The formation of the Highlanders took place on 17 September 1994 at Edinburgh when the 1st Battalion paraded before the Colonel of the Regiment [Lieutenant Sr Jeremy MacKenzie, KCB, OBE: Commander of NATO's Rapid Reaction Corps] at Dreghorn Barracks. The band represents over two hundred years of pride and tradition through the amalgamation of the Queen's Own Highlanders [Seaforth and Camerons] and the Gordon Highlanders. In turn, the Queen's Own Highlanders were the descendants of three famous Highland regiments raised in the late 18th Century.

At the amalgamation ceremony, members of the Regiment received their new Stag's Head cap badges as their famous old regiments passed into the annals of British military history. The new badge "stag's head carboshed" which formed the principal fedature of the Seaforth Highlanders badge is from the Coat of Arms of the MacKenzies of Seaforth, and derives from the old annual feudal reddenda, by the Clan Chief to the Sovereign, of a stag. The Thistle ensigned with the Imperial Crown is the Badge of Scotland as sanctioned in 1707, and granted to the 79th Cameron Highlanders by Queen Victoria in 1873.

The Regiment's motto, Cuidich'n Rich [Help the King] is now the only Gaelic slogan used by the modern Regular Army, and was used from the late 18th Century by the 78th Highlanders and their successors, the Seaforth Highlanders.

Soldiers of the new regiment will be known as Highlanders and wear- with the exception of the Pipes and Drums- the Gordons' kilt.

Because of the importance of the predecessor regiments' tartans (79th MacKenzie of Seaforth, 79th Cameron of Erracht, and 92nd Gordon) to the regiments and their regimental areas, it was decided they must all be perpetuated in the new regiment. This arrangement allows every member of the Highlanders to wear all three tartans as a part of their uniform.

The primacy of the Queen's Own Highlanders cap badge has been balanced by giving equivalent prominence to the 92nd Gordon tartan. Thus, the regiment, less pipers and drummers, will wear the Gordon kilt and a patch of Gordon tartan in their balmoral bonnets. The entire regiment wears trews (trousers) of the MacKenzie tartan.

Pipers, in addition to the Cameron kilt, wear a plain blue Glengarry headdress with a Golden Eagle's feather and a green doublet trimmed with gold braid wings. A Cameron tartan full plaid covers the doublet. The drummers' uniform is similar with the exception of the headdress- a five-foxtailed feather bonnet.

The new regiment is the holder of over 185 Battle Honours inherited from its predecessors including America 1778-83, Assaye, Egypt, Waterloo, Crimea, Balaclava, Indian Mutiny, Kandahar, Delhi, Tel-el-Kebir, Omdurman, South Africa, North-West Frontier of India, Mons, Loos, Somme, Arras, El Alamein, Kohina, Anzio, Burma, NorthWest Europe 1940 1944-45, Borneo 1963, and The Gulf.

The Highlanders Battle Honours truly represent the military achievements of the British Army throughout history.

In 1995, the Pipes and Drums made their first appearance outside the United Kingdom, at the Caledonian Club of San Francisco's Highland Games at Pleasanton, California. Leading the Pipes and Drums at this time was Pipe Major Alasdair Gillies. Pipe Major Gillies is one of the most noted of all solo pipers in the world and has competed several times in the St. Andrews Society of San Francisco's prestigious Dan Reid Memorial. He started piping at the age of nine and was taught by his father, Norman, himself a piper of note. Born in Glasgow, he later moved to Ullapool in Wester Ross, where he joined the Queen's Own Highlanders Cadet Battalion Pipes and Drums, eventually becoming Pipe Major.

