Borderers in Town by Alan Herriot   The Kings Own Scottish Borderers, marching along Princess Street Edinburgh on the 11th of August each year to celebrate Minden day  1st Battalion Kings Owns Scottish Borderers. The Derryard Action, Co Fermanagh, December 13th 1989 by David Rowlands Raising the Regiment - The Kings Own Scottish Borderers. March 1689  by Terence Cuneo Originally the 25th Foot, the regiment was raised in Edinburgh on 18th March 1689 by David Leslie, 3rd Earl of Leven, for the defence of the city against the Jacobites during the 'Glorious Revolution' that brought William of Orange to England. Records show that the regiment was completely recruited to a strength of 1,000 men within the space of two hours.  They were soon required for active service and at the battle of Killiecrankie underwent their baptism of fire against the rebel Highlanders led by Claverhouse. Recognition of the fighting spirit of Leven's Edinburgh Regiment came at once in the spontaneous conferment on it, by the Provost of Edinburgh, of the exclusive privilege to recruit by beat of drum in the city on any day, except Sunday, without first asking the permission of the Lord Provost. A further privilege was conferred later, which remains to this day, of marching through the City of Edinburgh with bayonets fixed and Colours flying.   In 1782 the historic title of The Edinburgh Regiment was dropped and that of The Sussex Regiment adopted. King George III honoured the regiment in 1805 by raising it to the status of a Royal Regiment and changing its title to The King's Own Borderers. The change of title to the King's Own Scottish Borderers was officially approved in 1887, during the reign of Queen Victoria.  Cuneo has depicted the scene at Holyrood Abbey at nightfall on 18th March 1689 when 1,000 men answered the call to arms. The Earl of Leven and the Muster Master watch from horseback while the clerk lists the men and issues the first days pay. The yellow ribbon on the arm of the recruit was issued as a mark of recognition until uniform could be provided. Corporal wheeler dragging a wounded cyclist scout into the shelter of a ditch under the enemys fire.   On October 17th 1915, corporal Harold Ernest Wheeler, of the 2nd Kings Own Scottish Borderers, had just ridden with a patrol, consisting of a Lance Corporal and ten men of the 5th Divisional Cyclist Company, into the village of Lorgies in anticipation that it had been evacuated by the enemy, when, to their surprise, the Germans opened fire in them from some houses.  Corporal wheeler thereupon ordered the patrol to retire, but after going a short distance he saw that one of the men had been hit and was lying in the roadway.  Going back at great risk to he, dragged the wounded man into the shelter of a ditch by the roadside and the rejoined the rest of the patrol. Lance-Corporal M. Parker Holding Turks At Bay In A Mine Gallery. The emergency in which Lance- Corporal Parker, of the 5th Kings Own Scottish Borderers, proved his prowess was as unexpected as formidable.  Parker and his men was on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the 14th September 1915, constructing under the Turkish trenches a mine gallery, which suddenly broke into a hostile gallery.  A weird subterranean contest then began.  Parker held off the Turks with his rifle though they fired on him and threw bombs at him.  Then he was driven out by fumes, but returned and filled up the breach so that a charge might be laid and the enemy’s works destroyed.  He was awarded the D.C.M. Sergeant Major, 25th Foot 1768 by P H Smitherman  Most of the pictures and portraits upon which we rely for information depict officers or privates, sometimes sergeants, but very rarely sergeant-majors.  The details of this print come from a contemporary water-colour of several members of the regiment, of whom one is the sergeant-major.  his uniform, with its silver lace and smart cut, resembles that of an officer, as it would today.  The arrangement of the brim of the hat is worthy of notice.  We have seen it develop from earlier pictures to the tricorne shape.  Now the front cock has almost disappeared and it is beginning to resemble the modern version of the cocked hat, worn, for instance, by the quartermasters of the Foot Guards.  A turned-down collar rather similar to this is shown on the coats of several privates of the Foot Guards depicted in the Blenheim Tapestries, but it was a fashion which must have been very short lived then, because there is no sign of it subsequently until about this date when it was worn almost universally for a few years.  The turned-back skirts of the coat have become stylised and less clumsy, and the cuff ahs a slash with four buttons.  Oddly enough, in the picture on which this image is based, only the sergeant-major and drummers are shown with slashes, the rest of the regiment having plain buttoned cuffs.  This is explained by the fact that the uniform of the sergeant-major, as that of the drummers, was decided by the commanding officer, and possibly bought by him too, so that it would conform more to his wishes than to regulations.  The familiar sergeant-majors stick calls for no comment.  The 25th Regiment, now the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, was raised in Edinburgh in 1688.