Alan Breck's Colonel-in-Chief Gets Ship Shape in Westport, Connecticut

Supporters Are Welcomed Across the World

It is with great pleasure that we can confirm that Colonel-in-Chief of the Alan Breck Prestonpans Regiment of Volunteers, Martin Margulies, has now met with a 'likely' descendant of 'the' Robert Anderson of Riggonhead Defile fame on September 20th 1745. They took lunch in Westport, Connecticut, USA and our Colonel reports:

"A Westport, Connecticut (USA) restaurant seems an unlikely venue for enlisting a new member of the Alan Breck Regiment. But Gavin Anderson, of Westport, is no ordinary recruit. Gavin's ancestors, the Brown-Andersons and the Stewart-Andersons, were tenant farmers at Meikle Pinkerton, near Dunbar, at the time of the '45 ( the family stone stands in the yard of Dunbar Kirk). And Gavin himself is a probable descendant of Robert Anderson, who guided the Jacobite army through the marshes in the early hours of 21 September 1745, whence that army famously attacked and destroyed General Sir John Cope's troops at the Battle of Prestonpans. Accordingly, our Colonel, Martin Margulies, who lives in nearby Newtown, Connecticut, deemed it well worth an expedition to Westport -- a briefer and less arduous expedition than Robert's, thanks to modern transportation modes -- to sign up this promising volunteer.

Gavin is indeed "fit for service," to use the eighteenth-century term. A champion athlete in several sports (tennis, squash, sailing), a former Royal Navy officer who rose from the ranks to command his own ship, an author, a former business executive whose missions took him around the world, and, recently, an aspiring politician, he brings to the Regiment a lifetime of military experience and unique ties to the East Lothian area and to the battle. The Regiment is happy to welcome him, and hopes to see him at one of its dinners or re-enactments sometime soon.

Gavin himself comments: "I only hope that one day I may live up to the kind words you have written - I vow I will do my best, as I pray that such an event may come soon. To meet and enjoy the company of others who have far greater glory in inheritance than I will indeed be a very considerable privilege. Thank you."

P.S. In 1745 the Royal Navy one recalls was potentially of help to the Hanoverians at Prestonpans and did afford several cannons and cannoniers on the day, but they fled as the Camerons charged. And they had probably earlier assisted Cope ship his army from Aberdeen to Dunbar by barge. That's a re-enactment challenge we hope to meet one day soon Gavin. Any ideas? [Ed.]