Note 85 — Chapter XXIX

“In 1819 and onwards for a few years, when the country was supposed to be in danger from a rising of the “Radicals,” and there was certainly a good deal of disaffection, Glasgow was the centre of the agitation. In these circumstances it was resolved to re-embody the “Glasgow Volunteer Sharpshooters,” a Corps which in 1808 had made way for the “Local Militia.” This was accordingly done, the senior surviving officer of the old corps, the well known Samuel Hunter, of the “Glasgow Herald,” being appointed Lieut.-Colonel Commandant, and Robert Douglas Alston, the Major. Colonel Hunter retired in 1822, and Major Alston became Colonel.

Colonel Alston was a capital officer, and the regiment, in appearance, discipline and drill, a very fine one. Some of the older citizens of Glasgow must still remember the grand reviews on the green, in which the Sharpshooters and Regulars took part under the command of Colonel Smith, afterwards Sir H. Smith, the hero of Aliwal.”—The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry, 2nd edit., p. 6.