Indomitable Colonel

Even during his lifetime innumerable legends had grown up around Lieutenant General Sir Alan Cameron of Erracht (1750-1828), sole founder and first Colonel of the 79th Regiment, the Cameron highlanders. Disentangling fact from much cherished fiction has required patient and tactful research by the author, but the story it reveals is just as absorbi ng as any legend. Born in the Highlands shortly after the breaking of the clans, he left for America as a young man after killing his challenger in a duel. The oubreak of hostilities in the colonies found him part of a Loyalist intelligence network. He was taken prisoner, escaped and was recaptured several times before being repatriated. In London he married a young girl, enraging her father. He played a leading role in the repeal of the "Unclothing Act" which forbade the wearing of Highland dress, and then he turned his attention to raising a regiment of Highlanders for the British Army. He had the support of Dundas and Pitt but was secretly opposed by their enemies and a rival faction within Clan Cameron. Despite this, the regiment was raised and he served with it with distinction over the next 20 years in the long wars with France. His achievement is the more remarkable because he was neither a peer with vast estates from which to recruit nor a clan chief.