In 1980 he entered the Army as a junior soldier, and joined the 1st Battalion Queen's Own Highlanders in 1982, where his piping instruction was continued by Pipe Major Iain Morrison and the late Captain Andrew Pitkeithly, both exceptional pipers and Gold Medal winners. He has had many successes at piping competitions over the years and in 1986 he won every event he entered at the Northern Meeting in Inverness. A regular competitor at the Argyllshire Gathering, Pipe Major Gillies won the March and the Strathspey and Reel in 1985, the Former Winners March, Strathspey and Reel in 1987. In 1989 he won the coveted Highland Society of London's Gold Medal at Oban. Alasdair has been invited to compete seven times at the Glenfiddich Piping Championships, winning in 1991 after having been runner-up in 1988 and 1989. In 1992 he won the Gold Clasp at the Argyllshire Gathering twice, and in 1994 won the Former Winners March, Strathspey and Reel for a record-equalling sixth time. He has also won the senior Piobaireachd at the Argyllshire Gathering twice and the Braemar Gold Medal. Also, in 1994, he was the first winner of the Pipe Major Donald MacLeod Memorial Competition in Stornoway.

When the Queen's Own Highlanders and the Gordon Highlanders amalgameted to form The Highlanders, Alasdair Gillies became their first Pipe Major. His wife Pauline comes from Kyle of Lochalsh and they have a son, Norman.

Peter Toole- who has served in both the Australian and British Armies- is the Regimental Drum Major. Drum Major Toole was born in Helensburgh, Dumbartonshire and emigrated to Australia with his family when he was four years old. He started drumming in Australia at the age of twelve and was taught by Alick MacCormack- of the City of Glasgow Police Band- who was a close friend of the doyen of modern drumming music, Alex Duthart. When he was eighteen he joined the Australian Army and served six years with the Royal Australian Regiment before returning to Scotland.

Peter Toole joined the Queen's Own Highlanders in 1982 and served with them all over the world including the Falkland Islands, The Gulf, Germany, and Edinburgh. He qualified with distrinction as a Drum Major at Gordon Barracks, Brige of Don, Aberdeen and spent two tours at the Scottish Division School of Music. He is known as a very competent instructor and composer, and has twice written the drum beatings for the Edinburgh Tattoo.

Shortly after the Queen's Own Highlanders amalgamated with the Gordon Highlanders to form tThe Highlanders, Peter Toole was appointed their Drum Major. He is also Second-In-Command of the Battalion's Machine Gun Platoon which is the Band's operational role.

His wife Fiona comes from Dundee and they have two children, Mhairi and Callum.

Also appearing with the Pipes and Drums is Pipe Sergeant Lewis Barclay. Sergeant Barclay was born and brought up in Keith in the Northeast of Scotland, and started piping with the Moray Junior Pipe Band and the Strathsia Pipe Band.

He joined the Army as a Junior Soldier and, after eighteen months at the Piping School of Music, joined the 1st Battalion The Gordon Highlanders with whom he has served in Europe, Japan, Northern Ireland, and the Falkland Islands.

Lewis has been fortunate to have been instructed on the pipes by Pipe Major Jimmie MacGregor and the late Captain Andrew Pitkeithly- both Gold Medalists- and is presently continuing his tuition under Doctor Jack Taylor, a 1973 Gold Medalist. Lewis has competed since 1987 and has placed numerous times in both Piobaireachd and light music competitions. He qualified as Pipe Major at the Army School of Bagpipe Music in 1989 and looks forward to a Pipe Major's appointment in the near future.

As is the case with all British Army pipers and drummers, Sergeant Barclay is also a professional soldier. He is qualified to instruct in small arms and is a qualified Assault Pioneer Platoon Commander and Machine Gun Platoon Commander, a rare achievement for one who joined the Army as a piper.

Sergeant Barclay has a brother who joined the Army as a drummer in the Gordon Highlanders, but is currently serving as Drum Major of the First Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Lewis' wife Joyce is also from Keith and they have two sons- Gordon and Darren.

On 14 September 1994, The Gordons and The Queen's Own Highlanders met for the final time at Telford's Bridge over the River Spey at Craigellachie. Commanding Officers, Colour Parties, and ceremonial guards from both regiments were accompanied by the massed Pipes and Drums of the Gordons and the Queen's Own Highlanaders as they marched over the bridge and vanished into the mists of time.