[3][4][5][6] The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 introduced a Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war.

On return from camp the 8th Scottish Rifles mobilised at 149 Cathedral Street and then undertook guards and patrols at vulnerable points around Glasgow and the River Clyde.

Where recruitment was good, they also formed 3rd Line units[24][25] The Lowland Division was warned for overseas service on 5 April 1915, and the infantry battalions received Long Lee Enfield rifles modified to take modern ammunition chargers.

As the leading battalion of the division, 1/8th Scottish Rifles under the command of Lt-Col H. Monteith Hannan, TD, boarded two trains from Falkirk to Devonport Dockyard where it embarked aboard HM Troopship Ballarat.

[16][18][19][20][26][27] While waiting at Mudros harbour the battalion sent two officers and 100 other ranks (ORs) ashore to act as a police picquet to guard the wells, keep the Australian troops in hand, and to prevent pilfering by the local inhabitants.

The battalion was evacuated from V Beach on 8 December and sailed for Mudros aboard HMS Prince George (which was hit by a torpedo that failed to explode).

[27] Shortly after 7th/8th Scottish Rifles were withdrawn, the whole Gallipoli force was evacuated, and 52nd (L) Division moved to Egypt, where the two battalions resumed their separate identities on 21 February.

Attempts to outflank the Romani position were held by the ANZAC Mounted Division, and the defenders then moved to the counter-attack, though the pursuit bogged down in the appalling desert conditions of Sinai.

[18][34][35][36] 52nd (L) Division spent months digging defences, suffering a steady trickle of casualties from shellfire and in raids, one of which was mounted by 1/8th Scottish Rifles on 25/26 June.

[37] By the autumn of 1917 the EEF had been revitalised by the arrival of Sir Edmund Allenby as commander-in-chief, and the next operation (the 3rd Battle of Gaza, 31 October–7 November) was much better planned and successful.

156th Brigade was left marching in the rear as the rest of the division stormed the wadi and led the pursuit up the coast to Junction Station.

The troops practised using canvas boats on a village pond, then at 22.30 on the evening of 20 December, in heavy rain, the first assaulting waves of 156th Bde went forward under cover of an artillery barrage and established a bridgehead.

Findlay, DSO, transferred to 103rd Bde in 34th Division, a 'Kitchener's Army' formation that had been virtually destroyed during the German spring offensive earlier in the year and was being reconstituted.

[51][54][55] 34th Division spent August refitting and training in the Ypres Salient, then took part in seizing Mont Kemmel when the Germans were forced to relinquish it.

The 41st Division failed to renew its attack before darkness fell, but 103rd Bde pushed out patrols during the night and found that the enemy had evacuated the high ground in front.

8th Scottish Rifles was ordered to exploit the situation and by 01.30 on 1 November the battalion reported that Boshkant was clear and that its patrols were moving up the hills north and south of the village.

An hour later it had occupied the hills and its patrols were still pushing on, so the artillery barrages scheduled for the morning attack were cancelled and 103rd Bde pursued the Germans as far as the Scheldt.

[80][81] During the Phoney War period there were a number of attacks on the naval bases of Scotland before the Luftwaffe turned its attention to the campaigns in Norway and France and the Low Countries.

The cluster system was an attempt to improve the chances of picking up enemy bombers and keeping them illuminated for engagement by AA guns or Royal Air Force (RAF) Night fighters.

[91][92][93] The regiment supplied a cadre of experienced officers and men to 238th S/L Training Rgt at Buxton where it provided the basis for a new 544 S/L Bty formed on 12 December 1940.

From 18 August it was deployed with RHQ at Chingford, 492 LAA Bty at Enfield Lock and 495 LAA Bty at Waltham Abbey (these batteries being responsible for the defence of the Vulnerable Points (VPs) of King George V Reservoir, Enfield Rolling Mills, the Royal Small Arms Factory and the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills).

493 LAA Bty was based at Hemel Hempstead with deployments to aircraft factories at Hatfield (De Havilland), Radlett (Handley Page) and Hayes (Fairey).

The regiment was equipped with self-propelled (SP) Bofors 40 mm LAA guns and was active in mobile training around Chichester and on the Isle of Wight.

[102][103] 147th LAA Regiment returned to AA Command and was deployed on the Sussex coast as part of Operation Diver, defending against attacks by V-1 flying bombs (codenamed 'Divers').

[85][104][105] By the end of the year the Diver threat to SE England had passed, and 21st Army Group fighting in North West Europe had a severe manpower shortage, so large drafts of men left 147th LAA Rgt to be retrained as infantry.

In March 1945, 2 LAA/SL Bty helped to protect the supply dumps and assembly areas for the Rhine crossing (Operation Plunder), and was then deployed to guard the Royal Engineers' bridging site at Xanten.

By September 1943, when Eighth Army launched its invasion of mainland Italy (Operation Baytown), 422 and 535 S/L Btys were defending its bases at Syracuse and Catania respectively.

While demobilisation got under way, the regiment lent large numbers of men for summer agricultural work around Redditch and Malvern, moving to farms round Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees in the autumn when it returned to 30 AA Bde.

[105][113] When the TA was reformed on 1 Jan 1947, RHQ, 492, 493, 495 LAA Btys were placed in suspended animation at Sedgefield, County Durham, and the personnel formed a new regiment and batteries with the same numbers.

Until 1868 The Highland Companies had scarlet doublets with green facings, Black Watch tartan kilts, and blue Glengarry bonnets with Blackcock's tail plumes.