Highland Light Infantry The Highland Light Infantry was a regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1959 . In 1923 the regimental title was expanded to the Highland Light Infantry ( City of Glasgow Regiment ) . The regiment was formed as part of the Childers reforms on 1 July 1881 by the amalgamation of the 71st ( Highland ) Light Infantry and the 74th ( Highland ) Regiment of Foot as the city regiment of Glasgow , absorbing the local Militia and Rifle Volunteer units . Its exact status was a somewhat ambiguous one - although the regiment insisted on being classified as a non - kilted Highland regiment , it recruited mainly from Glasgow in Lowland Scotland . The HLI ( as it was popularly known ) continued in service , actively taking part in the First and Second World War s , until it was amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1959 to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers ( Princess Margaret ' s Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment ) . The HLI was also affiliated with a Canadian militia regiment called The Highland Light Infantry of Canada . Battalions . Regular battalions . On July 1 , 1881 the 71st and 74th Regiments of Foot were redesignated as the 1st and 2nd Battalions , Highland Light Infantry respectively . Following the independence of India , all infantry regiments were reduced to a single regular battalion in 1948 . The 1st and 2nd Battalions were merged in Glasgow on September 23 to become the 1st Battalion Highland Light Infantry ( 71st / 74th Foot ) . Militia battalions . As part of the Childers scheme , militia regiments became reserve battalions of the new regiments . The 1st Royal Lanark Militia was designated as the 3rd ( Militia ) Battalion , HLI . In 1883 , a 4th ( Militia ) Battalion was formed . In 1908 , the miltia was redesignated as the " Special Reserve " . The Special Reserve battalions provided drafts for the fighting battalions during the First World War , were placed in suspended animation in 1921 and finally disbanded in 1953 . Territorial battalions . The 1881 reforms also designated the rifle volunteers raised in 1859 / 60 as volunteer battalions . Accordingly , the 5th , 6th , 8th , 9th and 10th 25th Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers were attached to the HLI , being formally renamed as 1st to 5th Volunteer Battalions in 1887 . On the creation of the Territorial Force in 1908 , they became the 5th ( City of Glasgow ) , 6th ( City of Glasgow ) , 7th ( Blythswood ) , 8th ( Lanark ) and 9th ( Glasgow Highlanders ) Battalions ( TF ) . During the First World War , the territorial battalions formed duplicate " second line " units . At the end of the war , the TF was disbanded , being reformed as the Territorial Army in 1920 . The 5th , 6th , 7th and 9th Battalions were reformed . In 1938 , the 7th HLI was converted to Royal Artillery , leaving three TA battalions . On the doubling of the Territorial Army in the following year the 5th , 6th and 9th HLI formed duplicate 10th , 11th and 2 / 9th Battalions . In 1942 , the 11th HLI was converted to armour , becoming the 156th Regiment in the Royal Armoured Corps , but retaining their HLI cap badges on the black beret of the RAC . The TA was reformed in 1947 , with the HLI having two battalions : the 5th / 6th and Glasgow Highlanders . In 1967 , both units were amalgamated with other Territorial infantry battalions in the Lowland Brigade to form the 52nd Lowland Volunteers . War - formed battalions . The regiment was considerably expanded for both the First and Second World Wars . Twenty - six battalions fought in World War I , with a number of garrison and reserve units also being formed . In the Second World War , a lesser expansion took place . The 16th ( Service ) Battalion ( 2nd Glasgow ) was formed from former members of the Glasgow Battalion of the Boys ' Brigade on 2 September 1914 , and was known as the Glasgow Boys ' Brigade Battalion . It is particularly remembered for an incident at the Frankfurt trench in the Battle of the Ancre , the last offensive of the battle of the Somme , where around 60 men of D company were surrounded and cut off behind enemy lines . Relief attempts failed , but the men of the Frankfurt trench refused to surrender . After refusing to surrender , the Germans stormed the trench and found only 15 wounded men alive , three of whom died soon afterwards . General Sir Hubert Gough praised their stand under Army Order 193 . It should be noted that the 14th and its two sister battalions , the 15th ( Glasgow Tramways ) and 17th ( Glasgow Commercials ) , were never known or titled as the Glasgow Pals . Albeit , they were part of the Lord Derby scheme that introduced ' the Pals ' Battalions - a name and system peculiar to north England and , in particular , the cities of Manchester , Liverpool , Leeds , Sheffield and Barnsley ; the best known Pals Battalions being the Accrington Pals about which a play and TV documentary have been written . The only nicknames the three civic battalions raised by Glasgow had was their own nicknames for each other , which were given when they were camped at Gailes Camp , near Troon , from September 1914 to May 1915 . Their names were the 15th - The Boozy First , the 16th - The Holy Second , 17th - The Featherbeds . Battle honours and colours . The following battle honours or honorary distinctions were borne on the regimental colours , representing actions fought by the 71st and 74th Regiments of Foot or the HLI prior to 1914 : Ten representative battle honours for each of the First and Second World War s were borne on the queen ' s colours : The 74th Foot had been awarded a third colour , known as the " Assaye Colour " , by the Governor General of India in 1803 . This was a white silk flag bearing an elephant with regimental number " LXXIV " and the honours " Assaye " and " Seringapatam " . The colour continued to be carried by the 2nd Battalion HLI from 1881 to 1948 , and the 1st Battalion from 1948 to 1959 . Uniform . The HLI was the only regular Highland regiment to wear trews for full dress , until 1947 when kilts were authorised . An earlier exception was the Glasgow Highlanders who wore kilts and were a territorial battalion within the HLI . The HLI ' s full dress of 1914 was an unusual one ; comprising a dark green shako with diced border and green cords , scarlet doublet with buff facings and trews of the Mackenzie tartan . Officers wore plaids of the same tartan , while in drill order all ranks wore white shell jackets with trews and green glengarry caps . The 74th had served for their first fifteen years in India , where the kilt was considered too heavy , and although the regiment resumed it on returning to Scotland in 1806 , they lost their Highland dress in 1809 , and even the name “ Highland ” in 1816 . When their commanding officer , Colonel Eyre Crabbe , was about to retire in 1845 after 38 continuous years with the regiment , he “ submitted to the Commander - in - Chief … the earnest desire of the officers and men to be permitted to resume the national garb and designation of a Highland regiment , under which the 74th had been originally embodied . ” The aged Duke of Wellington agreed , but although the regiment had hoped to adopt the full Highland dress of kilt and feathered bonnet , they had to settle for the trews and bonnet which the 71st regiment wore . A painting ( by David Cunliffe ) of Colonel Crabbe with some of the officers and men was commissioned to mark the return to Highland title and distinctive uniform , and is in the National War Museum of Scotland , in Edinburgh Castle . Sundry . David Niven , who was a graduate of the Royal Military College , Sandhurst , was commissioned into the HLI as a subaltern . He claimed in his memoirs that he was dismayed at the appointment , as he dreaded the prospect of wearing trews , and had accordingly written " " Anything but the Highland Light Infantry " " on his choice of regiment form . He served with the HLI in Malta and Britain in the 1930s .