"A Crimea veteran; going to the Coronation," Inverness Courier, June 20, 1911, p. 6a-b.   Among the Black Watch veterans who are proceeding to London to take part in the Coronation proceedings is Corporal McRobbie, who wears the Crimean medals, with the clasps for Alma, Balaclava, and Sebastopol. An interesting account of him is given in the 'Edinburgh News.' Although close on 77 years, Mr McRobbie has youthful freshness of complexion and memory. The events of the Crimea are recalled by him as if they had happened yesterday. Although he enlisted in Edinburgh, Mr McRobbie is a Fifeshire man, being born at Melville House Home Farm, the estate of the Earl of Leven and Melville, near Ladybank. He was in the service of the Earl's family both before and after the war, and the presence of a son of the noble family in the Guards, strengthened the veteran's desire to see service.   Baptised with water and with fire. As his age shows, Mr McRobbie was a mere lad, when, with 800 comrades of the Black Watch, he sailed from Portsmouth to the East in May 1854, under the command of Colonel Duncan Cameron. The regiment was mixed as regards age, but there were many grand men in the ranks, those in the Grenadier Company of the oldest regiment averaging 6 feet 3 inches in height. As a splendid spectacle, Mr McRobbie recalls the sailing of the allied army from Varma - 100,000 men being on the transports. The British Army landed at Eupatoria without tents, and were drenched in torrents of rain. But the Crimea was a place of strange contrasts, for on the next day or so the sun smote the British with great power, the camp fairly reeking in the sunlight. The regiment was baptised with water and with fire. 'We came out dripping like sheep from the Alma River,' said Mr McRobbie; and afterwards the Highlanders stood on a plain facing the Russian position; and were cruelty scourged with artillery fire. So hot was this fire that an exalted officer urged withdrawal, but Sir Colin Campbell would have none of it, and in his own blunt way urged the successful attack, using the well known words, 'We'll ha'e none but Hie'land bonnets here.' After the victory Sir Colin obtained permission from Lord Raglan to wear the historic bonnet while at the head of the Highland Brigade (the 42nd, 79th, and 93rd) - a head-dress secretly prepared by Lieutenant Drysdale, of the 42nd.   The Alma panorama. The Black Watch fought the Alma in Highland bonnets; indeed, they clambered the steeps and slopes of the hill in review order, with cross belts, knapsacks, 100 rounds of ammunition for the Minie rifles, and three days' rations of mouldy biscuits. The Alma was a tremendously strong military position. The hills were in part like our Arthur Seat, and partly like the Pentlands with other, varieties, When the British were on the level looking up at the hills, the scene was like a military panorama. They saw the guns they had to take; the gunners at work; the soldiers they had to beat; all their movements. Nothing like this can be imagined now in the long-distance fighting. The Russians had the idea that they could hold their position for two months and then roll the allies into the Black Sea. In four hours the British won the hills. The Russian military picnic was over, for such the Muscovites thought it, bringing parties of ladies to see the conquest.   Sir Colin's daring suggestion. On the point so often debated whether Sebastopol could have been occupied after the Alma, Mr M'Robbie is clear enough. They were, he said, calling the roll to ascertain the missing and killed in the fight when Sir Colin Campbell, in the midst of the military leaders, with Lord Raglan standing near, asked to be allowed to follow the retreating Russians that night, and he would take Sebastopol 'to-morrow afternoon.' The general opinion was that this was a ridiculous idea. Yet it was well based; for after the capture of the fort- ress the Russians told the British soldiers that after the battle of the Alma there were only a few hundred militia holding the place. The flank march which followed the Alma was a tremendous trial, so rough was the country and so terrible the brushwood through which the army had to force their way. It was one of the hardest experiences of Crimean military life.   Hardships not exaggerated Alma must have been a trying experience for the raw soldiers under Raglan, the great percentage being under fire for the first time. Unnerving horrors abounded in the battle - men and horses smashed by fire. Mr McRobbie had his share of hairbreadth escapes, his feather bonnet and knapsack being struck by missies. He had a grim experience at the end of the fight, for he assisted in burying the representatives of four nations - British, French, Turks, and Russians. To the veteran's mind, seeing and reading are two different things. Much as the Crimean War has been written on, the realities, he says, had to be experienced before they were understood. The hardships of the winter of 1854-55 have never been exaggerated. The sufferings of the soldiers were terribly intensified by the famous storm at Balaclava, when huge quantities of army stores, clothing, food, etc., were lost, practically within eight of the soldiers. Then the army lived for many a day from hand to mouth, falling back on Constantinople for subsistence. There was a time when many of the most ragged soldiers were clad from the garments of dead comrades.   The work in the trenches. As everyone knows, the work in the trenches before Sebastopol was terribly severe. Even the actual digging of these siege lines must have been a heavy strain on the soldiers. The trenches were very deep for the big guns, but seven or eight feet deep for infantry. In dry weather things were not so bad; but Mr McRobbie has stood in trenches - the duty came round at sunset three and four times a week - with the snow up to the knees. A thaw would fill the places with slush and water. Twenty-four hours later the besiegers would be standing on ice. The bayonet was freely used in the Crimea - in sorties from the trenches, in a jam of Russians between British battalions at the Alma, and in other affrays. Unlike the Boers - often an invisible enemy - the Russian could be weighed up by his adversary, and Mr McRobbie a verdict is not specially favorable. They were, he said, good men in appearance, but they did not show the grit and pluck of the British soldier. They seemed to lose their nerve, as was shown against the Japanese in the great sea fight a few years ago, when some of the ships hardly fired a gun to back up their comrades.   Sir Colin Campbell. The magnetic personality of Sir Colin Campbell has been referred to, and Mr McRobbie is loud in his praises. 'He was A1. We would have followed him through the Black Sea if the water could have borne us up. Sir Colin knew he had the men who would not have failed him wherever he went. He was always about us.' The Black Watch suffered heavily in the campaign, but they were well kept up to strength by drafts. In the Crimea the losses were one officer and 38 men killed in action; one officer and 225 men died of wounds or disease; and 140 men were sent home on account of wounds and ill-health. But many men shattered in constitution left the service at Dover, the first home station after serving in the war. Mr McRobbie took his discharge on the return of the corps to England, and resettled in civilian life."