1859 - 1899
The Highland Armed Association of London and The Loyal North Britons had been raised in 1793 and 1803 as part of the country's Volunteer Forces ready to repel Napoleon's threatened invasion of England. These formations were later disbanded and it was not until after the Crimean War that the country's security seemed again to be in danger.
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So, in 1859, sponsored by The Highland Society of London and The Caledonian Society of London, a group of individual Scots raised The London Scottish Rifle Volunteers under the command of Lt Col Lord Elcho, later The Earl of Wemyss and March. He decided to clothe the Regiment in Hodden Grey, the homespun cloth known throughout Scotland. | 
Lord Elcho, Earl of Wemyss and March.
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This avoided all interclan feeling on the subject of tartan and, as Lord Elcho said "A soldier is a man hunter. As a deer stalker chooses the least visible of colours, so ought a soldier to be clad." The only regiments wearing Hodden Grey are The London Scottish and The Toronto Scottish. The first Honorary Colonel of the Regiment was Field Marshall Lord Clyde (Sir Colin Campbell). Lord Elcho commanded the Regiment for 19 years and then became Honorary Colonel from 1878 to 1900.
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