Perspectives On The Front

The other day I was trolling through the archives—reviewing documents relating to the 16th Battalion—when I came across a one-page note (shown below) written by Norman Cameron, a private (later Lieutenant) in the Canadian Scottish. The note was addressed to an unnamed officer and concerned proposed mottos for the Battalion.

In H.M. Urquhart’s history of the Canadian Scottish, published in 1932 and generally regarded as the definitive account of the Battalion in the War, there is but a single sentence devoted to the selection of the motto:

“The motto, suggested by Private (Captain M.C.) A.M. MacLennan and Private (Lieutenant) Norman Cameron, translated, means ready for the fight: literally the instinctive readiness of the man apt of speech or animal crouching for its prey.”

The sentence referencing the motto is shared with the selection of the badge: “a St. Andrew’s cross and surmounted by the coronet of a Royal Princess. . . The badge was chosen in anticipation of the designation The Princess Mary’s Canadian Highlanders being granted—inadvertently [it] was not amended when the application for it was removed.”

Cameron’s note, however, shows that a number of alternatives were considered, in English and Gaelic. He also compares the English wording and Gaelic, and considers how inspiring they sound.

As someone who has struggled with Gaelic road signs in Scotland and Ireland, and who clings tenuously but passionately to both his Irish and Scottish roots, I appreciate Cameron’s observation that “[the Gaelic] phrases are more inspiring and enthusiastic than the English”. While I’m not sure I agree with his concession regarding “Forward”, I certainly agree with the conclusion of the “men of the regiment” and his for the final selection. . . although you could question my objectivity.

Footnote¹

1. The banner image for this post is a picture of the 16th Battalion badge – a part of a larger engraving that I found on the wall in Bentata where the Canadian Scottish were staged before the attack on Vimy Ridge. ↩︎