"...At last the enemy caught sight, and opened a very heavy and well-directed fire on us, which we had to pass till we got to the turning-point. Then we moved down in line upon them, and opened fire on their guns, which were in a very strong position in a village. We silenced two with our artillery, but all we could do we couldn't get at the third heavy gun, it was so well masked. The 78th were ordered to charge and take the gun. I never saw anything so fine. The men went on, with sloped arms, like a wall; till within a hundred yards not a shot was fired. At the word 'Charge', they broke just like a eager pack of hounds, and the village was taken in a instant..."  Watch video clip Major-General Sir Henry Havelock Cawnpore, Indian Mutiny, July 17, 1857

The 78^th Highland Regiment of Foot were raised in 1793 by Colonel Francis Humberston MacKenzie, Lord Seaforth (Chief of the Clan MacKenzie) at Fort George some fifteen miles north east of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. Initially a single regiment of foot, a second battalion was added a year later but they were merged in 1796 while stationed in South Africa. In 1804, a second battalion was again raised by Major-General Alexander MacKenzie Fraser, brother-in-law of the regiment’s founder. In 1817, the two battalions were once more merged and finally, in 1881, the 78th became the 2nd Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders.

During the eighty-eight years from its foundation to its disappearance as a distinct regiment, the 78th, in its various formations, saw service in a dozen foreign countries, accumulated an enviable array of battle honours and saw eight of its officers and men awarded Britain’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, as well as a V.C. awarded to the regiment as a whole.