Page 31 - Demo

ARTIFACTS FROM THE BLACK WATCH (ROYAL HIGHLAND REGIMENT) COLLECTION
SIR THOMAS STIRLING OF ARDOCH AND STROWAN
The painting is of Sir Thomas Stirling, one of the most important Black Watch soldiers in the late eighteenth century. He served in a period when the Regiment became an integral part of the British Army with the Highland soldier serving around the world and no longer acting as the local ‘policemen’ of the early Independent Companies. The painting is attributed to Benjamin Marshall (1768-1835). We have no date for the painting but the artists active years suggest it was produced after Stirling left the 42nd.
Sir Thomas Stirling was born in Perthshire in 1733. At the age of 14 he received his first commission as an ensign with the Scots Brigade, fighting in Holland during The War of Austrian Succession. By 1757 he was a Captain and raised a company of the 42nd for fighting the French in North America. Over the next 20 years, much of Stirling’s service would be in North America. He led the mammoth task of taking the Regiment across country to Illinois and accepting the transfer of Fort de Chartres in August 1765. It would be June 1766 before they made it back to New York. The following year Stirling and the Regiment were moved to Ireland for
garrison duty. After a decade in North America he was relieved to be leaving saying ‘for I am heartily tired of this country as is every officer in it.’ At this point the opportunities for advancement were felt to be in Europe rather than North America.
Despite this he would be return as a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1776 to fight in the American War of Independence and was held in high regard by the British and Americans. His days of active service ended in 1780 after receiving a bad leg wound at The Battle of Connecticut Farms.
By the end of the war some of the Regiment had not been back to Scotland for over twenty years. Many chose to stay in Canada where they saw opportunities to buy land and set up a new life in a country they were now more familiar with than Scotland. Stirling, however, was by now a highly regarded soldier from a prominent Perthshire family. His prospects back in Scotland were still good and he would reach the rank of General in 1801, by which time he had also succeeded his elder brother to the Baronetcy of Ardoch. He held these titles until his death in 1808.
31