Cape Town Highlanders Regiment

Cape Town Highlanders
Active	24 April 1885 to present
Country	South Africa
Allegiance	Republic of South Africa  Republic of South Africa
Branch	South African Army  South African Army
Type	Infantry
Role	Mechanised infantry
Size	One battalion
Part of	South African Infantry Formation Army Conventional Reserve
Garrison/HQ	Castle Barracks Cape Town
Motto(s)	Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (No One Assails Me with Impunity) (Latin) Bydand (abiding, steadfast, an adjectival use of the Middle Scots present participle of bide)
March	Quick: Cock o' the North
Anniversaries	24 April (Regimental Day)
Battle honours	Awarded Bechuanaland 1896-97 South Africa 1899-1902 South West Africa 1915 Western Desert 1941-43 Gazala Alem Hamza Best Post Alamein Defence Alamein Box El Alamein Italy 1944-45 Casino II Chiusi Florence The Greve Gothic Line Monte Stanco Monte Pezza Sole/Caprara Po Valley Alem el Halfa Paliano Not Awarded Egypt 1916 Somme 1916 Delville Wood Arras Ypres 1917 Menin Road Messines 1918 Hindenburg Line Cambrai 1918 Pursuit to Mons France and Flanders 1918 Le Transloy Scarpe 1917 Kemmel Lys
Commanders
Current commander	Lt Col Marthinus Lott
Colonel of the Regiment	Colonel P. McLoughlin PVD, SM, MMM
Insignia
Tartan	Gordon
Company level Insignia
SA Mechanised Infantry beret bar circa 1992	SA mechanised infantry beret bar circa 1992

The Cape Town Highlanders Regiment is a mechanised infantry regiment of the South African Army. As a reserve unit, it has a status roughly equivalent to that of a British Army Reserve or United States Army National Guard unit.

Descendants of Scottish immigrants to South Africa raised the Cape Town Highlanders in 1885. On 24 April of the same year, their services were accepted – since then, this date has always been celebrated as the regiment's official birthday.

The regiment first saw active duty during the Bechuanaland Campaign that was fought in the Northern Cape in 1896.

At the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War the regiment was again mobilised for active duty. During the war the regiment or elements thereof took part in several actions, including the relief of Kimberley.

The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn became colonel-in-chief of the regiment in 1906, and the regiment's name was thus changed to the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn's Own Cape Town Highlanders. When the regiment was embodied in the Union Defence Force (UDF) Citizen Force in 1913, the title was changed to 6th Infantry (Duke of Connaught and Strathearn's Own Cape Town Highlanders).

During World War I the Cape Town Highlanders first fought against Germany in German South-West Africa, but was subsequently combined with the Transvaal Scottish Regiment to form the 4th South African Infantry (South African Scottish) Battalion, part of the 1st South African Brigade. (The South African Scottish, like various similar units, was formed by the South African government since a clause in the Defence Act of that time prohibited existing units from serving so far outside the country's borders.) After fighting in the Senussi Campaign in North Africa the brigade was shipped to France, where it took part in many battles between 1916 and 1918, including the famous Battle of Delville Wood. During its time on the Western Front, the South African Brigade and its Scottish heritage 4th Battalion, first served a lengthy stint with the British 9th (Scottish) Division, and following the Brigade's decimation in March 1918, was reconstituted and incorporated in September into the 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division until the end of the war.