5th (Angus & Dundee) Battalion

THE BLACK WATCH

The Reserve Battalions

Major-General A. G. Wauchope CB, of the Black Watch, summed up the roll of the Reserve Battalions during the Great War -

“The first duty of the Reserve Battalions was to enlist and train men, and so form organised units capable of taking an efficient part in Home Defence.  The second, and latterly their main function, was to provide drafts for the battalions overseas.”

THE 2/5TH BATTALION

On 26 September 1914 some 300 men of the 5^th Battalion, Black Watch, were transferred to Forfar to form the nucleus of the second line or reserve battalion – the 2/5^th Battalion, Black Watch, under the command of Colonel P. S. Nicoll, T.D.  These men were selected on the basis that they had not yet qualified in musketry, or were under 19 years of age, or who could not pass as fit for Foreign Service.  Recruiting continued with men being able to enlist for Home or Foreign Service.

By the end of 1914, the 2/5^th Reserve Battalion was organised and fully equipped, and early in January 1915, all four Reserve Territorial Battalions (2/4^th, 2/5^th, 2/6^th, and 2/7^th) were assembled at Hawick to form the 2/1^st Infantry Brigade under the command of His Grace the Duke of Montrose.

The 2/5^th Reserve Battalion, after leaving Hawick in the spring of 1915, moved to various stations of the Clyde coastal defences, in place of the 5^th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. 

On Saturday 25 April 1915 it moved to Dundee, where the officers and men selected for Foreign Service were separated from those for home defence; the Battalion then rejoined the 2/1^st Black Watch Brigade at Bridge of Earn.  By this time the 2/5^th Reserve Battalion had already sent several drafts of men to the front line battalion in France.

At the end of 1915 the Battalion marched to Larbert, where it was disbanded.  Officers and men fit for Foreign Service were transferred to the 3/5^th Reserve Battalion at Ripon before being sent overseas.  The few remaining men who could not meet the required standard were amalgamated with the 2/4^th Reserve Battalion, The Black Watch.

Estimates show that the 2/5^th Reserve Battalion, which was disbanded earlier in the war than the other Black Watch Reserve Battalions, sent some 50 officers and about 1500 men overseas.

THE 3/5TH BATTALION

In mid March 1915 the Forfar County Territorial Association discussed the formation of a third line for the 5^th (Angus & Dundee) Battalion, Black Watch.  This new third line unit would be based at Forfar. 

By the end of April 1915, Major Robert Hoyer Millar of Montrose had been nominated for the command of the new 3/5^th Battalion, Black Watch, and recruiting began in earnest.  Unlike the 2/5^th Battalion, the new third line unit would be recruiting fit men of good character between the ages of 19 to 40 years for Foreign Service only.  Ex-soldiers could be considered up to the age of 45 years.  The new unit would also serve as a depot which men, who had been sent from France when either wounded or sick, were able to join on leaving hospital.

Potential recruits could apply at the 3/5^th Battalion Headquarters, at The Drill Hall, Forfar, or at any of the recruiting offices in the major towns across the county.

The 3/5^th Battalion served with the other third line Territorial Battalions of the Black Watch at various stations in Scotland, and in 1915 were brigaded together under the Duke of Montrose at Bridge of Earn.  In the summer of 1916 the third line battalions were amalgamated at Ripon and formed the 4^th Reserve Battalion, The Black Watch, under the command of Colonel Sir Robert Moncreiffe.

Copyright © 2005 Ian Edwards
Last modified: 01 January 2008