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Reams have been written about this dance and several pages could be added here but that is not the intention of these notes.

The dance was written by Lieutenants Jimmy Atkinson and Peter Oliver with some input from Lt Col. Tom Harris Hunter while they were prisoners of war in a camp in Germany.

<<img:51st-division-badge.jpg|caption="Badge of the 51st Division",by="Imperial War Museum",license="public domain"|right@t:200>>
The defining feature of the dance, the diagonal lines representing the Saltire badge of the Division, was worked out by Jimmy Atkinson while marching from the north-west coast of France to the POW camp on the German/Austrian border and was said by him to be a variation on the beginning of *Scottish Reform*. (**Note:** The badge connection is somewhat doubtful since the 51st Division's badge was not actually a saltire but the stylised letters “HD” in a circle. The use of this to mark designated marching routes brought the 51st Division the nickname “Highway Decorators”.)

To read more about the history of the dance you may refer to <<https://my.strathspey.org/u/anselm/stories/reelofthe51st/|here>>, <<https://web.archive.org/web/20170617141349/http://www.historyinanhour.com/2014/06/04/history-reel-51st-division/|here>> or <<https://www.laird.org.uk/Scots/51st_Division_at_St_Valery.aspx|here>>. Or <<link:thereel/165|here|4>>. A recording of Jimmy Atkinson talking about the dance is part of a BBC article <<https://canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk/sites/dancing-for-victory/|here>>.
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