The Raising of the Regiment

Raised on the 10th February 1794 by the 4th Duke of Gordon and assisted by his wife the Duchess Jean, who rode to the country fairs in highland bonnet and regimental jacket, it is told how she would place a golden guinea between her lips and offer a kiss to any man who would take the kings shilling. On one occasion, a certain blacksmith, renowned for his strength and good looks and who had turned down other offers of  recruitment, took the kiss and the guinea; but to show it was not the guinea that had tempted him, threw the guinea into the crowd. Recruited mainly in the large Gordon estates in Badenoch, Lochaber and Strathspey and also from the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Elgin. At first the Regiment was numbered the 100th Regiment of Foot, but the title of the “Gordon Highlanders” was used along with the number, in 1798 they became the 92nd under which number they won their first battle honours and by which they were known until their amalgamation in 1881 with the 75th Regiment.

 

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