ARmy Rumour SErvice

**Draft Dodger** · 02-05-2012, 11:33

Originally Posted by The_Duke

It is a wonderful self fulfilling prophesy.

1. The press and Old Comrades keep telling everyone that Scottish units are up for the chop in a vain attempt to gain public support.
2. Scottish people decide not to join Scottish units because they think they will be up for the chop. Why join something which is going to be cut?
3. Scottish units are therefore consistently under recruited and need the majority of the F&C recuits coming out of infantry training to keep them manned.
4. Poor recruiting and manning means that they do not compare well to other infantry units, so they are liable to be in the frame for any cuts on the horizon.
5. Return to point 1.

i'll stand by for outrage and just to point out this is hearsay and stuff i remember from a tv documentary (i dont care enough to find links for anyone).

on the STV (possibly) documentary "Scots at War" it said that the UK armed forces still recruited disproportionately from scotland (you get more service men and women per 100,000 head of pop than England, Wales or N. Ireland). the hearsay bit comes from a mate who is on FTRS driving a brigadier who works in recruiting who told him that a higher % of scots go into the corps and his theory for this was that the standard of education in scotland was higher which led to more jocks doing technical trades.

**pimpernel** · 02-05-2012, 11:34

Originally Posted by CaptainPlume

What on earth is the RSDGs? Royal Scots Dinner Group? Really Silly Drinking Game?

I make no claims to knowing much about The North British Dragoons, but I remember well that the abbreviation is SCOTS DG...

Sorry it's a 70s thing! Having done a PO stint with them and then had them with us in 3 Div as our Armour they have always been RSDGs ,certainly to me.

**CaptainPlume** · 02-05-2012, 11:38

Or perhaps it's because the Scots are so keen to leave the place for somewhere more politically stable & generally agreeable like Afghanistan

**pimpernel** · 02-05-2012, 11:41

Originally Posted by CaptainPlume

Or perhaps it's because the Scots are so keen to leave the place for somewhere more politically stable & generally agreeable like Afghanistan

In the days of the Empire the Scots were always first on the boat, so nothing really changes!

**CaptainPlume** · 02-05-2012, 11:44

Originally Posted by pimpernel

In the days of the Empire the Scots were always first on the boat, so nothing really changes!

And where would the Empire have got to without irascible but kindly red-haired and redder-faced chaps (mainly engineers) with a whisky throat & named "Mac"?

**pimpernel** · 02-05-2012, 11:44

And those entrepreneurs/Soldiers who ran the Trading Companies. Rather think the EIC was stacked with those nabobs.

**CaptainPlume** · 02-05-2012, 11:47

Originally Posted by pimpernel

No change then, In the days of the Empire it was always Scots who were first on the boats. Sod all for the Country foke to stay behind for a bit like the Micks!

My lot were part of The Wild Geese, fought for Napoleon & the family name is on the Arc de Triomphe, a fact I kept very quiet indeed in my early days in the Mob.

**Draft Dodger** · 02-05-2012, 11:47

whoever came up with the idea to recruit and export thousands of us to shoot people armed with viciously sharp pieces of mango rather than fighting us themselves must've been very pleased with himself.

**pimpernel** · 02-05-2012, 11:52

Originally Posted by CaptainPlume

My lot were part of The Wild Geese, fought for Napoleon & the family name is on the Arc de Triomphe, a fact I kept very quiet indeed in my early days in the Mob.

My lots clan was outlawed and then after the Union in 1707 discovered dosh could be made with the fish fleet who traded with the Spice Islands. In the 1800s we ran a Plantation or two and did quite well with sugar. The defence case on them rests Milud.
The other crew joined the EIC.

**Porridge_gun** · 02-05-2012, 11:55

If the RSDG are disbanded I do hope they have a further segment of Edinburgh castle cornered off with a photographic montage of the big red alcohol fuel bulbous noses the Regiment has grown over the years.

Every Scots DG bloke I ever met had an Albert Tatlock hooter, that looked like a dog had been chewing on it from the moment they were born.