19th Regiment Royal Artillery (The Scottish Gunners) give back to Inverness community
19th Regiment Royal Artillery (The Scottish Gunners) will exercise their Freedom of the city of Inverness at 11:30am on Saturday 8 July 2023.
The Regiment will march from St Andrew's Cathedral on Ardross Street at 11:30, along Ness Walk, across Ness Bridge, and up Bridge Street and the High Street past the Town House ending at Eastgate.
The Regiment Pipes and Drums will be supported by University Officers’ Training Corps.
In advance of the Freedom of the city march, 35 soldiers from The Scottish Gunners gave back to the community of Inverness (Thursday 6 July 2023) as they carried out maintenance works at Tomnahurich Cemetery on Glenurquhart Road in the city.
Working with Highland Council staff, they resurfaced paths at the top of Tomnahurich Cemetery hill by spreading, raking, and levelling quarry dust which will be rolled by Council staff. Paths around the WW1 War Memorial located in the south section of the upper cemetery were included in the path works.
19th Regiment Royal Artillery (The Scottish Gunners) working at Tomnahurich cemetery
These community engagement works were carried out by the Regiment as a means of giving back to the community within which they will be exercising their Freedom march.
Provost of Inverness and Area Cllr Glynis Campbell Sinclair and Depute Provost Cllr Morven Reid met with the soldiers working at the cemetery.
Scottish Gunners cleaning steps at Tomnahurich cemetery
Provost Campbell Sinclair thanked them for their hard work which will be greatly appreciated by all who visit the cemetery and said that she was honoured and looking forward to receiving their salute (along with Lord Lieutenant James Wotherspoon) during the Freedom march on Saturday 8th as the Regiment passes the Town House.
19th Regiment Royal Artillery was granted the Freedom of the city on 12 March 1999. This is the highest honour a local authority can grant and is bestowed on organisations of distinction from the region. It is symbolic of the esteem in which the city holds the recipient. In March 2020 a previous Freedom of the city march was cancelled due to the pandemic.
To celebrate reforming as a complete unit post rotations to Estonia as part of NATO’s commitment to re-assure Baltic allies and the addition of a new Battery, 19 Regiment Royal Artillery (The Scottish Gunners) will reaffirm its relationship with the City of Inverness by exercising its Freedom of the city.
This will take the form of the Regiment marching through the city, with Pipes and Drums and rifles with bayonets fitted on 8 July 2023. This will allow the Regiment to reconnect with its recruiting area and the city of Inverness.
19th Regiment traces its history to 17 Brigade Royal Field Artillery which was formed in 1900 but the individual batteries date back to the 18th century. 17 Brigade saw action during World War I and in May 1940, had the honour of being the first Royal Artillery unit to fire in World War II while stationed at the Maginot Line. It subsequently served during the North African and Italian campaigns. 17 Brigade was re-designated 19th Regiment in 1947.
During the 1950s and 1960s it served in the Korean War and Aden Emergency. The Regiment was deployed to Bosnia in 1995 and Cyprus in 1998 for United Nation peacekeeping operations. Since the 2000s, the Regiment has seen action in both Iraq and Afghanistan, deploying to Afghanistan for the final time in 2012. Since 2018, the Regiment’s batteries have been deployed in Estonia as part of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence, working alongside the Estonian Defence Force to demonstrate our readiness and willingness to support our allies.
In 1963, 19th Regiment became known as ‘The Highland Gunners’ and started to recruit from the Highlands. In December 2012, when the 40th Regiment Royal Artillery (The Lowland Gunners) was placed in suspended animation, some of its batteries were subsumed into 19th Regiment, which was officially renamed ‘The Scottish Gunners’.
Although the Scottish Gunners now recruit soldiers from across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, all the soldiers and officers are proud to uphold the Regiment's Scottish heritage. The Scottish Gunners have been granted the Freedom of the Cities of Inverness and Colchester and wear the Robertson tartan. The Regiment's Pipes and Drums is drawn from active duty soldiers and is a living connection to its Scottish heritage.
