Alan Breck’s Prestonpans Volunteer Regiment

The Alan Breck's Volunteers have their own operational website @

www.alanbrecksregiment.org.uk LINKED HERE

Colonel-in-Chief Martin Margulies

The Alan Breck Volunteers were first raised in September 2007 to fight with the 77th Montgomeries and Glenbucket’s Regiments at the Battle of Prestonpans that year. Colonel Martin Margulies took immediate command under Proclamation by HRH The Prince Charles Edward at Holyroodhouse Palace on September 21st 2007.  Its founding members are those who fought on September 21st and 22nd in the engagement with Colonel Gardiner at Bankton House and in the capture of Lieutenant General Sir John Cope’s baggage train at Cockenzie House after negotiating the Riggonhead Defile at 4 am in the morning.

The need to raise this new Regiment, and its adoption of the name Alan Breck [Stewart], arose because of the plans announced and carried forward by the Battle Trust for the conservation, interpretation and presentation of the Battle that took place in the town in 1745 henceforth to be re-enacted on an annual basis in the years ahead. 

Regimental Motto: Whither Will Ye -  Quihidder Will Zie

Adoption of the name Alan Breck, a real life as well as a fictional Stevensonian character, enables volunteers of any or all persuasions on the issues argued and fought over in 1745 to receive either the Hanoverian King’s or the Stuart Prince’s shilling or even to fight under French colours. In that sequence Breck served as a redcoat and then at Prestonpans as a Jacobite subsequently fleeing after Culloden and returning on occasion as an officer in Ogilvy’s French Regiment.

The Arms of the Alan Breck Prestonpans Volunteers have blazon: Quarterly 1 and 4, Or a fess checky Argent and Azure.(Stewart) 2 and 3, Argent a galley her sails trussed up her oars in action Sable, and flags Gules. (Lorn). In the fess point a buckle Gules for difference. Crest. A unicorn's  head Argent, maned horned and bearded Or. Motto; QUIHIDER WILL ZIE.

Terms of Military Engagement

The Regiment exists to support and supplement, as it did in 2007, the conduct of re-enactments by ‘invited re-enactment hosts’ who take responsibility for battle choreography each September and for musket firing and swordplay.  However a limited number of cameo re-enactments will be in the Regiment’s repertoire for demonstration at other times as requested by the Trust.

Volunteers to Arm and Cloth Themselves

Those joining the Regiment as Volunteers shall confirm with the Agitant, Adam Watters, the persona[e] they shall portray and agree the proper uniform and arms to be carried with the Agitant. They shall then acquire the arms and clothes at their own expense.

The Regiment however shall at all times provide the appropriate regimental  badges to be worn and the banners to be carried.

The redcoat battalion of the Alan Brecks is uniformed as the Edinburgh City Guard, which has its own authentic history and activities LINKED HERE

All Volunteers must attend at least one Regimental Dinner each year and be available for service each September unless given ‘special’ leave by the Colonel in Chief.

Volunteers Pipes and Drums

The Pipes and Drums of the Royal British Legion in Prestonpans are the official band of the Volunteers and wear the tartan of the Royal Stuarts. They are supplemented as appropriate by the Prestonpans Pipes and Drums wearing the tartan of Prestoungrange and Dolphinstoun.

Regimental Dinners

Parades and all other occasions for assembling the Volunteers shall be known as Regimental Dinners, of which there shall be at least three each year to coincide with meetings of the Trustees, and they shall normally be held in Prestonpans. All Volunteers are expected to attend as often as possible in full uniform and not less than once each year. The inaugural dinner was held on July 22nd 2008 with HRH Prince Charles Edward and Colonel-in-Chief Martin Margulies. It is reported here at this website linked as follows: [I] Alan Breck's Pipes and Drums Receive Their Banner;

[II] Colonel Margulies - Looking the Part and Speaking the Lines; [III]... and then The Regiment Dined and Danced and Sang.

The Factitious Biography of Alan Breck

The Regiment has been privileged to have Iain Nimo, Past Chairman of the Robert Louis Stevenson Society in Scotland, as author of the Regiment’s official biography of Alan Breck [Stewart], entitled: Alan Breck - The Man with the Belt of Gold.  Copies are provided to all Volunteers on joining and are also available for download at this website by link from the title here above.

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Anyone ready to volunteer should contact waukin at the Contact button above left or directly to Adam Watters - agitant@battleofprestonpans1745.org