cannon
in the centre foreground. Other causualties in the 75th
Regiment, for the period 4th April - 4th May 1799, are listed
in the General Return, dated at Seringapatam, 5th May 1799.
16 men were killed, including Lieut Matber on 4th April;
64 were wounded, including Capt. John Gordon on 21st April
and Lieuts. Turner, Broughton and Skelton, all on 4th April.
In the final assault on Seringapatam, the 75th fought with
the Bombay army in the Centre Brigade, under Colonel
Dunlop, and their Regimental badge, a tiger within a
wreath of thistles, is a lasting reminder of these Indian
campaigns. It was also the inspiration for the title of
the National Galleries of Scotland's bicentennial exhibition
'The Tiger and the Thistle : Tipu Sultan and the Scots in
India,' in 1999.
The tiger motif also appears on the Regimental memorial,
an inscribed stone cross which stands on the Esplanade of
Stirling Castle. The Castle crowns a rocky, volcanic crag,
and, like Dumbarton Rock on the
west coast, commands one of the most strategic points in
Scotland, guarding both the principal North-South and East-West
routes across the country, as well as the highest navigable
point of the River Forth. Like Edinburgh,
the castle was both fortress and Royal palace. Today, while
Edinburgh is the seat of the new Scottish Assembly, Stirling
is forever associated with two momentous events in Scotland's
historic past, the Scots' victories over the English in
1297, with William Wallace at Stirling Bridge, and in 1314
with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.
For general reference a
list is appended of those Regiments which fought against
Haidar and Tipu in the Mysore Campaigns. Many of their descendants
today , whether in Scotland or abroad, still rehearse and
remember their family associations with India in the 18
century.
