153-567: West Calder ( Scots : Wast Cauder , Scottish Gaelic : Caladar an Iar ) is a village in the council area of West Lothian , Scotland, located four miles west of Livingston . Historically it is within the County of Midlothian . The village was an important centre in the oil shale industry in the 19th and 20th centuries. West Calder has its own railway station . The surrounding villages that take West Calder's name in their address - Polbeth , Addiewell , Loganlea, Harburn and Westwood - outline
306-694: A Petition against the Slave Trade to the House of Lords . In 1797, Hermand House on the western edge of the village was built for George Fergusson, Lord Hermand , a Scottish Judge. The main building, coach-house and stables are Category B listed. West Calder became an important centre of the oil shale industry during the Victorian era . The closest Shale Mine to the village was Burngrange mine owned by Young's Paraffin Light & Mineral Oil Co., Ltd , which at
459-536: A labour battalion was formed. In total, the Royal Scots raised some thirty-five battalions of infantry and over 100,000 men during the course of the First World War, of which fifteen battalions saw active service. 11,000 soldiers serving in the regiment were killed, and over 40,000 wounded. Among other decorations and honours, the regiment won six Victoria Crosses . The 1st, on returning from India,
612-923: A 1996 trial before the Census, by the General Register Office for Scotland (GRO), suggested that there were around 1.5 million speakers of Scots, with 30% of Scots responding "Yes" to the question "Can you speak the Scots language?", but only 17% responding "Aye" to the question "Can you speak Scots?". It was also found that older, working-class people were more likely to answer in the affirmative. The University of Aberdeen Scots Leid Quorum performed its own research in 1995, cautiously suggesting that there were 2.7 million speakers, though with clarification as to why these figures required context. The GRO questions, as freely acknowledged by those who set them, were not as detailed and systematic as those of
765-650: A Scots language listing. The Ferret, a UK -based fact-checking service, wrote an exploratory article in December 2022 to address misconceptions about the Scots language to improve public awareness of its endangered status. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles , Caithness , Arran and Campbeltown . In Ulster , the northern province in Ireland , its area
918-909: A cadre in April and disbanded shortly afterward. The 2/10th was originally mobilised as bicycle infantry , but never served in this role. It was the only second-line battalion of the regiment to be sent overseas, moving to Archangel in August 1918, and serving in the North Russia Campaign until June 1919, when it returned to Scotland to disband. The remaining battalions all remained in the UK on Home Service, and did not see active duty. However, six saw significant periods of service in Ireland, where they served as garrison units, and were often involved in local security – armed patrols, mobile columns to 'show
1071-469: A collection of children's nursery rhymes and poems in Scots. The book contains a five-page glossary of contemporary Scots words and their pronunciations. Alexander Gray 's translations into Scots constitute the greater part of his work, and are the main basis for his reputation. In 1983, William Laughton Lorimer 's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek was published. Scots
1224-433: A continuum ranging from traditional broad Scots to Scottish Standard English . Many speakers are diglossic and may be able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation. Where on this continuum English-influenced Scots becomes Scots-influenced English is difficult to determine. Because standard English now generally has the role of a Dachsprache ('roofing language'), disputes often arise as to whether
1377-515: A few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor; after bitter fighting, the garrison surrendered on Christmas Day. The newly formed 12th Battalion was disbanded and reformed as the 2nd Battalion in May 1942. In April 1942 the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots was moved to Bombay, and then to Chittagong in December, still with 2nd Infantry Division . It fought in the Burma Campaign , first seeing action in
1530-575: A further four-month tour of Northern Ireland, where three soldiers were lost in a roadside bomb attack. They moved to Münster in mid-1976 as the Nuclear Convoy Battalion charged with the protection of 8 Regiment RCT . In this role, the Battalion was equipped with Land Rovers, a change from the normal equipment used by previous and subsequent NCB units, which were armoured infantry battalions. Returning to Scotland in 1979, C Company
1683-672: A garrison. It was withdrawn to England with the end of the fighting and disbanded at Dover in 1816. The 1st battalion was sent to Ireland after the end of the Napoleonic wars, and stationed there from 1816 until 1825, when it was moved to the West Indies, where it remained until 1835. The 2nd battalion, however, had a more active time; based in India, it was involved in the Third Anglo-Maratha War , where it fought at
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#17327987926691836-652: A height of 230 feet (70 m) above the surrounding area, and are the spoil tips from the oil shale industry that was a feature of the area. The Five Sisters were named by artist John Latham during his time with an Artist Placement Group project with the Scottish Office's Development Agency in 1975–6., A description of West Calder written by Rev. Mr. Muckersie appears in the Old Statistical Account of Scotland (1791–1799), Volume 18 No.9 pp. 190–198. The description includes information on
1989-415: A language from a dialect , scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots, particularly its relationship to English . Although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects exist, they often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum , with Scottish Standard English at
2142-616: A more phonological manner rather than following the pan-dialect conventions of modern literary Scots, especially for the northern and insular dialects of Scots. Royal Scots The Royal Scots ( The Royal Regiment ), once known as the Royal Regiment of Foot , was the oldest and most senior infantry regiment of the line of the British Army , having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles I . The regiment existed continuously until 2006, when it amalgamated with
2295-578: A recent neologism merging Ulster and Lallans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis , the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English : Scottisc (modern English "Scottish"), which replaced the earlier i-mutated version Scyttisc . Before the end of the fifteenth century, English speech in Scotland was known as "English" (written Ynglis or Inglis at the time), whereas "Scottish" ( Scottis ) referred to Gaelic . By
2448-612: A representative sample of Scotland's adult population) claim to speak Scots to varying degrees. The 2011 UK census was the first to ask residents of Scotland about Scots. A campaign called Aye Can was set up to help individuals answer the question. The specific wording used was "Which of these can you do? Tick all that apply" with options for "Understand", "Speak", "Read" and "Write" in three columns: English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots. Of approximately 5.1 million respondents, about 1.2 million (24%) could speak, read and write Scots, 3.2 million (62%) had no skills in Scots and
2601-492: A square belfry was abandoned in the 1880s following construction of the West Kirk of Calder and is now a roofless ruin. The original church burial ground is intact and the entire site is a scheduled ancient monument. By 1755, the population of the parish was recorded as 1294 persons. The population had risen to 1435 persons by 1810 and continued to grow throughout the 19th century. In 1792, the residents of West Calder submitted
2754-506: A suitable medium of education or culture". Students reverted to Scots outside the classroom, but the reversion was not complete. What occurred, and has been occurring ever since, is a process of language attrition , whereby successive generations have adopted more and more features from Standard English. This process has accelerated rapidly since widespread access to mass media in English and increased population mobility became available after
