From Clan to Crown - Rehabilitating a Reputation.

In this talk, Craig Durham tells the remarkable story of how the Clan Fraser regiment was transformed from a rebel force during the Rising of 1745 into an integral part of the British Army. The Clan Chieftain, Lord Lovat, was executed for High Treason on Tower Hill in April 1747 - the last man to be publicly beheaded in Great Britain. Yet just a decade later, the Fraser Highlanders served under General Wolfe, who had been an officer in the Government Army that had defeated them at Culloden, and indeed it is said that Wolfe died in the arms of a Fraser Highlander at Quebec. A later Lord Lovat established the Lovat Scouts which played a vital role during the Boer War and First World War, while his successor Brigadier Lord Lovat (commemorated in the Sword Beach statue pictured) landed in Normandy on D-Day, June 1944, to the sound of the pipes.
How and why did this remarkable transformation in the loyalties of the Clan Fraser, and their support for the British State, occur? Craig provides the answers in this fascinating presentation.