The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Princess Louise's is a light infantry company designated as Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland and was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from until amalgamation into the Royal Regiment of Scotland on 28 March The regiment was created under the Childers Reforms in , as the Princess Louise's Sutherland and Argyll Highlanders , by the amalgamation of the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders Regiment of Foot and 93rd Sutherland Highlanders Regiment of Foot , amended the following year to reverse the order of the "Argyll" and "Sutherland" sub-titles.
The 1st Battalion served in the 1st Commonwealth Division in the Korean War and gained a high public profile for its role in Aden during Following a further round of defence cuts announced in July , the 5th Battalion was reduced to a single light infantry company called Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
It was formed in by the amalgamation of the 91st Princess Louise's Argyllshire Regiment and the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders Regiment as outlined in the Childers Reforms. The regiment was one of the six Scottish line infantry regiments, and wore the Sutherland district tartan Government No. The unit also had the largest cap badge in the British Army. The uniform included the Glengarry as its ceremonial headdress. At the Childers Reforms amalgamation, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders already had a well-earned reputation for valour in the face of the enemy, most notably the 93rd later 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the Crimean War.
Here, the 93rd earned the sobriquet of "The Fighting Highlanders" and carried with it the status of having been the original " Thin Red Line ". This title was bestowed following the action of the 93rd at Balaklava on 25 October in which this single battalion alone stood between the undefended British Army base at Balaklava and four squadrons of charging Russian cavalry.
This action was witnessed by the Times correspondent William Howard Russell , who reported that nothing stood between the Russian cavalry and the defenceless British base but the "thin red streak tipped with a line of steel of the 93rd" a description immediately paraphrased and passed into folklore as "The Thin Red Line".
