“The Outpost.”
One of the most outstanding activities of the Battalion was the production of a periodical which combined a considerable high level of artistic and literary excellence with a racy narrative of Battalion news and personalia. This regimental magazine of the 17th H.L.I. was conceived in 1914, though actually founded early in 1915, and from that time, throughout all the rigours of work at home—and the extraordinary difficulties of operations in the Field, The Outpost was produced, and well produced. Perhaps more than anything, the standard and record of this production, and its acceptance and success, both within the unit and with an ever growing general public, reflects the intellectual level of those who composed the Battalion. In an appreciation which appeared in The Glasgow News in June, 1919, on the occasion of the completion of the seventh volume, it is remarked—“Nursed in its early youth by an editorial staff that was not without experience, it proved a lusty infant, and as the years went on it gained in strength.
“In a sort of valedictory—for the magazine will still be published annually by the Seventeen Club—the editor sings its praises. He has every right to pitch them on a high key. He points out that the paper has always been welcomed and appreciated in many homes (yes, even in Buckingham Palace), and in training camps, hospitals, rest camps, lonely dug-outs, and soaking trenches, as well as in the scorching East and amid Arctic snows. Wherever old members have gone at duty’s call, their magazine has followed, and has interested and cheered with its articles and illustrations of the lighter side of Army life.
“Lately a noted writer on military topics, an English officer of high rank, in giving a most appreciative criticism of The Outpost, said—‘It is only your dour, determined Scotsmen who could manage to ’carry-on’ such a paper under the tremendous handicaps of active service, and the result has been unquestionably the finest literary and artistic venture in battalion magazines that the war has produced.’”
In a note concerning those who originated and inspired this war publication—unique in its continued success—Mr. J. M’Kechnie, whose name is intimately associated with its success, says—“The credit of the original idea of publishing a Battalion Magazine belongs to Lieut. J. Kelly—our first R.S.M. Early in January, 1915, he called a meeting at which the journalistic machinery was set in motion. The appointment of the late Mr. Steven D. Reith as Editor assured the success of the venture, for under his able and enthusiastic direction, The Outpost from the first number reached a standard hitherto unapproached in British military publications. From month to month it supplied a bright literary and artistic reflection of the chief events in the life of the Battalion, and the editorial aimed at giving a lead to the more serious thought of its readers.
“Throughout its active service career The Outpost was edited by the following:—The late Mr. Steven D. Reith, Mr. J.L. Hardie, Mr. J. M’Kechnie, and Mr. W. Glennie. Mr. W. J.F. Hutcheson performed the duties of Home Editor until November, 1917, when he handed on the torch to Mr. Frank K. Pickles, who acted as Editor during the last year.”
Copies and Volumes of The Outpost will remain among the most cherished keepsakes of all members of the Battalion, and a complete set of all numbers of the production is being carefully and jealously preserved in the archives of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. There its pages will rank with the greatest achievements of industrial and commercial affairs as evidence of the judgment, humour, poetry, and doggedness of a Battalion so intimately bound up in the traditions of a great house, and indeed, also reflective of the traditions of Scottish industrialism, whose eminence is the manifestation of those very elements of balanced judgment and perseverance, coupled with that saving humour and imagination which has marked alike its progress in the markets of the world no less than in the fields of war.