18th century scottish regiments

[Troglodyte]

I.am a bit confused. The print seems to have a red stripe and my understanding is the Black watch tartan does not have any red. I claim a clan connection with the Murray's whose tartan was inspired by the Black Watch tartan to which a red stripe was added.

Peter Cochrane's 1987 Scottish Military Dress addresses this, and makes reference to Morier's painting of a Highlander of the 42nd, and notes that the red overstripe shown on the government tartan was introduced by Lord John Murray when he became colonel in 1745 - but probably for the grenadier company only.

Cochrane quotes James Logan, although he was writing a century later, who says of this red overstripe that '...it appeared to me very un-uniform...' but tells us that the same is included in an 1812 aquatint of a 42nd Grenadier by Hamilton Smith, and that the same differentiation from the 42nd was used for Loudon's Highlanders in 1745.

There is a Black Watch Red Hackle version of the regimental tartan, with a red overstripe between the double black lines on the blue, that was introduced in 2009 by House of Edgar as a tribute to those who served in the regiment.