HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY
Highland Light Infantry.
RAISING OF THE 71ST REGIMENT OF FOOT
The 71st Highland Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) was raised in 1777 by Major-General John Mackenzie, Lord MacLeod, from an independent company formed in 1771. The regiment was first numbered as the 73rd Regiment of Foot, and it was later renumbered as the 71st in 1786.
RAISING OF THE 74TH REGIMENT OF FOOT
Sir Archibald Campbell of Inverneill raised the 74th Highlanders in 1787 as one of the regiments raised to counter threats in India. It was a Campbell regiment raised in Argyll with headquarters in Glasgow, featuring eleven officers of that name among the originals, including the Colonel himself.
THE AMALGAMATION
The 74th Regiment of Foot returned to Britain by 1881, in time to be amalgamated with the 71st Regiment of Foot, with whom they had served in India and the Peninsula, to form The Highland Light Infantry. At the Cardwell reforms of 1881 the 71st and the 74th were linked as the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Highland Light Infantry (as the 71st had been known since 1809). In 1923 the Regiment officially became known as the ‘City of Glasgow Regiment. Both regiments brought distinguished service records and unique traditions that would continue in the new Highland Light Infantry.