badge, headdress, British, Seaforth Highlanders

stag's head in white metal, below which is a scroll marked 'CUIDICH'N RIGH' (Help the King).

The predecessor Regiment was raised in 1778 at Elgin by Kenneth Mackenzie, Earl of Seaforth, and was named the 78th (Highland) Regiment of Foot, or Seaforth's Own. In 1786 the Regiment was re-designated 72nd (Highland) Regiment of Foot.The badge at this time comprised a royal crown above a chequer patterned ball with sprays of thistles either side, and a three-part scroll split between top and bottom, reading DUKE OF ALBANY'S / OWN / HIGHLANDERS. A variant of the badge had additional foliage behind the two lower scrolls. The sub-title "Duke of Albany's Own" was granted to the Regiment by George IV, whose brother, Prince Frederick, had been officially appointed Commander in Chief of the British Army in 1798. He had been created Duke of York and Albany and Earl of Ulster in 1784. The association led to no alteration to the cap badge but did contribute some sixty years later to the design of post-amalgamation collar badges. In the Cardwell / Childers reforms of 1881 the 72nd and the 78th Regiments were merged to create, in January that year, the Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs), changed in November the same year to The Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, The Duke of Albany's Own). At this time the badge adopted was the stag's head and motto scroll, taken from a badge of the Clan Mackenzie, a suitable choice for a pair of Regiments both raised by that family. The badge is said to date back to 1263 when a Clan member rescued King Alexander II from an attack by a stag and comprises an antlered stag's head, with no neck, a scroll below, CUIDICH 'N RIGH (Help the King). This was the only Gaelic motto to be worn by any regiment in the British Army. An alternative explanation is that the design stemmed from the annual feudal tribute of a stag that the Mackenzies of Seaforth were obliged to give the Crown as payment for their lands. In 1961 the Regiment amalgamated with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders to form the Queen's Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Cameron), a Regiment in name only, being part of the Highland Brigade and wearing the Brigade badge. In 1969 the Brigade was broken up and the Regiment gained its independence, with a new badge. This was the original Seaforth stag and motto but with a crowned sprig of thistle between the horns, deriving from the Camerons' collar badge.