2907-727: A three-year spell in Germany with the British Army of the Rhine . 1970 to 1974 was spent in Britain as part of the Allied Command Europe Mobile Force, with the battalion undertaking two four-month tours of duty in Northern Ireland. The battalion was then posted to Cyprus in early 1974. Unfortunately, Turkey invaded the island and created the "Green Line", which still partitions the island. During
3060-471: A year, until January 1939, when it became part of the 4th Infantry Brigade , 2nd Infantry Division . Some sources suggest the 1st Battalion was briefly reorganised as a machine-gun battalion during this period. With the re-armament program in the late 1930s, the Territorial component of the regiment was heavily altered; one of the two battalions was converted into an anti-aircraft role in 1938 whilst
3213-533: Is Category B listed and in 2018, the original cast iron footbridge was removed to Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway and replaced with a new structure. The A71 road passes through the village to Breich in the west and to Polbeth in the east. Lothian Buses operate service 74 serving West Calder with destinations such as Livingston , and Fauldhouse West Calder has three churches: Our Lady and St. Bridget's Roman Catholic Church, West Kirk of Calder Church of Scotland and Limefield United Free Church. The West Kirk
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#17327987926693366-525: Is a sister language of Modern English , as the two diverged from the same medieval form of English. Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland by the Scottish government, a regional or minority language of Europe, and a vulnerable language by UNESCO . In a Scottish census from 2022, over 1.5 million people in Scotland reported being able to speak Scots. Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing
3519-474: Is a 16 mile walking and cycling historical route between West Calder and Winchburgh , via Livingston and Broxburn using the Union Canal. The trail identifies areas of local history, primarily focusing on the extinct oil shale production industry. West Calder High School provides secondary school education for the village and surrounding area. The school moved to a new award winning building in 2018 near
3672-545: Is closed to burials and listed. The principal cemetery of the village is West Calder and Burngrange Cemetery on the western edge of the village. Hermand Cemetery is a new public cemetery open for burials on the eastern edge of the village. West Calder railway station connects the village with the mainline railway network. The station opened on 9 July 1869 as part of the Shotts Line linking Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley via Shotts . The original station building
3825-506: Is in Scots, for example. Scott introduced vernacular dialogue to his novels. Other well-known authors like Robert Louis Stevenson , William Alexander, George MacDonald , J. M. Barrie and other members of the Kailyard school like Ian Maclaren also wrote in Scots or used it in dialogue. In the Victorian era popular Scottish newspapers regularly included articles and commentary in the vernacular, often of unprecedented proportions. In
3978-767: Is lykest to our language..." ( For though several have written of (the subject) in English, which is the language most similar to ours... ). However, with the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England, most writing in Scotland came to be done in the English fashion. In his first speech to the English Parliament in March 1603, King James VI and I declared, "Hath not God first united these two Kingdomes both in Language, Religion, and similitude of maners?" . Following James VI's move to London,
4131-489: Is run for the enjoyment and promotion of radio controlled model aircraft flying in the area. The club has its own tarmac runway and is maintained by the members for use throughout the whole year. West Calder Bowling Club is a local bowls club in the village. Scots language Scots is a language variety descended from Early Middle English in the West Germanic language family . Most commonly spoken in
4284-591: Is sometimes used in contemporary fiction, such as the Edinburgh dialect of Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (later made into a motion picture of the same name ). But'n'Ben A-Go-Go by Matthew Fitt is a cyberpunk novel written entirely in what Wir Ain Leed ("Our Own Language") calls "General Scots". Like all cyberpunk work, it contains imaginative neologisms . The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
4437-567: Is used to describe the Scots language after 1700. A seminal study of Scots was undertaken by JAH Murray and published as Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland . Murray's results were given further publicity by being included in Alexander John Ellis 's book On Early English Pronunciation, Part V alongside results from Orkney and Shetland, as well as the whole of England. Murray and Ellis differed slightly on
4590-540: Is usually defined through the works of Robert John Gregg to include the counties of Down , Antrim , Londonderry and Donegal (especially in East Donegal and Inishowen ). More recently, the Fintona -born linguist Warren Maguire has argued that some of the criteria that Gregg used as distinctive of Ulster-Scots are common in south-west Tyrone and were found in other sites across Northern Ireland investigated by
4743-692: The 52nd (Lowland) Division . Whilst the division was mobilising, the 1/7th was involved in the Quintinshill rail crash , which killed 210 officers and men and wounded another 224. They fought at the Battle of Gallipoli before being moved to Egypt in 1916 and serving in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign . They were sent to France in April 1918 for the Second Battle of the Somme , and remained there until
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4896-409: The 61st (2nd South Midland) Division and 15th (Scottish) Division in 1918. The 11th, 12th and 13th were raised in August 1914 in Edinburgh, with the 11th and 12th allocated to 9th (Scottish) Division and the 13th to 15th (Scottish) Division , and moved to France in mid-1915. They first saw action at the Battle of Loos , where the 11th was almost wiped out, and spent the remainder of the war on
5049-579: The Anzio Campaign and on the Gothic Line , with the 66th Infantry Brigade , which was part of the 1st Infantry Division . The 2nd Royal Scots were serving in 66th Brigade alongside the 1st Hertfordshire Regiment and 11th Lancashire Fusiliers . In January 1945 it moved to Palestine with the rest of the 1st Infantry Division, where it was active in security duties in October and November, and
5202-475: The Battle of Cook's Mills (1814). In February 1812, the regiment was retitled as the 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots) , the first official appearance of the popular name. Two new battalions were raised in late 1804, at Hamilton , the 3rd and 4th Battalions. The 3rd served in the Peninsular War from 1808 to 1809, fighting at the Battle of Corunna in 1809 before being withdrawn by sea and sent to
5355-444: The Battle of Egmont op Zee in the 1799 Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland , before fighting in the 1801 Egyptian campaign at the Battle of Aboukir and the Battle of Alexandria . Both battalions were subsequently dispatched to the West Indies, the 1st from 1801 to 1812, and the 2nd from 1803 to 1806. The 1st occupied Saint Thomas in 1801, fought at the capture of Saint Lucia , as well as of Demerara and Essequibo in 1803, and
5508-597: The Battle of France . The BEF were heavily hit by the German Army 's breakthrough, however, and fell back towards the coast; the battalion was deployed at Le Paradis , near Béthune , on 25 May to protect the flanks of the Dunkirk evacuation . After being heavily hit by armoured attacks, the battalion ceased fighting on the afternoon of 27 May. The adjacent unit, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolks, had almost one hundred men taken prisoner and later shot by their captors in
5661-562: The Battle of Vinegar Hill , one of the more important engagements of the rebellion. Subsequently, the regiment gained a new regimental song: After the rebellion was over in Ireland they were used in minor raids on the coast of Spain in 1800. Meanwhile, from 1793 to 1801, the 2nd Battalion was based in the Mediterranean. It fought at the Siege of Toulon (1793) and the capture of Corsica (1794), returning briefly to Northern Europe for
