KENNEDYS WELCOME BLACK WATCH TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 13, 1963, President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy, along with Caroline and John John, watched a performance by the Royal Highland Black Watch on the South Lawn of the White House.
The First Family, with Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr., dressed in powder-blue coats, watched from the Truman Balcony. In his remarks before the performance, attended by 1700 children from agencies supported by the United Givers Fund, the President said...
"We are proud to (welcome the Black Watch to the White House)...because the Colonel in Chief of the Regiment is the Queen Mother of Great Britain, and this regiment has carried the colors of the British race around the globe for several centuries...We are proud to have them here also because they are a Scottish Regiment, and that green and misty country has sent...thousands of Scottish men and women to the United States..."
JFK concluded his remarks by thanking Major W. M. Wingate Gray for presenting him with a dirk of the Black Watch and added..."The Major just said that the motto of the Black Watch is 'Nobody wounds us with impunity.' I think that is a very good motto for some of the rest of us."
Later, Mrs. Kennedy wrote the following message to the Major...
"I don't know when I have seen the President enjoy himself more. The ceremony was one of the most stirring we have ever had at the White House."
SOURCES
"JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President," by Thurston Clarke, Penguin Books, New York, 2013.
"Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy, 1963," United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1964.
"Return to Camelot: Music of the Kennedy Years," www.wosu.org
The First Family, with Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr., dressed in powder-blue coats, watched from the Truman Balcony. In his remarks before the performance, attended by 1700 children from agencies supported by the United Givers Fund, the President said...
"We are proud to (welcome the Black Watch to the White House)...because the Colonel in Chief of the Regiment is the Queen Mother of Great Britain, and this regiment has carried the colors of the British race around the globe for several centuries...We are proud to have them here also because they are a Scottish Regiment, and that green and misty country has sent...thousands of Scottish men and women to the United States..."
JFK concluded his remarks by thanking Major W. M. Wingate Gray for presenting him with a dirk of the Black Watch and added..."The Major just said that the motto of the Black Watch is 'Nobody wounds us with impunity.' I think that is a very good motto for some of the rest of us."
Later, Mrs. Kennedy wrote the following message to the Major...
"I don't know when I have seen the President enjoy himself more. The ceremony was one of the most stirring we have ever had at the White House."
SOURCES
"JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President," by Thurston Clarke, Penguin Books, New York, 2013.
"Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy, 1963," United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1964.
"Return to Camelot: Music of the Kennedy Years," www.wosu.org
JFK & Jackie
Black Watch Ceremonies
November 13, 1963
JFK Library Photo
Symbol and Tartan of the Black Watch
