We will pass, but the Standard of 4RTR will remain

           

Last week I attended a moving and emotional service in the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, where the Standard of the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (Scotland’s Own) was re-dedicated in a simple but memorable ceremony.

For those of you who may not be quite up to speed, the Fourth – more commonly known as 4RTR – was one of four Royal Tank Regiments still in existence when I joined the Regiment as a wet-behind-the-ears subaltern in 1980.

I won’t go into too much detail, but there is nothing quite as challenging as presenting yourself as a brand-new Lieutenant in front of a troop of hardened Scottish soldiers. I survived, and they were very kind to me in all sorts of ways. I only hope I was as kind to them in return.

Nowadays, rank and position are largely things of the past and we are firm and equal friends. I still address the Generals as “General”, though. Old habits die hard.

SCOTLAND’S ROYAL KIRK

The Canongate Kirk was founded in 1688, with the present church completed in 1691, and occupies a special place in Scottish public life. Its parish includes the Palace of Holyrood house and the Scottish Parliament, while it also serves Edinburgh Castle.

To all intents and purposes it is Scotland’s Royal Kirk, particularly when the Royal Family is in residence at Holyrood house, and it has a long association with the British Army.

So it was a fitting place for the old soldiers of 4RTR to gather.

Our Regiment, of which we remain extraordinarily proud, disappeared from the British Army’s order of battle in 1993 when it amalgamated with the 1st Royal Tank Regiment. Subsequent amalgamations eventually left the Royal Tank Regiment we know today.

But regiments are curious things. They can disappear from an order of battle without disappearing from the people who served in them.

Last week proved that.

110 YEARS SINCE THE TANK WENT TO WAR

The date made the occasion even more significant.

The service took place on 15 September, exactly 110 years after tanks first went into action during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on the Somme in 1916.

The Fourth’s antecedent was D Company of the Heavy Section, Machine Gun Corps, part of the force that took those extraordinary new machines into battle.

One of the most famous reports of that day came from a Royal Flying Corps observer overhead, who described seeing a tank making its way through Flers with British soldiers following behind it and cheering.

The tank was D7, Dinnaken, commanded by Second Lieutenant Stuart Hastie.

Hastie was born in Edinburgh and educated at George Watson’s College. He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions during the battle.

So, 110 years later, there was a pleasing symmetry in the Standard of Scotland’s Tank Regiment being re-dedicated in Edinburgh.

FLOWERS OF THE FOREST

Almost inevitably, the Canongate Kirk service, conducted by the Reverend Neil Gardner, included the lament Flowers of the Forest, beautifully played by piper Jim Cooke.

Jim, incidentally, together with his fellow piper Scotty Bell, played at my wedding some 26 years ago. Life has a strange habit of bringing people back together in unexpected places.

Flowers of the Forest is a haunting, mournful tune, as it is designed to be. Hearing it again made me reconsider my long-held instruction that it should be played at my funeral. I have decided against it. It is just too sad.

THE LAST GREAT GATHERING?

Around 80 former comrades-in-arms attended the ceremony, a remarkable turnout of men who had served together many years ago. Looking around the Kirk, however, there was an uncomfortable thought that I suspect occurred to more than a few of us. This might be the last great gathering of ex-4RTR soldiers. The years advance relentlessly. Most of us are now in our late 60s and 70s, myself included, and the ranks inevitably become thinner as time passes.

That is the way of things.But there was something deeply reassuring about seeing the Standard re-dedicated and knowing where it will remain.

THE REGIMENT REMAINS

The memory of Scotland’s Tank Regiment is, I believe, secure for future generations.

Anyone wanting to find it need only visit the Canongate Kirk.

Look high on the left-hand wall above the pews and there hangs the Standard of the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (Scotland’s Own).

Those of us who served beneath it will eventually be gone. The young subalterns, hardened Scottish tank soldiers, sergeants major, commanding officers and Generals will all pass into history.

But the Standard will remain.

Perhaps, years from now, somebody will look up at it and wonder who these men were, where they served and why their Regiment mattered so much to them.

And perhaps that is enough.

Regiments are more than administrative units on an Army organisation chart. They are shared experiences, friendships, loyalties and memories passed from one generation to another.

4RTR disappeared from the British Army’s order of battle more than three decades ago.

Yet last week, sitting among 80 old comrades in the Canongate Kirk, it didn’t feel as though it had disappeared at all.

We will all be gone soon enough.

The memory will remain.

Perhaps that is the true meaning of immortality.

Lt Col Stuart Crawford is a political and defence commentator and former Army officer. Sign up for his podcasts and newsletters at DefenceReview.uk.

 

Lt Col Stuart Crawford is a defence analyst and former army officer. Sign up for his podcasts and newsletters at www.DefenceReview.uk

 

 

Lt Col Stuart Crawford’s latest book Tank Commander (Hardback) is available now

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