73rd and Ceylon

Records of the 73rd Regiment 1780 - 1851 by Richard Cannon

London: Parker, Furnivall and Parker, 1851 pps 24-33

A Short History of The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) 1725 - 1907 by A G Wauchope

Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1908. pps 61-62.

The Black Watch by Eric and Andro Linklater

London: Barry and Jenkins, 1977 p116

After four years of this life, the 73rd left, reluctantly it would seem, for many men bought themselves out and settled down in Australia. The remainder sailed to Ceylon, whose inhabitants had begun hacking the limbs off British subjects. Altough Kandy was taken in 1815, unrest in that mountainous country did not cease with the capture of its capital. Among several gallant exploits, the cool action of Lance Corporal McLaughlin's patrol, ambushed in a jungle valley, seems especially notable. Leaving part of his section to cover the bodies of two men who had fallen, McLaughlin fought his way out to get reinforcements, which he then led back in time to rout the ambushers. The rebellion reached a new height of frenzy, when someone purloined the Buddha's tooth from its niche in a temple in Kandy, but fortunately a subaltern of the 73rd arrested the thief and returned the molar to its cavity. Thereafter peace returned to the island.

Special Thanks to Thomas B. Smyth, Archivist, The Black Watch Regt. HQ, for providing the above, and the photograph of the facsimile of the Ceylon Medal 1818 from their museum.