A plea has gone to Borderers who are ex-Queen’s Own Highlanders, to join a campaign to get the regiment’s name restored to its own museum.
The Queen’s Own Highlanders, which was formed in 1961 by an amalgamation of the Seaforth and Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders regiments, was in turn merged with the Gordon Highlanders in 1994 to create The Highlanders.
Up until 2000, the regimental museum was known by the title Queen’s Own Highlanders (Seaforths & Camerons), as The Gordons have their own museum.
After that, the museum board and trustees changed the name to that of The Highlanders Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection).
However, a growing number of veterans who served with the Queen’s Own Highlanders want to see that particular name restored to the museum at Fort George, Inverness, and have called on any ex-members of the regiment living in the Borders to join their campaign and sign a petition.
“It was not until the £2.9m refurbishment that many were aware of the changes to the museum,” ex-corporal and a member of the campaign, Kenneth Reid, told The Southern. “Many members of the regiment, their friends and families have taken part in a petition now with over 1,700 names, and there will be former members of the regiment in the Borders and we hope they will join us in this campaign It would be wrong not to mention The Highlanders, Royal Regiment of Scotland (4 Scots) who are highly respected by Queen’s Own Highlanders.
“But our name is being airbrushed out of history and we want it back.”
There was a recent response from the museum board to the campaign, however, which felt that the title ‘The Highlanders’ was all-inclusive and better reflected 230 years of history, and not just the 33 years of The Queen’s Own Highlanders.
In a recent letter, Maurice Gibson of The Highlanders’ regimental headquarters, stated the Ministry of Defence had reaffirmed changing the museum’s name again would limit support available and would affect the museum’s sustainability and occupation of an MoD-owned property.