Spirit of the 93rd

This month, we would like to share with you some of the museums new accessions.  Some of the following objects belonged to Private Walter Scott, who served in the 93^rd Regiment of Foot – the Sutherland Highlanders. His family kindly allowed the museum to photograph and scan the objects to hold images of them in our digital object and archive collection. And so, our blog looks back to the early 1800s to the story of Private Walter Scott and the 93^rd Sutherland Highlanders.

In 1799, the Sutherland Highlanders were raised as war against France demanded the formation of more regiments to fight in the war effort. This job was trusted to Major General William Wemyss. Men from the former Sutherland Fencibles quickly joined whilst others from the Sutherland and Reay estates were recruited by a unique method: at parish assemblies the eligible men were lined up and Wemyss offered each man in turn a pinch of snuff and a dram of whiskey, and acceptance was token of agreement, and the man was attested. It was a testament to their reliability that at the first musters in Strathnaver and at Inverness, not a man was absent. In 1800, the Sutherland Highlanders were numbered the 93^rd Regiment.

Private Walter Scott was born in or near the town of Longtown and enlisted for the 93^rd Sutherland Highlanders on the 19^th of April 1811 in Edinburgh at the age of 18. In 1813, the 2^nd Battalion of the 93^rd Sutherland Highlanders was raised, initially intended for the Duke of Wellington’s army in France but were redirected to Newfoundland in Canada. Scott served with the short-lived 2^nd Battalion and sailed to Newfoundland in May 1814. The 2^nd Battalion returned to Britain in October 1815 and were stationed in Durham. Whilst here, they were ordered to put a stop to civil rioting during a miner’s strike. Several Non-commissioned Officers went to a local blacksmith to have their swords sharpened and word of this spread. When the Battalion reached the place of anticipated unrest the following morning, they saw the miners going back to work as quickly as they could.

Britain’s link with rum is intertwined with colonialism and the British Navy. When Britain took the country of Jamaica in 1655, it became an important part of the colonial British West Indies. It was then the Navy moved from giving daily liquor rations of French Brandy to Navy Strength rum. Naval rum was originally a blended mix from rums produced in the British West Indies – where Private Scott would later be stationed. The practice of watering rum down was introduced in the 18740s to help minimise the effects this 57% ABV alcohol was having on the sailors.

The object above is a rum drinking cup which was carefully engraved with Walter’s name and decorated with Scottish thistles and an image of a rum bottle with the words ‘good old rum’ and a goblet with the words ‘try it’. The cup was made in the West Indies whilst Walter was serving during the early 1820s. The Regiment arrived in Barbados on the 19^th of December 1823. The drinking cup was made in 1826 whilst the 93^rd were in Antigua with the companies stationed on the Island of St Christopher, St Kitts and Monserrat. Inscribed on the back is the words ‘You will be your haf pint and I will be mine and fill up the tot again for Auld Land Syne’.

An officer sheds light on the conduct of his men and the problems caused by the consumption of rum in a letter to his sister dated the 28^th of March 1828: ‘So excellent the conduct of my brother officers and so good comparatively has been that of the men. The cause of default is invariably rum, rum, rum and poor fellows, they have strong temptations to it, independently of its extreme cheapness. They are induced to drink from the exhilarating effect it produces on their spirits, depressed by the nature of the climate and derangement of their stomachs temporarily relieved by rum.’

Scott served in the army for 21 years which took him to Newfoundland, Canada and the West Indies. The above picture shows his discharge parchment certificate which gives an insight into his enlistment information and tells us that he was discharged at his own request. It is dated Barbados 5/6/1832. His character is recorded as: ‘His conduct as a soldier has been indifferent, he having been much addicted to drink, but in every other respect an efficient and trustworthy soldier’. Below is the final object shown to the museum by Walter’s family, and it is his feather bonnet badge engraved with the ‘93 Sutherland Highlanders’.

This isn’t the first blog we’ve produced that focuses on the spirits of the regiment. You can read about whisky, also referred to as ‘the water of life’, here: https://argylls.co.uk/uisge-beatha-the-water-of-life/

Written by Caitlin Stewart, Digital Content Volunteer