5814-644: The Bolsheviks , and returned to Edinburgh in May 1919. The 2nd was part of the 3rd Division , one of the first units of the British Expeditionary Force to be sent to France. It first saw action in the Battle of Mons , and thence at almost all of the major actions on the Western Front , before returning to Scotland in 1919. The 1/4th (Queen's Edinburgh Rifles) and 1/7th mobilised in Edinburgh in August 1914, and were assigned to
5967-481: The English Dialect Dictionary , edited by Joseph Wright . Wright had great difficulty in recruiting volunteers from Scotland, as many refused to cooperate with a venture that regarded Scots as a dialect of English, and he obtained enough help only through the assistance from a Professor Shearer in Scotland. Wright himself rejected the argument that Scots was a separate language, saying that this
6120-651: The First Foot or Royal Scots , a temporary measure during the Exclusion Crisis of 1679–1681. Four of its twenty-one companies joined the Tangier Garrison in April 1680, with another twelve in September. It was awarded a battle honour for 'Tangier' in 1908, but the colony and its garrison was evacuated in 1684. A war diary for 1680 was kept by its commander, Sir James Halkett, allegedly one of
6273-677: The General Strike . Under the Cardwell system, it was common for one battalion to remain at home while the other one served overseas, and accordingly in January 1926 the 2nd Battalion moved to Egypt, then to China in 1928. In 1930, they moved to Quetta , then Lahore in 1934, and finally Hong Kong in January 1938. At the same time, the 1st Battalion was deployed to serve in the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine , where it would remain for
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6426-760: The Hundred Days , and fought in Picton's Division (the 5th) at the Battle of Waterloo (1815). After two years in the Army of Occupation, it was disbanded at Canterbury in 1817. The 4th was deployed to the Baltic in 1813, being involved with the recapture of Stralsund , and fought in the Netherlands in 1814, where it was captured and exchanged. It was then dispatched to Canada as part of the War of 1812 , where it served as
6579-818: The King's Own Scottish Borderers to become the Royal Scots Borderers , which merged with the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment) , the Black Watch , the Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons) and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland . In April 1633, Sir John Hepburn was granted a warrant by Charles I to recruit 1200 Scots for service with
6732-721: The Le Paradis massacre . Recent research has suggested that around twenty Royal Scots suffered a similar fate. The remnants of the battalion were reconstituted in Bradford in June. After Dunkirk, the battalion spent nearly two years on home defence preparing for a potential German invasion of the United Kingdom . The 1st Royal Scots, along with the rest of the 2nd Division, was sent to British India in April 1942 to train for jungle warfare . The two Territorial Army units,
6885-509: The Linguistic Survey of Scotland . Dialects of Scots include Insular Scots , Northern Scots , Central Scots , Southern Scots and Ulster Scots . It has been difficult to determine the number of speakers of Scots via census, because many respondents might interpret the question "Do you speak Scots?" in different ways. Campaigners for Scots pressed for this question to be included in the 2001 UK National Census . The results from
7038-439: The Low Countries . Scots also includes loan words in the legal and administrative fields resulting from contact with Middle Irish , and reflected in early medieval legal documents. Contemporary Scottish Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as cèilidh , loch , whisky , glen and clan . Cumbric and Pictish , the medieval Brittonic languages of Northern England and Scotland, are
7191-501: The Persian Gulf in 1990 for Operation Desert Storm . In 1994, the battalion gained a company of Gurkhas , who were later transferred to The Highlanders . Deployment in the 1990s included a further one-year tour to Northern Ireland. The Battalion was deployed to Bosnia for the first time as part of SFOR in September 2002 for six months prior to their deployment in November 2003 to Iraq as part of Operation Telic for six months, returning to Iraq again in January 2006. Until 2004,
7344-407: The Protestant Church of Scotland adopted the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible; subsequently, the Acts of Union 1707 led to Scotland joining England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain , having a single Parliament of Great Britain based in London. After the Union and the shift of political power to England, the use of Scots was discouraged by many in authority and education, as
7497-471: The Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles of Scotland , and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots ), it is sometimes called: Lowland Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic , the Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands , the Hebrides , and Galloway after the sixteenth century; or Broad Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English . Modern Scots
7650-411: The Second Battle of the Odon and Operation Bluecoat . They then fought in the North West Europe Campaign , from Paris to the Rhine , until the end of the war; it entered Belgium in September, crossed the Rhine in March 1945 and advanced to Hamburg by the end of the war. In February 1949, the 2nd Battalion disbanded, leaving the regiment with only a single regular battalion for the first time since
7803-403: The Second World War . It has recently taken on the nature of wholesale language shift , sometimes also termed language change , convergence or merger . By the end of the twentieth century, Scots was at an advanced stage of language death over much of Lowland Scotland . Residual features of Scots are often regarded as slang. A 2010 Scottish Government study of "public attitudes towards
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#17327987926697956-432: The Seven Years' War in 1756, the 2nd Battalion moved to Nova Scotia in 1757, fighting at Louisburg , Guadeloupe and Havana , then returning home in 1764. Until American War began in 1775, both served as garrisons in the Mediterranean , the 1st in Gibraltar , the 2nd in Minorca . Sent to the West Indies in 1781, the 1st Battalion helped capture St Eustatius ; it surrendered at St. Kitts in January 1782 but
8109-505: The Siege of Namur . When the Treaty of Ryswick ended the war in 1697, it was transferred to Ireland. During the War of the Spanish Succession , the regiment served under Marlborough at Schellenberg , Blenheim , Ramillies and Oudenarde . At Malplaquet in 1709, its members included William Hiseland , an 89-year-old reputed to be the last serving veteran of the First English Civil War . Both battalions spent 1715 to 1742 in Ireland, but after this were normally separated. The 1st
8262-465: The University of Aberdeen , and only included reared speakers (people raised speaking Scots), not those who had learned the language. Part of the difference resulted from the central question posed by surveys: "Do you speak Scots?". In the Aberdeen University study, the question was augmented with the further clause "... or a dialect of Scots such as Border etc.", which resulted in greater recognition from respondents. The GRO concluded that there simply
8415-424: The Walcheren Campaign with the 1st Division. It returned to Portugal in 1810 with the 5th Division, fighting at the Battle of Buçaco (1810), the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro (1811), the battles of Badajoz , Salamanca and Burgos (1812), the Battle of Vitoria , capture of San Sebastián , Battle of Nivelle , and the Battle of Nive (1813), before advancing into France in 1814. It was sent to Belgium during
8568-411: The first day on the Somme . The 1/6th had mobilised at the same time and been dispatched to Egypt in 1915 for the Western Frontier Force ; it too was withdrawn to France for the Somme. The two heavily depleted battalions were amalgamated in July 1916, and spent the remainder of war on the Western Front as the 5/6th. After the war, it remained in Belgium until January 1919 when it moved into Germany, and
