As the oldest of the Highland regiments and the most decorated regiment in the British Army, the Black Watch has an enviable roster of battle honours and a mystique born of repeated heroic service in the service of king, queen and country. In the trenches of World War I, awestruck German troops dubbed its ferociously courageous, kilt-wearing soldiers 'the ladies from hell'. In deference to the occasions on which it has fought alongside the Americans, the Black Watch does not recognize its own Revolutionary War battle honours. This is the proud regiment of such diverse, even maverick, individuals as Lord Wavell, Ian Fleming and Eric Newby. Originating as a group of fighting men raised to keep 'watch' over the Anglo-Scottish border, formed into a regiment in 1739 and named for the dark tartan of its soldiers' kilts, the Black Watch has fought in almost every major conflict of nation and empire between 1745 and the present day. Victoria Schofield skilfully weaves the multiple strands of this story into an epic narrative of a heroic body of officers and men over two-and-a-half centuries of history. In her sure hands, the story of the Black Watch is no arid recitation of campaigns, dates and battle honours, but becomes a compelling and richly rewarding account of the development and vicissitudes of a remarkable institution - a modern-day chanson de geste recording and celebrating the deeds of a regiment that has played a unique role in British history. Volume 1 traces the story of the Black Watch from its early 18th-century beginnings to the eve of the Anglo-Boer War at the end of the 19th century.