The '45: Flag of unknown Jacobite regiment but possibly of Kilmarnock's Footguards or Duke of Perth's Regiment

Captured Jacobite flag - regiment unknown but possibly of Lord Kilmarnock's Foot Guards or Earl of Perth's Regiment. Attribution is very speculative.

No.7 on the list of captured Jacobite flags says: "On a staff a white silk colours with the Stewart's Arms, God Save King". Any reconstruction based on that very short description is bound to be somewhat imaginative!

I have done two slightly different versions. Version one is based on Angus McBride's illustration in the Military Illustrated article on the Jacobite Army from July 1991 by Stuart Reid. At that time Reid suggested the flag perhaps belonged to Kilmarnock's Footguards. Version two with the different motto is based on the description in Stuart Reid's new book Like Troops of Hungry Wolves; The Battle of Culloden 16 April 1746 (this is a bit unfair to wolves but no doubt these are the mythical variety, not real wolves). In the new volume Reid suggests the flag may have belonged to the Duke of Perth's regiment; both attributions are highly speculative but we currently have nothing better.

Lord Kilmarnock's Footguards began as his Horseguards, when they were raised after Prestonpans by William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock. Cavalry were always in low numbers in the Jacobite army and during the invasion of England the Horseguards temporarily incorporated Strathallan's Horse. In February 1746 the Horseguards' horses were given to the newly arrived Fitzjames Horse (one squadron of which, about 130 strong but without their horses, had evaded the English fleet and arrived in Scotland. The rest of the regiment had been captured) and Kilmarnock's men became Footguards. Recruiting was always difficult, it seems. At Culloden the Footguards, by then only about 50 strong at the most, were involved towards the end of the fight - they were originally in the second line near the right flank - and Kilmarnock surrendered to the English. (Reid, in his account from 1991, claims that the Footguards did not live up to their name and fled without firing a shot. Kilmarnock was subsequently executed on Tower Hill.) In his most recent book Reid questions the likelihood of such an elaborate flag being made as late as February or early March 1746 and suggests that instead the flag may have been made for the Duke of Perth's regiment. See below.

The Duke of Perth's regiment was assembled by James Drummond, 3rd Earl of Perth. The first 160 men fought very well at Prestonpans. After that battle they took in many redcoats but most of them signed up only to desert afterwards. Many of the Duke of Perth's men were not volunteers and coercion was common; Christopher Duffy tells a tale of four under-gardeners at Drummond Castle who were told that if they did not sign up "they were to be turned out of the Duke's service". When they refused they were inveigled by a stratagem into joining the regiment against their will. For the invasion of England the regiment incorporated part of the Strathbogie regiment and made up to an impressive 750 men. At the time of the battle of Falkirk the regiment was involved in the abortive siege of Stirling Castle but subsequently served at Culloden where it held the far left of the front line, having originally been in the second line. By then they were probably only around 200 strong.