Granger resigned in Jan 1862 to be replaced by Lieutenant Spence. In February the SVRC did garrison gun drill on the Table Bay batteries in company with all the other volunteers in Cape Town. The corps survived until 1864 when it ceased to exist. They were inspected in that year by an Imperial staff officer who said that there was difficulty assembling the men, that their uniforms were varied, and their drill and shooting was indifferent.

The first parade of recruits took place a week later, and although the public turned out in force there were only 16 men and three officers on parade. The disappointment was so great that the idea of raising a regiment was fading fast. Some of the spectators expressed the opinion that there was no room for another corps and that even if enough Scotsmen joined, it wouldn’t last more than six months. Scott marched the men into the side room of the Old Exchange Buildings and a large crowd followed them in. He invited any gentlemen present, if they wanted, to join up, and those who didn’t should withdraw. To Scott’s surprise no-one withdrew, and there were more outside who wanted to join. So Scott, Thompson and two others, Smith and Jack Edwards, took names and particulars, working until 10.30pm. They finished up with 173 names so were able to pick the ones they wanted and weed out the less suitable soldiers.

The next parade saw 160 men fall in. On 8 June Major Scott was gazetted as Captain Commanding. The men were formed into two companies with Scott as Captain of no.1 Company, and Captain Thompson commanding no.2 Company. However they were approached by Captain C A Dickson of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Regiment who wished to leave that regiment and transfer his no.10 Company, complete, over to the Cape Town Highlanders. This company was a Scottish company and was never successfully integrated into the Duke of Edinburgh’s. An application was made to transfer the company to the Cape Town Highlanders and it was accepted in August 1885, so becoming no.3 Company. This was a valuable addition to the regiment as they were trained soldiers and many of them first class shots.

Church Parade 1886

To test the readiness of the men, an alert was sounded in the night and the turn-out was deemed to be satisfactory. At 8am Mr Crosbie approached the Malays to read the Riot Act. He was accompanied by no.3 Company commanded by Captain C Smith. Each man was issued with 10 rounds of live ammunition. The rest of the CTH remained in reserve in case things got out of hand. The Malays were given 15 minutes to leave the ground, and they complied in half the time. There was no more action taken by the demonstrators, and according to Major Scott’s journal; ‘Ever since then the Malays gave no further trouble, and became a law-abiding people.’ He does not say if the burial ground was re-opened.