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Where did the connection come from


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The St Valery one is pretty obvious given the capture of much of the Highland Division there in 1940. As for the others, my recollection is that these are products of the 70s or thereby when Councilors, officials and those who considered themselves the Good and the Great of Inverness were keen on creating opportunities for a few free jollies.

In this era of austerity, Town Twinning beanos seem to have taken something of a back seat... and very rightly so!

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Another memory of the 51st

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I remember being taken to Perth by my parents in October 1967 not to mark the disbandment of the Highway Decorators (which the HD were called on account of the number of divisional logos they painted at the roadside) but for a divisional reunion on the 25th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein, which was the baptism of fire for the "new" division after most of the old one had been captured at St Valery in 1940. That explains the gap on the memorial from 1940 - 42 which was the period during which the HD was reforming and spent much of the time doing home defence at locations as diverse as Strathpeffer and Aberdeenshire. I also note that the WW1 battle honours don't start until 1915 which suggests that the original HD may have been a Territorial Division since these formations tended not to go to the front in the earliest days of the war. This is also consistent wirth the date of formation being listed as 1908.

That reunion was a tremendous occasion, especially to a 14 year old, and the star of the show was Montgomery, who was still a legend in these days and did a lap of honour in a jeep to universal acclaim.

I also remember the get together in the hotel that night where I was given cider (considered to be a mild :crazy: alcoholic drink at the time)  by my parents who were certainly not tee total but not big drinkers either. Consequently this was also my first sight of "big drinkers" in action because some of these veterans could certainly knock it back - something I hadn't previously witnessed on the part of my parents and their relatively abstemious Inverness friends.

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This photo has the ambience of the early days of WW2 as opposed to WW1. From the presence of the Provost it looks as if this may be a salute outside Inverness Town Hall (it sort of looks like High St in the background but is this even Inverness though?) It's therefore tempting to believe that this may be the original Highland Division off to become part of the BEF in 1939 in advance of capture at St Valery and that this may hence be the 4th Camerons. However the tartan doesn't look very much like Cameron and possibly more like Black Watch. It could conceivably also be something to do with the re-formation of the HD later in 1940, but I don't think that kind of tunic in particular lasted long into WW2.

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Stated to be the Cameron Highlanders at the start of WW2. Met at Bellfield Park and marched through the town to the Train station

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Good to have that confirmed. All that was concerning me was that the tartan on what isn't all that clear a photo didn't look like Cameron, but clearly it must be. This will therefore very probably be the 4th Camerons going to join the BEF in France on the outbreak of WW2. Consequently many of the men pictured would have spent most of the war in POW camps in Poland after St Valery because I recollect that the 4th Camerons weren't one of the battalions absent from St Valery on other business in June 1940. Good pic of Bellfield Park as well!

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I can't read many of the battle honours nor the name of the regiment but I suspect this may well also be the Camerons. On the Union Flag I certainly see Rhine, Gothic Line and Akarit where the 51st HD, of which several Cameron battalions were a part, fought in 39-45. The blue one may contain names which are older, including the Peninsular War (1808-14), in which the "79th of foot" were very probably involved.

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