April 19th, 1689
The Regiment was raised near Douglas by James, Earl of Angus in 1689, drawn from among the Cameronians, and placed under the service of William III.
The 26th (Cameronian) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the Scots Army and subsequently a Scottish infantry regiment of the British Army, active from 1689 to 1881. Although the regiment took the name of its first colonel as The Earl of Angus’s Regiment, it became popularly known as The Cameronians until 1751, when it was ranked as the 26th Foot. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 90th Regiment of Foot (Perthshire Volunteers) to form the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in 1881. The Cameronians were themselves disbanded in 1968, meaning that no Army unit today perpetuates the lineage of the 26th Foot.
Cameronian Guard
It was originally formed as the Cameronian Guard by the Lords of the Convention, named after the Cameronians, followers of the Presbyterian Richard Cameron, who had been a militant leader in the struggles of the Covenanters against attempts by the Stuart monarchs Charles II and James VII to outlaw Presbyterianism and impose bishops on the Church of Scotland. This conflict culminated with the Glorious Revolution leading to a Convention of the Estates of Scotland meeting on 14 March 1689. On 11 April, the day of the English coronation, the Convention finally declared that James was no longer King of Scotland, and offered the crown jointly to William and Mary.
