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| One battalion
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| Private Army
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| Blair Atholl
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| The Duke of Atholl
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| Furth Fortune and Fill the Fetters
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The Atholl Highlanders is a Scottishregiment. However, uniquely in the United Kingdom, they are not part of the British Army. Instead, the regiment is in the private employ of the Duke of Atholl, making it the UK's, and indeed Europe's, only legal private army.
The original regiment was founded as the 77th Regiment of Foot by the 4th Duke in 1777, but disbanded only four years later following a mutiny. Nearly 50 years later, in 1839, the 6th Duke, as Lord Glenlyon, resurrected the regiment as a bodyguard that he took to a tournament in Ayrshire. Three years later, in 1842, the regiment escorted Queen Victoria during her tour of Perthshire. In 1844, when the Queen stayed as a guest of the Duke at Blair Castle, the regiment mounted the guard for the entire duration of her stay. In recognition of the service that the regiment provided during her two visits, the Queen announced that she would present the Atholl Highlanders with colours, thus giving the regiment official status. The regiment's first stand of colours was presented by Lady Glenlyon on behalf of the Queen in 1845. It received new colours in 1979 from Mrs David Butler, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Perthshire.
Although the regiment has never seen action, many of its number served with The Scottish Horse, the yeomanry regiment of Perthshire in the First and Second World Wars. After 1933, there was little activity, and it seemed the regiment would disappear until, in 1966, it was reformed by the 10th Duke. Today, the Atholl Highlanders is a purely ceremonial regiment, of approximately 125 men, including two pipe bands; one of these is resident with the regiment at Blair Atholl, while the other is the Duke of Atholl's 'Unit in the Colonies' and is resident in Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA. It wears the tartan of the Clan Murray of Atholl and has as its cap badge the clan arms approved by the Duke, which it wears along with a sprig of juniper, which is the clan's plant. The regiment is responsible for the defence of Blair Castle, the surrounding estate and its inhabitants, but in practice usually only parades once a year at the Atholl GatheringHighland Games, when the present Duke comes from his home in South Africa to host the games and inspect his men.