8721-461: The prestige dialect of most of eastern Scotland. By the sixteenth century, Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England. From 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster , some 200,000 Scots-speaking Lowlanders settled as colonists in Ulster in Ireland. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one. The name Modern Scots
8874-440: The " Buchan Claik ". The old-fashioned Scotch , an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Ulster. The term Lallans , a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands [ˈlo̜ːlən(d)z, ˈlɑːlənz] , is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form . Scots in Ireland is known in official circles as Ulster-Scots ( Ulstèr-Scotch in revivalist Ulster-Scots) or "Ullans",
9027-402: The 1672-74 Third Anglo-Dutch War , Douglas's was part of the British Brigade that fought with the French, commanded by the Duke of Monmouth . It served in the Rhineland throughout the Franco-Dutch War , even after the Anglo-Dutch war ended in February 1674; it became the Régiment de Dumbarton in 1675, after George Douglas was made Earl of Dumbarton. The 1678 Treaties of Nijmegen required
9180-491: The 17th century. The 7th/9th (Highlanders) and 8th Battalions were reconstituted in the Territorial Army in 1947. Both battalions remained until 1961, when the latter was absorbed and the single battalion retitled the 8th/9th Battalion. In 1967 this was disbanded and reconstituted as two separate companies, A Company (The Royal Scots) of the 52nd Lowland Volunteers , and A Company (8th/9th Royal Scots) of The Royal Scots and Cameronians Territorials. By 1971, both companies were in
9333-501: The 17th in February 1915, in Edinburgh. The 15th and 16th were assigned to the 34th Division and the 17th to the 35th Division , moved to France in early 1916, and first saw action at the first day on the Somme ; all three spent the remainder of the war on the Western Front. The 15th and 16th were reduced to cadres in May 1918 and disbanded in August; the 17th was based in Belgium after the armistice, and provided internal security in France and Belgium in early 1919, before being reduced to
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#17327987926699486-499: The 2nd Battalion was sent to Ireland for service in what would later become the Anglo-Irish War ; they would remain there until January 1922. When the Territorial Force was reconstituted as the Territorial Army in 1920, all seven Territorial battalions of the regiment were reconstituted. At the beginning of 1921, the regiment was formally retitled The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) , and comprised two regular battalions, one Supplementary Reserve battalion, and four battalions of
9639-454: The 2nd, which moved back to the UK; they remained stationed there until 1914. At the outbreak of the First World War, the 1st was in India, and returned to the UK in November; the 2nd was immediately deployed with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), arriving in France on 14 August and seeing action on the afternoon of the 23rd. The Special Reserve had been mobilised, with the 3rd Battalion activated at Weymouth, and all seven battalions of
9792-424: The 4th/5th Battalion, The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) (52nd Searchlight Regiment). It was later transferred to the Royal Artillery in August 1940 as the 52nd (Queen's Edinburgh, Royal Scots) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery. The 1st Battalion moved from Rangoon to Secunderabad in 1922, then to Aden in 1925. They finally returned to the UK in 1926, barracked at Maryhill in Glasgow, where they saw duty in
9945-406: The 52nd Division served with distinction, and then participating in Operation Blackcock and the advance to the Rhine; it crossed the Rhine in March 1945 and advanced to Bremen by the end of the war. The 8th Battalion, Royal Scots was raised on 2 August 1939 as a 2nd Line duplicate of the 7th/9th Battalion. They remained in the United Kingdom as part of 44th (Lowland) Infantry Brigade , alongside
10098-411: The 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers and 6th King's Own Scottish Borderers. The brigade was a part of the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division , which would gain an excellent reputation in the campaign, and itself was formed a 2nd Line duplicate of the 1st Line 52nd Division. In June 1944, they landed in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord and fought in the Battle for Caen in Operation Epsom and later at
10251-421: The 7th/9th, which was the 7th and 9th battalions merged, and 8th Battalions, mobilised in Scotland in September; the 7th/9th was briefly deployed to France with the 155th Infantry Brigade , alongside the 4th and 5th King's Own Scottish Borderers , of the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division before the collapse of the French government, but was quickly withdrawn. The regiment raised a fifth battalion in June 1940; it
10404-411: The Arakan operations from March to May 1943, and then withdrawing into India. It later saw action at the Battle of Kohima in 1944 and the Battle of Mandalay in 1945. It was withdrawn to India to rest and refit in April 1945, and moved to Singapore in December. The new 2nd Battalion was moved to Gibraltar in April 1943, and moved to Italy in July 1944, where it saw action in the Italian Campaign , in
10557-442: The Battle of Nagpore (1817) and Battle of Mahidpur (1818), and in the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–26. It moved to Scotland in 1830, and to Canada in 1836, where it was involved in the Rebellions of 1837 . The regiment fought at the Battle of Saint-Denis (1837) , but was running low on ammunition as the British officers had underestimated the amount of insurgents, and with the enemy beginning to flank, Colonel Charles Gore gave
10710-435: The Crowns in 1603, the Standard English of England came to have an increasing influence on the spelling of Scots through the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England. After the Acts of Union in 1707 the emerging Scottish form of Standard English replaced Scots for most formal writing in Scotland. The eighteenth-century Scots revival saw the introduction of a new literary language descended from
10863-488: The French army in the 1618–1648 Thirty Years War . The nucleus came from Hepburn's previous regiment, which fought with the Swedes from 1625 until August 1632, when Hepburn quarrelled with Gustavus Adolphus . It absorbed other Scottish units in the Swedish army, as well as those already with the French and by 1635 totalled around 8,000 men. Sir John was killed in 1636 and succeeded as Colonel by his brother George, then, after his death in 1637, Lord James Douglas ; following
11016-454: The Kingdom of Great Britain, there is ample evidence that Scots was widely held to be an independent sister language forming a pluricentric diasystem with English. German linguist Heinz Kloss considered Modern Scots a Halbsprache ('half language') in terms of an abstand and ausbau languages framework, although today in Scotland most people's speech is somewhere on
11169-518: The Main Street, with an octagonal corner exterior and preserved late 19th century interior, built circa 1895. On the southern edge of the village, is the most northerly rehoming centre of the Dogs Trust , closely followed by the new centre at Glasgow . The area around West Calder is mostly agricultural but in the 21st century, has seen several Wind farm developments. In March 2021, permission
11322-720: The Middle English of Northumbria due to twelfth- and thirteenth-century immigration of Scandinavian-influenced Middle English–speakers from the North and Midlands of England . Later influences on the development of Scots came from the Romance languages via ecclesiastical and legal Latin , Norman French , and later Parisian French , due to the Auld Alliance . Additionally, there were Dutch and Middle Low German influences due to trade with and immigration from
11475-462: The November 1688 Glorious Revolution ; Dumbarton followed him into exile and one of William's subordinates, Frederick Schomberg , was appointed Colonel. While awaiting transport from Ipswich to Flanders , it mutinied on 15 March 1689, a combination of not being paid and dislike at being commanded by a foreigner. However, the mutineers were treated with leniency and later agreed to the move. At
11628-575: The Philosopher's Stane , a Scots translation of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was published by Matthew Fitt . The vowel system of Modern Scots: Vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish vowel length rule . The orthography of Early Scots had become more or less standardised by the middle to late sixteenth century. After the Union of
