i'm bruce fumi and today i've brought
you to the blackwatch monument in
aberfeldy now don't switch off
i've got a mate who won't watch this
video because he says the black watch
were created for ethnic suppression
i've heard other political dogmatics say
no they were pro-government hanoverian
unionists
i've even heard some crazy americans
come out with a lot of nonsense about it
being offensive to wear black watch
tartan
me i'm neither militaristic hanoverian
or an ethnic suppressor but i'd wear
blackwatch tartan and i'll tell you why
incidentally you can subscribe to my
youtube channel the bottom right of this
video
but it's really not the point today
however
i would like to tell you a story
dogmatic politics ignores people
and i want to talk about a person called
farker shaw
and this is just the place to do it
you see after what some might call
jacobite rebellions in 1689 and 1715
hanoverian kings of great britain wanted
to clamp down in the highlands
they were seen as lawless and homeless
so many of these rebels
so a couple of things happened on
christmas day 1724
general george wade put in command the
georgia first forces in scotland
was given the task of building a network
of forts
and roads to connect them
now this is one of the highland
suppression bridges
that wade built
on the 12th of may of the following year
georgia first gave an order to raise six
independent volunteer highland companies
commanded
by his loyalist followers such as simon
lord lovett
john campbell carrick colin campbell
skip ness and others
these independent volunteers
are what would become the black watch
they were raised specifically to keep
order on the highlands
they were raised with express condition
that they want to leave the highlands
the role was specialist limited
and defined they paraded for the first
time in the other side of the bridge
and they impressed
my mate might blame highland klansmen
for volunteering to do military service
for the chief
yet he wouldn't blame those whose chief
was jacobite
but you may as well blame a blacksmith
for shooting horses
a miller for grinding corn or a cow for
given milk
a stag ruts it roars in andava and it
stands its ground
and farka shaw volunteered military
service
as was a custom now i've read that
farker shaw's dad
had fought for the jacobite cause at
killing cranky in 1689
and he was killed at the jacobite rising
in 1719.
his lands were four feet to the
campbells so parker shaw
was landless on campbell land but with
the honor
of a highland gent he was a crack shot
and an expert swordsman and he could for
bear
hunger cold and pain he was a real james
bond in the highlands
a proper double o salt in your porridge
when the black watch was converted from
independent companies to a regiment
he was recovering from a nasty axe wind
that he'd suffered battling cattle
thieves
it's very duties for which he
volunteered
he walked miles over mountain and
through bandit infested highland glen
carrying those wounds
he didn't have to nobody would have
blamed him
but he wanted to be with his comrades
and do his duty
now sometimes legends grow arms and legs
what we do know is that in late 1739 the
british government decided to reorganize
the six blackwatch companies
into highland regiment the command
structure will change
and it'll now be part of the british
army but don't worry that you don't read
or write in gaelic and that you don't
even speak english
the details of the document don't matter
just make your mark there and continue
serving king george ii as a regiment of
highlanders
here in the highlands just as he served
as father
and independent companies this
would become the 42nd highland regiment
but in the 5th of march 1743 great
britain was bogged down in the war of
the austrian succession
and the war secretary sent orders to
colonel hugh lord's temple the black
watch commander
my lord the king having thought fit to
order the highland regiment of footwear
off your colonel
to go on foreign service i
am commanded by his majesty to signify
to your lordship
it is his pleasure that you caused the
said regiment to be completed
with utmost expedition to the numbers
born upon their establishment
and to hold themselves in readiness to
march to beric as soon
as they shall receive the orders from
major general guest
where they will find roots for the
proceeding to the neighborhood of london
in order to be reviewed by his majesty
before they embark
i am my lord yours blah blah blah blah
blah
that's going to upset them best don't
see anything
so far sean as comrades were told that
they were to march to edinburgh
to take the review of a high ranking
officer
that's a bit irregular but they'll maybe
get some edinburgh rock and a visit to
the castle
why no when they get to edinburgh
they're told
actually change a plan the big parades
in beric upon tweed
hmm but they set off to beric
now the commanding officer knew from his
fifth of march instructions
that they were going for service abroad
four days after they left edinburgh news
reports seemed to believe that they were
going as far as london
of course when they got to berrick
farker and his pals themselves
are told that they're to march to london
now
there's murmuring in the ranks of the
idea crossing the border
but they're told that they're to be
reviewed by the king himself
the crossing may have looked like the
river tweed but it smelled distinctly
like a rat-filled rubicon
now maybe it was all just a
misunderstanding maybe the highlanders
knew that they were going abroad
or maybe the officers knew fine well
that this was a betrayal of the very men
from whom they demanded loyalty
