The Act of Union in 1707 meant that the Royal Regiment had to be content with Colours that combined the Scottish saltire with the English red cross of St George. Up until 1747 the regiment continued to have one Colour per company but the Regulations issued by the Adjutant General in 1747 abolished this practice and restricted each battalion to only two Colours. The regulations were embodied in the Royal Warrant of 1 July 1751. The above illustration is copied from a MS in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
In the middle of both Colours was the ‘Circle of St Andrew’ with the motto inscribed and the cypher of King George II in the centre and the crown above. Most of the infantry regiments had the number of the rank of the regiment in the centre, in Roman numerals, within a wreath of roses and thistles on the same stalk. The 1st Royal Regiment was one of those exempt from this regulation, and thus had the numeral in the upper corner.
This Second Colour was blue, the facing colour of the Royal Regiment. The Union flag was in the upper canton with the Roman numeral in gold in the middle. The same regimental device as the First Colour was placed in the centre of the Colour and in each corner of the Colour was a thistle and crown device. The 2nd Battalion had a flaming Ray of Gold which could just be seen at the corner of the small Union flag.
The dimensions of the Colours at this time was: 6 ft 6 ins wide by 6 ft 2 ins deep. The size of the small Union flag was 22 ins by 20 ins. The length of the pole or pike was 9ft 10ins. The spearhead at the top was 4ins. The tasselled cords were 3 ft long.
There were no battle honours at this stage. The first honour to be emblazoned was the Sphinx and Egypt in 1802. The Royal Scots did have the battle honours for Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet, fought between 1704 and 1709, as well as Louisburg fought in 1745 but they were not awarded these honours until 13 Mar 1882.
