A Regiment Saved

by Donald Fairgrieve (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $3.40

  This work is the inside story of the fight that ensued when on the 23rd of July 1991 Tom King, the Secretary-of-State for Defence, announced the details of the defence review Options for Change . The army was to be cut from 55 to 38 infantry battalions, with a disporportionately damaging effect on the Scottish Division. Many famous regiments were earmarked for amalgamation, and the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, a regiment that had served Britain well since it was raised in Edinburgh by the Earl of Leven in 1689, was one of those that would have disappeared as a result. But a proud Scottish regiment like the KOSB was not going to die an ignominious death at the hands of Whitehall bureaucrats without a fight. That fight began in August 1991 with the launch of Operation Borderer - the campaign to save the regiment. Whether or not it proved to be the last stand, those who took part were determined to make sure this battle was going to be a bloody one . This book details both the extraordinary lengths which the Government went to - most notably using MI5 to tap the phones of ex-servicemen involved in Operation Borderer - in order to put a stop to the campaign, and the heroic efforts of all those who supported the campaign and were ultimately responsible for the regiment's survival.