11781-480: The Scots language was also featured. It was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. The Scottish Government set its first Scots Language Policy in 2015, in which it pledged to support its preservation and encourage respect, recognition and use of Scots. The Scottish Parliament website also offers some information on
11934-471: The Scots language" found that 64% of respondents (around 1,000 individuals in a representative sample of Scotland's adult population) "don't really think of Scots as a language", also finding "the most frequent speakers are least likely to agree that it is not a language (58%) and those never speaking Scots most likely to do so (72%)". Before the Treaty of Union 1707 , when Scotland and England joined to form
12087-581: The Scottish Executive recognises and respects Scots (in all its forms) as a distinct language, and does not consider the use of Scots to be an indication of poor competence in English. Evidence for its existence as a separate language lies in the extensive body of Scots literature, its independent – if somewhat fluid – orthographic conventions , and in its former use as the language of the original Parliament of Scotland . Because Scotland retained distinct political, legal, and religious systems after
12240-638: The Standard English cognate . This Written Scots drew not only on the vernacular, but also on the King James Bible , and was heavily influenced by the norms and conventions of Augustan English poetry . Consequently, this written Scots looked very similar to contemporary Standard English, suggesting a somewhat modified version of that, rather than a distinct speech form with a phonological system which had been developing independently for many centuries. This modern literary dialect, "Scots of
12393-620: The Territorial Force had mobilised and raised an additional second-line battalion by the end of 1914. A further seven battalions of the New Army were formed in 1914, including two Pals battalions By the end of 1914, the regiment stood at a strength of 24 battalions; another six Territorial battalions and three New Army battalions (one of bantams ) were formed in 1915. In 1916, one service and one reserve battalion were formed by merging depleted Territorial battalions, and in 1917
12546-549: The Union, many Scots terms passed into Scottish English. During the 2010s, increased interest was expressed in the language. The status of the language was raised in Scottish schools, with Scots being included in the new national school curriculum . Previously in Scotland's schools there had been little education taking place through the medium of Scots, although it may have been covered superficially in English lessons, which could entail reading some Scots literature and observing
12699-603: The West End of West Calder. The building cost several million pounds and was opened in September 2019. Healthcare in West Calder is administered under NHS Lothian and the nearest hospitals are St John's Hospital, Livingston and Tippethill House Hospital in Armadale . Polbeth and West Calder Community Garden is a public garden and woodland. There are three cemeteries in West Calder. The historic parish church cemetery
12852-572: The Western Front. The 11th and 12th moved to Germany after the armistice; the 12th was reduced to a cadre in April 1919 and disbanded in the UK in June, whilst the 11th was reduced to a cadre and disbanded at Cologne in November. The 13th remained in Belgium, being reduced to a cadre in March 1919 and disbanded in the UK in June. The 15th was raised in September 1914, the 16th (which came to be known as McCrae's Battalion ) in December 1914, and
13005-546: The action of moving service families and holidaymakers to safety from Limassol , Piper Malcolm Halliday played at the roadside becoming known as "The piper of Cyprus". This had put the Regiment on a war footing and they were involved in riots attacking RAF Akrotiri and protection of the Sovereign Area Base of Episkopi . They were relieved in early 1975 returning unexpectedly to Kirknewton near Edinburgh and did
13158-704: The activities of those such as Thomas Sheridan , who in 1761 gave a series of lectures on English elocution . Charging a guinea at a time (about £200 in today's money ), they were attended by over 300 men, and he was made a freeman of the City of Edinburgh . Following this, some of the city's intellectuals formed the Select Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland. These eighteenth-century activities would lead to
13311-594: The ambitious Childers Reforms were passed by the War Office. Among many changes was the merger of the many numbered regiments of foot into un-numbered 'county regiments'. Because the regiment already had two battalions, it fared much better than the many other regiments which lost their identities and merged into new two-battalion regiments. Under the February 1881 proposals, the regiment was due to be redesignated as The Lothian Regiment (Royal Scots) , however under
13464-469: The area that this village encompasses, and they all have played an important part in the history of the village as well as West Lothian. The village is a 10-minute drive from Livingston, which is host to two large shopping centres. The village lies along the ridge above the Calder burn. Early evidence of settlement in the area of West Calder is indicated by the presence of Castle Greg , a Roman fortlet to
13617-735: The battalions of the 52nd Lowland Volunteers, and though the Royal Scots name was retained in the title the regiment no longer had a Territorial Army element. The 1st Battalion briefly saw service in the Korean War in 1953, as part of 29th Infantry Brigade ; after a brief spell in Egypt, they deployed to Cyprus from June 1955 to February 1956. They then spent two years in England, two in Berlin , one in Scotland, two in Libya , and four in England. In 1964, they deployed to Aden , then back to England and
13770-474: The beginning of the fifteenth century, the English language used in Scotland had arguably become a distinct language, albeit one lacking a name which clearly distinguished it from all the other English variants and dialects spoken in Britain. From 1495, the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse , meaning "Irish", was used as a name for Gaelic. For example, towards
13923-521: The book" or Standard Scots, once again gave Scots an orthography of its own, lacking neither "authority nor author". This literary language used throughout Lowland Scotland and Ulster, embodied by writers such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Murray , David Herbison , James Orr, James Hogg and William Laidlaw among others, is well described in the 1921 Manual of Modern Scots . Other authors developed dialect writing, preferring to represent their own speech in
14076-633: The border between English and Scots dialects. Scots was studied alongside English and Scots Gaelic in the Linguistic Survey of Scotland at the University of Edinburgh , which began in 1949 and began to publish results in the 1970s. Also beginning in the 1970s, the Atlas Linguarum Europae studied the Scots language used at 15 sites in Scotland, each with its own dialect. From the mid-sixteenth century, written Scots
14229-438: The border with Polbeth. The new school cost £32 million and was opened by Gordon Brown , former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . The previous school building was built in 1965 and was demolished in 2019. The local primary school in the village is Parkhead Primary School. West Calder has a public library that is a Carnegie library and was built in 1903 to a design by William Baillie. Built of red and grey Ashlar stone,
14382-478: The building is a fine example of the Art Nouveau style, with detailing around the entrance and pedimented Venetian windows. Stone inscriptions include the words science and poetry. The building still includes original tiling and glass. The library is Category B listed. In 2016, the library was refurbished following a £500,000 renovation. West Calder Medical Practice is a combined medical surgery and pharmacy at
14535-402: The capture of Guadeloupe in 1810. The 2nd then moved to India, where it would remain until 1826, whilst the 1st was sent to Quebec with the outbreak of the War of 1812 . It fought in the battles of Sackett's Harbor and Buffalo & Black Rock , as well as the capture of Fort Niagara (1813), the battles of Longwoods , Chippawa , and Lundy's Lane , along with the Siege of Fort Erie and
