Freedom of the City - Highlanders 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
57 years ago the Gordon Highlanders celebrated the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen.
This summer saw the Freedom being conferred on the regiment’s successor — the Highlanders, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland. Those who took part in the 1949 event also joined in the day’s celebrations.
The ceremony took place on Saturday 1 July 2006, beginning at 10.30am with a parade of past and serving members of the Regiment from Albyn Place down Union Street to the Castlegate where the conferral ceremony followed soon after 11am. The conferral was then followed by a civic reception at the Beach Ballroom.
Hundreds of Gordon Highlanders took part in the 1949 Freedom celebrations on 20 August, staged in the city’s Harlaw Playing Fields and attended by — among others — HRH the Duke of Gloucester, Colonel in Chief of the Regiment and Lord Provost Duncan Fraser.
Aberdeen City Council Leader Kate Dean said: “This summer’s Freedom of the City will be a unique and memorable opportunity to mark Aberdeen’s enduring links with our armed forces, and we are hoping as many ‘old soldiers’ as possible will get in touch with us so that we can include them in the celebrations.”
The new Freedom was conferred by Aberdeen Lord Provost John Reynolds and accepted on behalf of the Regiment by Brigadier The Hon Hughie Monro, CBE .
The ceremony included a period of silence for young Aberdeen soldier Corporal Alan Douglas, who died earlier this year while serving in Iraq, and for other fallen soldiers.
 | Left to right, Brigadier The Hon Hugh Monro, CBE; Mrs Catriona Monro; Lady Provost Helen Reynolds; and Lord Provost John Reynolds. |
 | Brigadier Monro receives the silver casket from the Lord Provost. |
 | Lt Col J Hopkinsin presents the Lord Provost with a silver replica of a warrior. |
 | View of the Freedom of the City parade on Union Street, outside the Town House. |
 | View from the Town House of the Freedom of the City Parade on Union Street. |
 | View from the Town House of the Freedom of the City parade on Union Street. |
All images are Aberdeen City Council copyright and can be purchased from Norman Adams: nadams@aberdeencity.gov.uk, 01224 522306. Advice will be given on how you can pay.
