The Battalion

There's a very good interview with Ronald Neame on the Criterion DVD.

Kenneway had been a young officer in the Argylls, and Neame was intending to film at the castle where the Argylls were based and use the men of the Argylls as extras. Permission was abruptly refused after the Colonel of the regiment read the script and saw a lurid book cover depicting Jock Sinclair with a "tarty actress" sitting on his lap. They were only allowed to film the castle exterior provided the image of the roof was altered to disguise it. The rest was shot at Shepperton.

The Regiment that stood in for the Argylls was, according to Neame, a Scottish regiment of the Territorial Army which was based in London, which happened to have a particularly good pipe band. I assume that the tartan used was theirs.

I'm a Yank and know little or nothing about the British military units involved, but it was obvious even to me that there were inside jokes being played with the script and dialogue re. the battalion.


>> Now, "the friendly ones" I would think would refer to the Gordons. Also, at the last mess party, Dusty, Jock, and Rattray all start singing "A Gordon for Me" which I doubt any Scottish soldier would do unless he was a Gordon. But at the end, Jock calls "Cock O' the North" (the Regimental March of the Gordon Highlanders) "a cheesy tune" and says "you'll no play that'". So I think maybe they aren't the Gordons after all. <<


...but there were sure as hell gentle, joking references to The Gordons all through the script.

I'm thinking mainly of the scene where Reddick was chewing out the orderly (Angus Lennie) who went to get tea too early.

He puts the orderly on report, asking his name... "Gordon, Herman E." is the reply!


GAVNO

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The battalion is clearly named in one scene in the film. They are fictitious, The 1st Battalion, The Campbell Highlanders. This can be seen on the coat worn by the regimental mascot at the ball. In the book, the regiment is based at Campbell Barracks. They are wearing a tartan especially created for the film. It is not Cameron of Erracht. It has 2 white stripes to the Cameron single yellow.Their cap badge, a Lion Rampant, on a St. Andrew's Cross, in a broken thistle border, is also fictitious. It does bear a passing resemblance to The London Scottish Regiment badge, who were the pipe band in the film. The band wore their own regimental pattern sporrans, and use their own drums, but wear the 'Campbell Highlanders' tartan for the film. The band did the same thing, 2 years ago, when the scene was re-filmed for the touring stage play of Tunes of Glory.
The battalion in the film is most certainly based on the 1st Gordons. There is a wealth of supporting information in Kennaway's biography. James Kennaway was commissioned into the Camerons [there was no availability in the family and local regiment, The Black Watch]but they had too many subalterns, so he was posted to the 1st Gordons in Germany. All the characters in the book/film were based on real officers, according to a brother officer who reviewed the book. In 1948, the battalion had THREE lieutenant-colonels, a hangover from the war. Jock Sinclair was based on Captain Jock Laurie, who had risen from the ranks in the 8th Argylls; 'a big red haired man, fond of his drink'.
Why does Roald Neame say Kennaway served in The Argylls? I have no idea. I cannot believe it was a memory lapse, as his knowledge of the film & the actors in that excellent interview on the DVD is otherwise perfect.
To complicate things, the same regiment, wearing same tartan and cap badge has appeared in a further film, 'Carry on up the Khyber', set in India in the 1890s. At that time they were called the '3rd Foot & Mouth'. Curiously, they wore Cameron pattern sporrans but with their own wee badge. Maybe the Carry On writers got the dates wrong, as the BIG DATE for name and number changes in the British Army was 1881.