14688-403: The creation of Scottish Standard English . Scots remained the vernacular of many rural communities and the growing number of urban working-class Scots. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the use of Scots as a literary language was revived by several prominent Scotsmen such as Robert Burns . Such writers established a new cross-dialect literary norm. Scots terms were included in
14841-538: The custom of the time, the unit became known as the Régiment de Douglas . James died in a skirmish near Douai in 1645 and was replaced by his elder brother Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus , who remained in Scotland and had little contact with the regiment, other than supplying recruits. In 1653, he assigned the Colonelcy to his younger half-brother, George Douglas, later Earl of Dumbarton . In 1660, Charles II
14994-616: The depot battalion and the 2nd moved out to India. With the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War , the 1st was quickly earmarked for service in South Africa, and sailed in late 1899. It remained there until 1903, being joined by the 3rd from 1900 to 1902 – the first time a non-regular unit of the regiment had been activated. The bulk of the time in South Africa was spent patrolling and in mobile columns, with neither battalion engaged in any major battles. The 2nd battalion
15147-482: The divisional pioneers , and disbanded in March 1919 at Haddington The 1/9th mobilised at Edinburgh in August 1914, and moved to France in February 1915 with the 27th Division ; when this moved to Salonika in November they remained in France, transferring to the 5th Division , and then to Third Army reserve. They were assigned to the 51st (Highland) Division in March 1916, with whom they fought for two years, then to
15300-749: The early twentieth century, a renaissance in the use of Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh MacDiarmid whose benchmark poem " A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle " (1926) did much to demonstrate the power of Scots as a modern idiom. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young , John Buchan , Sydney Goodsir Smith , Robert Garioch , Edith Anne Robertson and Robert McLellan . The revival extended to verse and other literature. In 1955, three Ayrshire men – Sandy MacMillan, an English teacher at Ayr Academy ; Thomas Limond, noted town chamberlain of Ayr ; and A. L. "Ross" Taylor, rector of Cumnock Academy – collaborated to write Bairnsangs ("Child Songs"),
15453-525: The end of the fifteenth century, William Dunbar was using Erse to refer to Gaelic and, in the early sixteenth century, Gavin Douglas was using Scottis as a name for the Lowland vernacular. The Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic . Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century, as
15606-465: The end of the war. Both battalions were reduced to a cadre in March 1919, and returned home to disband in May. The 1/5th (Queen's Edinburgh Rifles) mobilised in Edinburgh in August 1914, and were assigned to the 29th Division . A poignant Christmas card was produced by the Edinburgh artist Walter Balmer Hislop who served with 'D' Company of the 5th (QER) Battalion . They fought at the Battle of Gallipoli , then to France via Egypt, and saw action on
15759-461: The fifteenth century, much literature based on the Royal Court in Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews was produced by writers such as Robert Henryson , William Dunbar , Gavin Douglas and David Lyndsay . The Complaynt of Scotland was an early printed work in Scots. The Eneados is a Middle Scots translation of Virgil 's Aeneid , completed by Gavin Douglas in 1513. After
15912-402: The final July reform, the regiment became The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) . Under the previously mentioned reforms, the regiment became a county regiment, encompassing the following: City of Edinburgh ( Midlothian ), Haddingtonshire (East Lothian), Linlithgowshire (West Lothian), and Berwickshire (later transferred to the King's Own Scottish Borderers on 1 May 1887). In addition to
16065-484: The first examples to survive. On its return, the unit was renamed His Majesty's Royal Regiment of Foot in June 1684. When James II succeeded Charles in 1685, the regiment fought at the decisive Battle of Sedgemoor that ended the June Monmouth Rebellion ; a second battalion was raised in March 1686 and posted to Scotland. It was the only unit where the majority remained loyal to James during
16218-516: The flag', and the like. The regiment was reduced sharply in size following the Armistice ; during 1919, the 3rd Battalion disbanded, as did all bar one of the Territorial battalions (the one exception being the 2/10th, which was finally disbanded in February 1920). In September 1919, the 1st Battalion again embarked for imperial service, taking up garrison duties in Rangoon , and in August 1920
16371-622: The language in Scots. In September 2024, experts of the Council of Europe called on the UK Government to "boost support for regional and minority languages", including the Scots Language. The serious use of the Scots language for news, encyclopaediae, documentaries, etc., remains rare. It is reportedly reserved for niches where it is deemed acceptable, e.g. comedy, Burns Night or traditions' representations. Since 2016,
16524-574: The language used in different situations. Such an approach would be inappropriate for a Census." Thus, although it was acknowledged that the "inclusion of such a Census question would undoubtedly raise the profile of Scots", no question about Scots was, in the end, included in the 2001 Census. The Scottish Government's Pupils in Scotland Census 2008 found that 306 pupils spoke Scots as their main home language. A Scottish Government study in 2010 found that 85% of around 1000 respondents (being
16677-495: The library in a small garden and consists of a square base, with memorial plaques, crowned by a stone obelisk. By the early 20th century, the Shale industry production around the village entered a period of decline. The Regal cinema was a local cinema that was built in 1938 and served the community, before closing in the 1980s. Most housing in the village dates from the mid-20th century onwards. The population of West Calder and Polbeth
16830-438: The local Co-operative Society, which had its own generating station. In 1879, William Ewart Gladstone visited the village and made a key speech on foreign policy and free trade. The West Calder Drill hall was a local drill hall built before the First World War and in 1914 was the base for "G" Company, 10th Battalion, Royal Scots . The West Calder War Memorial was unveiled in 1921 by General Sir Francis Davies . It sits opposite
16983-571: The local dialect. Much of the material used was often Standard English disguised as Scots, which caused upset among proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots alike. One example of the educational establishment's approach to Scots is, "Write a poem in Scots. (It is important not to be worried about spelling in this – write as you hear the sounds in your head.)", whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be "writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation". A course in Scots language and culture delivered through
17136-614: The medium of Standard English and produced by the Open University (OU) in Scotland, the Open University's School of Languages and Applied Linguistics as well as Education Scotland became available online for the first time in December 2019. In the 2011 Scottish census , a question on Scots language ability was featured In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , a question in relation to
17289-519: The newly renamed Territorial Army, all four of which were activated during the 1921 coal strike. In January 1922, reductions in the military led to the amalgamation of the Territorial component into two battalions. The three battalions not retained in 1921 were converted to support units outside the regimental structure. The 4th/5th Battalion was later, in 1938, transferred to the Royal Engineers and converted into an anti-aircraft role, becoming
17442-420: The newspaper The National has regularly published articles in the language. The 2010s also saw an increasing number of English books translated in Scots and becoming widely available, particularly those in popular children's fiction series such as The Gruffalo , Harry Potter , Diary of a Wimpy Kid , and several by Roald Dahl and David Walliams . In 2021, the music streaming service Spotify created