they get to london and on the tuesday
the 14th of may
on finchley common they're reviewed not
by the king
but by the bridge builder general wade
the king
is neither on this island or indeed in
this country
now they know they've been duped where
is the king
why are they here how long has this been
planned
where are they sending us is this a
punishment what have we done
all sorts of rumors fly a large
contingent
come the conclusion that they're to be
sent to the west indies
now survival rates mean that it's
practically a death sentence
and for those so closely tied to these
mountains of scotland a death preceded
by hell and earth three days later on
the friday they're told to prepare to
march to the ships at greenwich on
saturday morning
that's it more than a hundred decide
there's no way that they're going to the
west indies
once more they gather and finchley
common this time
at midnight at one am they head north
back to the highlands that they were
never supposed to leave
in the first place
after 90 miles in two days they're
discovered
in a wood in northamptonshire they're
quickly surrounded by overwhelming force
and told
to surrender they refuse unless
they receive unconditional pardons
they've been dragged
out of the highlands they suspect to the
west indies they've been denied the
supplies
clothing and equipment that they were
promised most haven't even been given
weapons
and carry their own swords they'd rather
make a stand here
than die in a tropical island of disease
express messages are sent back and forth
but no pardons offered
and so the highlanders line up to make
the last stand in the woods wow
they're not kidding a british officer
comes to parley
on the monday morning the blackwatch
soldiers
agree to hand in their arms believing
that all will be pardoned
and they march back to the tower of
london the regiment
embarked for fighting in flanders and
the mutineers remained
in the tower now their pardons weren't
nearly as full and free as you might
think
there were life banishments to tropical
islands yes
some were sent to the very west indies
that sought to avoid
and three well
there had to be an example made
early in the morning of the 19th of july
the mutineers were made to stand in a
semi circle
in an open square in the tower of london
two corporals in a private were marched
out
made to kneel and saw the last dawn
just before a firing squad shot them
dead
corporal samuel macpherson corporal
malcolm mcpherson
and private farker shaw
the highland hero who withstood all
sorts of hardships to keep order for the
crown
who'd traveled over cold moors and slept
out with his wounds to get to muster
finally received this reward
when i take farker shawn at google and
the two million three hundred and sixty
thousand results
the top one was the british museum
the listing for farker shaw read details
individual british mail
life dates blank to 1743
biography highland soldier shot for
desertion 1743.
nothing else hardly a fitting epitaph
for the james bond of the highlands
there are however two memorials to
farker shaw
you see not many people were executed in
the tower of london
tower hill was a place of execution
a few were spared that public
humiliation
typically wives of henry viii and so in
the tower of london
there's a plaque to commemorate people
executed there
anne boleyn jane berlin
lady jane gray catherine howard
margaret poole countess of salisbury
robert devereaux
second earl of essex william lord
hastings
corporal malcolm macpherson
corporal samuel macpherson
and private farker show
buffer shaw has a better memorial than
that
and it's this one because when this
monument to the black watch was unveiled
in 1887 across the river from the park
where they'd first paraded 150 years
earlier
the original blackwatch soldier was made
in the likeness
of farker shaw
perthshire is blackwatch country
when i grew up in my granny's house
there was a picture of a blackwatch
soldier on the wall
it was a soldier from the great war in
1914 with his medals in his chest
and that kill so disdained by some
americans around his waist
i always remember that picture
my gran passed away and my aunt's passed
and now that picture hangs on my wall
i even know the name of the soldier
sergeant harry sharp
my grandad another thing i remember
is the first iraq war i remember the
night it broke out with shock and awe
there must have been so many iraqis
killed
and yeah it all seemed so distant and
then
some u.s servicemen were killed now
their lives were no more or less
important because they were on our side
then i heard the news that a british
soldier had been killed
oh that's not so good
but when they said it was a black watch
soldier i stopped still
he's one of us now i paid attention
i can even tell you his name corporal
barry stephen i remember his name
because i remember
him from church when we were young
it's not that one life's more important
than another
it's just that this is black watch
country
the black watch created for ethnic
suppression pro-hanoverian unionist
whatever epithets that you want to throw
don't really mean anything
to me politics changes
history twists and turns but there are
real people
and they're connected by an invisible
thread that runs
from farker shaw through harry sharp
and on to barry stevens and on
and on i for one am proud of the
blackwatch tartan that hangs from the
waist of my grandfather as he hangs on
my wall
now there will be a link to my video in
the trinite massacre on the screen now
you should watch it because
not everyone agreed to volunteer
i mean doc is going to be a lama alive
cheering
roster