06/07/2026
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In July 1893 there was a unveiling of a new memorial in the centre of Inverness. Atop it stood a statue of a Queen’s Own Cameron Highlander.
1893 was 100 years since the regiment had first been raised during the French Revolutionary Wars by Allan Cameron of Erracht. Since then, it has faced repeated threats, including one within 2 years of its existence, of disbandment or amalgamation. Through it all, the Camerons had fiercely maintained their independence as a regiment that did things its own way.
The service of its men during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, had crafted for the regiment an excellent reputation, one which their successors had continued to live up, in conflicts such as the Crimean War and Indian Rising, and more recently with battles in Egypt and Sudan.
Through their deeds, they had won the favour the Queen Victoria who had granted them royal status and had personally intervened when the Army Reforms of 1881 had seen the prospect of amalgamation with the Scots Guard and the certain loss of any previous regimental identity.
Instead, 1881 had been a victory for the regiment, they were now assigned a regional recruitment territorial area, based around Inverness-shire, Lochaber and the Western Isles, the spiritual home of the regiment. New Camerons recruits would do their training at the depot at Cameron Barracks in Inverness, and thus with the 100-year anniversary arriving, it was decided Inverness would be the home of the new memorial.
That memorial still stands today, as do the names of Camerons who fell in Egypt and Sudan, in front of the modern-day Inverness train station. If you should find yourself in the Highland capital, perhaps take a moment to visit and look upon the proud Highlander atop it. He represents the first 100 years of incredible, and in many cases sacrificial, service the very real Highlanders of the Camerons gave to their country.