17595-401: The old court Scots, but with an orthography that had abandoned some of the more distinctive old Scots spellings and adopted many standard English spellings. Despite the updated spelling, however, the rhymes make it clear that a Scots pronunciation was intended. These writings also introduced what came to be known as the apologetic apostrophe , generally occurring where a consonant exists in
17748-469: The order to withdraw. A move to the West Indies in 1843 was complicated by half the regiment being shipwrecked and delayed several months, but was successful, and the regiment finally returned to Scotland in 1846. Both battalions saw active service in the Crimean War , with the 1st fighting at the battles of Alma and Inkerman (1854), and both fighting in the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55), where
17901-535: The other formed a duplicate 8th Battalion on 2 August 1939. At the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots was at Aldershot as part of 4th Infantry Brigade , alongside the 1st Border Regiment and 2nd Royal Norfolk Regiment , 2nd Infantry Division ; accordingly, it deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It moved to Lecelles in September, and in May 1940 moved into Belgium during
18054-456: The other. Scots is sometimes regarded as a variety of English, though it has its own distinct dialects; other scholars treat Scots as a distinct Germanic language, in the way that Norwegian is closely linked to but distinct from Danish . Native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots (or "broad Scots" in English) or use a dialect name such as the " Doric " or
18207-497: The past (e.g. Corby or the former mining areas of Kent ). In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , it was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. Among the earliest Scots literature is John Barbour's Brus (fourteenth century), Wyntoun 's Cronykil and Blind Harry 's The Wallace (fifteenth century). From
18360-603: The regiment's first VC was won. After the war, the 1st battalion moved to Ceylon in 1857 and thence to India, returning home in 1870, whilst the 2nd battalion moved to Hong Kong, and saw action in the Second Opium War , fighting at the capture of the Taku Forts (1858) and Pekin (1860), and returning home in 1861. In 1881, following comprehensive reforms following the Crimean war ( Cardwell Reforms of 1870 ),
18513-463: The region was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria . By the tenth century, Middle Irish was the language of the Scottish court , and the common use of Old English remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century. The succeeding variety of Northern Early Middle English spoken in southeastern Scotland is also known as Early Scots . It began to further diverge from
18666-413: The remainder had some degree of skill, such as understanding Scots (0.27 million, 5.2%) or being able to speak it but not read or write it (0.18 million, 3.5%). There were also small numbers of Scots speakers recorded in England and Wales on the 2011 Census, with the largest numbers being either in bordering areas (e.g. Carlisle ) or in areas that had recruited large numbers of Scottish workers in
18819-555: The repatriation of all Scots and English units from France; reluctant to lose veteran troops, this was made as hard as possible. Dumbarton's was posted to the Dauphiné in Southern France before being disbanded and its men prevented from travelling for 30 days thereafter; many chose to remain, while those who arrived in England did so without money or possessions. The regiment was listed on the English military establishment as
18972-521: The seventeenth century, anglicisation increased. At the time, many of the oral ballads from the borders and the North East were written down. Writers of the period were Robert Sempill , Robert Sempill the younger , Francis Sempill , Lady Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie . In the eighteenth century, writers such as Allan Ramsay , Robert Burns , James Orr , Robert Fergusson and Walter Scott continued to use Scots – Burns's " Auld Lang Syne "
19125-464: The south-east of the village in neighboring Harburn . In the medieval period, the area was part of Calder Comitis, a large parish under ownership by the Earls of Fife. By 1643, the large parish of Calder Comitis was divided into two districts, named Mid Calder and West Calder. The old Parish Church off Kirkgate street dates to 1643 when the area was created a distinct parish. The rectangular building, with
19278-485: The start of the 1688–1697 Nine Years War , Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Robert Douglas commanded the first battalion at the Battle of Walcourt in 1689. After Schomberg was killed in Ireland, he was promoted Colonel in July 1690. The second battalion arrived from Scotland in 1690 and both battalions fought at the Battle of Steenkerque in 1692, where Sir Robert was killed. They then fought at the Battle of Landen in 1693 and at
19431-467: The suspected source of a small number of Scots words, such as lum (derived from Cumbric) meaning "chimney". From the thirteenth century, the Early Scots language spread further into Scotland via the burghs , which were proto-urban institutions first established by King David I . In fourteenth-century Scotland, the growth in prestige of Early Scots and the complementary decline of French made Scots
19584-525: The time was a subsidiary of Scottish Oils Ltd and was one of the group of 12 nearby shale production facilities working the oil shales in the Counties of Midlothian and West Lothian . Other nearby shale mines and works included Westwood Oil Works, Addiewell Oil Works, Hermand Oil Works and East Hermand oil works. The village has a long association with several Cooperative organisations, now defunct. There were several early cooperative associations in
19737-637: The topics such as the character and manners of the people, agriculture and produce, the ecclesiastical state of the parish, diseases affecting the local populace and details of the poor funds. West Calder has a Masonic Hall which is home to Lodge Thistle No. 270 of the Roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland . The hall is also home to the West Calder chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star . The Shale Trail
19890-674: The town; the Peoples Palace and clocktower was replaced by the Royal Bank in 1885 to a design by J G Fairley and another building demolished to make way for Union Square. The former co-operative bakery building on Society Place was built in 1910. The bakery in Society Place closed in 1982 when WCCS merged with Bathgate Cooperative Society. In the late 19th century, West Calder was one of the first villages in Scotland to have electric street lighting with electricity supplied by
20043-820: The twentieth-century biographer of James Boswell (1740–1795), described James's view of the use of Scots by his father Alexander Boswell (1706–1782) in the eighteenth century while serving as a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland : He scorned modern literature, spoke broad Scots from the bench, and even in writing took no pains to avoid the Scotticisms which most of his colleagues were coming to regard as vulgar. However, others did scorn Scots, such as Scottish Enlightenment intellectuals David Hume and Adam Smith , who went to great lengths to get rid of every Scotticism from their writings. Following such examples, many well-off Scots took to learning English through
20196-467: The two regular battalions and depot, the regiment now took control of the various militia and infantry (rifle) volunteers based in the above counties. This left the regiment with the following structure: In 1881, the 1st was in the West Indies; it moved to South Africa in 1884, when it saw action in the Bechuanaland campaign, and remained there until 1891, when it moved back to the UK to serve as
20349-556: The varieties of Scots are dialects of Scottish English or constitute a separate language in their own right. The UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Notwithstanding the UK government's and the Scottish Executive's obligations under part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
20502-543: The village, known as friendly societies, which were founded in 1799 and 1812, however they eventually ceased operation. The principal West Calder Co-operative Society (WCCS) was founded in 1875 by a group of shale miners. The former WCCS Co-operative building of the town at 13 to 19 Main Street was built in 1913 to a design by William Baillie. It is Category B listed, stone fronted with an unusual ironwork crown and two crowstepped gables. Two previous cooperative buildings existed in
