Thursday, May 07, 2020

"Wha Saw The 42nd" – Robin Hall & Jimmie MacGregor




I love this hard-driving, banjo, mandolin and double bass version of "Wha Saw the 42nd?",  the story of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, also known as the Black Watch, leaving Glasgow for the front. There are many different versions of the lyrics.

Even though from Scotland the regiment recruited in Ulster in the late 1800s and early 1900s; its band played here, as the 1889 newspaper advert below shows. Also known as the "Gallant Forty Twa" they are referenced in the Ulster regimental song "The South Down Militia". The song is also the basis of our local Greyabbey version "Wha Saw the Greba Lasses?".

Wha saw the Forty-Second,
Wha saw them gang awa?
Wha saw the Forty-Second
Sailin doon the Broomlielaw?

Wha saw the Forty-Second,
Wha saw them gang awa?
Wha saw the Forty-Second
Sailin doon the Broomlielaw?

Some of them had tartan troosers,
Some of them had nane ava,
Some of them wore kiltie clothin,
Sailin’ doon the Broomie-Law.

Wha saw the Forty-Second,
Wha saw them gang awa?
Wha saw the Forty-Second
Sailin doon the Broomlielaw?

Some o’ them had jeelie pieces
Some were greetin’ for their ma
Some were singin ‘Auld Lang Syne’
Sailin doon the Broomlielaw

Wha saw the Forty-Second,
Wha saw them gang awa?
Wha saw the Forty-Second
Sailin doon the Broomlielaw?



This cutting below is of a man who lived at the "Pink Brae' outside Portavogie, who joined a Scottish regiment – Lance Corporal George Laidlaw of the Cameronian Highlanders whose postal address was given as Ballyeasborough, Kircubbin. There was still a family of "Ledlies" as it was pronounced still living at the Pinks when I was a boy in the 1970s & 1980s.

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