THE OTHER WEEK I attended a moving and emotional service in the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh in which the Standard of the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (Scotland’s Own) was re-dedicated in a simple but memorable church service.
For those of you who may not be quite up to speed, the Fourth, or more commonly 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 detail, but there is nothing quite as challenging as presenting yourself as a brand new Lieutenant in front of your troop of hardened Scottish soldiers!
I survived, and they were very kind to me in all sorts of ways. I only hope that I was as kind to them in return. Nowadays rank and position is all in the past and we are firm and equal friends. I still address the Generals as “General” though; old habits die hard.
Anyway, the Canongate Kirk, which was founded in 1690 and is a congregation of the Church of Scotland, supports a parish including the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Scottish Parliament. It is also the parish church of Edinburgh Castle. To all intents and purposes it is the Royal Kirk in Scotland, particularly when the Royal Family is in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and is also the British army’s premier church north of the Border.
Which is why we ex-4th Royal Tank Regiment old soldiers congregated there. Our Regiment, of which we are all extraordinarily proud, disappeared from the British army’s order of battle in 1993, and eventually became a constituent part of what is now the solitary, single-battalion, Royal Tank Regiment.
What made the event even more significant was that it took place on 15th September, exactly 110 years after the first tanks went into action for the first time at Flers-Courcelette during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, during the Great War. The Fourth’s antecedent, D Company of the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps, led the line that day.
A Royal Flying Corps observer later reported that “a tank is walking down the High Street of Flers with the British Army cheering behind”. That tank was D7 ‘Dinnaken’ commanded by 2Lt Stuart Hastie. Born and educated in Edinburgh, Hastie was awarded the Military Cross for his actions.
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 (who incidentally, together with his fellow piper Scotty Bell, had played at my wedding some 26 years before). It is a haunting, mournful tune, as it is designed to be. On hearing it again I decided that I could not have it played at my funeral as I have long wished; it is just too sad.
In total about 80 of we former comrades-in-arms were at the ceremony, a great turnout of those who had served together. We chatted at the time that this might well be the last great gathering of ex-4RTR soldiers, for the years advance relentlessly and most are in their late 60s and 70s now, myself included.
But the memory of Scotland’s Tank Regiment is, I believe, secure for future generations. All they have to do is visit the Canongate Kirk, look high on the left hand wall above the pews (see above), where the Standard of 4RTR hangs proudly. We may all be gone, too soon sadly, but the memory will remain. Perhaps that is the true meaning of immortality.
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Photos courtesy of the author.