20655-532: Was 5,337 in 2020. Burngrange, an area west of the village, was the site of the Burngrange mining disaster in January 1947. At the northeast corner of Union Square in the village, there is a pedimented memorial clock in memory of the 15 men who died in the Burngrange disaster. West Calder has a High Street with a selection of pubs, shops, and services. The Railway Inn is a Category C listed public house on
20808-489: Was a "quite modern mistake". During the first half of the twentieth century, knowledge of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary norms waned, and as of 2006 , there is no institutionalised standard literary form. By the 1940s, the Scottish Education Department 's language policy was that Scots had no value: "it is not the language of 'educated' people anywhere, and could not be described as
20961-615: Was based at the naval dockyard of Chatham . The diarist Pepys met George Douglas in Rochester and recorded that "Here in the streets, I did hear the Scotch march beat by the drums before the soldiers, which is very odde." In 1667, the regiment was accused of looting after the Raid on the Medway and ordered back to France; while awaiting transport, over 700 of the 1,500 men deserted. During
21114-593: Was based in Flanders during the War of the Austrian Succession , where it fought at Fontenoy in 1745. After returning from Puerto Bello in 1743, the 2nd helped suppress the Jacobite rising of 1745 , before being posted to Ireland once again. In the army reforms of 1751, the unit was ranked as the most senior infantry line regiment and titled the 1st (Royal) Regiment of Foot . On the outbreak of
21267-542: Was built circa 1860 and has a tall steeple with a broach spire. West Calder is home to the football club West Calder United , who compete in the East of Scotland Football League . The 19th-century team Mossend Swifts (which provided two Scottish international players) was also based nearby. There is also a youth club. West Calder is also the home of the West Calder Model Flying Club. The club
21420-536: Was created as the 50th (Holding) Battalion in June 1940 where it would 'hold' men who were medically unfit, temporarily homeless or on a course etc. but redesignated the 12th Battalion in October 1940. Also raised were the 10th and 11th ( Home Defence ) battalions, raised in late 1939 specifically for defensive duties in the United Kingdom. Both battalions, like most others of the same type, would have consisted mainly of older and less fit men, with previous military experience, together with younger soldiers. The 11th, however,
21573-410: Was detached as 'C Battalion' providing administrative support to the Edinburgh Tattoo. In 1980, they undertook a two-month tour in Northern Ireland, and moved there under 39th Infantry Brigade in 1981 for a two-year deployment. In 1983, they returned to Kirknewton for two years and during this time they were deployed to the Falkland Islands for four months. In 1985, they returned to Germany, deploying to
21726-418: Was disbanded in 1940 and, in 1941, the 10th dropped the 'Home Defence' subtitle and was redesignated as the 30th Battalion but was disbanded in 1943. Most of 1941 passed without active duty for the regiment, and with growing concerns about the stability of the Far East, the 2nd Battalion, still based at Hong Kong , moved into defensive positions around the colony. On 8 December, the Battle of Hong Kong began
21879-442: Was given for construction of one of the largest subsidy-free onshore wind projects in the UK, at Longhill farm just outside the village and due for completion in late 2022. Freeport village was a shopping and retail centre to the north of West Calder that was built in 1996 and closed in the early 2000s. The 'Five Sisters' group of shale bings to the north of West Calder is a local landmark and scheduled monument. The bings rise to
22032-595: Was increasingly influenced by the developing Standard English of Southern England due to developments in royal and political interactions with England. When William Flower , an English herald , spoke with Mary of Guise and her councillors in 1560, they first used the "Scottyshe toung" . As he found this hard to understand, they switched into her native French. King James VI , who in 1603 became James I of England , observed in his work Some Reulis and Cautelis to Be Observit and Eschewit in Scottis Poesie that "For albeit sindrie hes written of it in English, quhilk
22185-498: Was later exchanged. The 1st Battalion had returned to the West Indies as a garrison in 1790, and served there until 1797, with a brief period of combat in the Haitian Revolution . The West Indies were hotbeds of disease, and the battalion lost more than half its strength to disease in this period. It was reformed from militia volunteers in Ireland in 1798: This year saw a major rebellion erupt in Ireland after years of simmering tension. The Lothian Fencibles fought with distinction at
22338-415: Was not enough linguistic self-awareness amongst the Scottish populace, with people still thinking of themselves as speaking badly pronounced, grammatically inferior English rather than Scots, for an accurate census to be taken. The GRO research concluded that "[a] more precise estimate of genuine Scots language ability would require a more in-depth interview survey and may involve asking various questions about
22491-419: Was placed in the 27th Division , a division made up of regular units that had been recalled from garrison duty, and arrived in France in December 1914. It saw combat in the action of Saint-Éloi and throughout the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, before the division was withdrawn and moved to Salonika in November, where it spent the rest of the war It was sent to Georgia in December 1918 for operations against
22644-451: Was posted in India in 1891, and stayed there until 1909. The battalion had various postings around the sub-continent, including Poona until late 1902 when it moved to Kamptee . In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve ; the regiment now had one Reserve and seven Territorial battalions. The 1st moved back to India in 1909, relieving
22797-424: Was reduced to a cadre in October 1919 and sent home to be disbanded. The 1/8th mobilised at Haddington in August 1914, and arrived in France in November – the first Scottish territorial unit to arrive in France – with the 7th Division , though they did not see action until the Battle of Neuve Chapelle . After the Second Battle of Ypres , in August 1915, they were transferred to the 51st (Highland) Division as
22950-432: Was restored as king; in January 1661, Douglas's was sent to England in response to Venner's Rising , an attempted coup by Fifth Monarchists . The revolt was quickly crushed and it returned to France, since the recently elected Cavalier Parliament quickly disbanded the New Model Army but refused to fund replacements. It remained in France until 1679, apart from a period during the 1664-67 Second Anglo-Dutch War when it
23103-432: Was the notion of "Scottishness" itself. Many leading Scots of the period, such as David Hume , defined themselves as Northern British rather than Scottish. They attempted to rid themselves of their Scots in a bid to establish standard English as the official language of the newly formed union. Nevertheless, Scots was still spoken across a wide range of domains until the end of the eighteenth century. Frederick Pottle ,
23256-423: Was then redeployed to the Suez Canal Zone in December 1945. The 7th/9th Battalion was still part of the 155th Infantry Brigade and was attached to the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division, which was trained for mountain warfare and airlanding operations, but was never used in this way. In October 1944 they moved to the Netherlands , fighting in the Battle of the Scheldt as part of the First Canadian Army , where
23409-439: Was translated into Scots by Rab Wilson and published in 2004. Alexander Hutchison has translated the poetry of Catullus into Scots, and in the 1980s, Liz Lochhead produced a Scots translation of Tartuffe by Molière . J. K. Annand translated poetry and fiction from German and Medieval Latin into Scots. The strip cartoons Oor Wullie and The Broons in the Sunday Post use some Scots. In 2018, Harry Potter and
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