Soldiers

by Richard Holmes

  52 Stainton Memoirs p.100.

  53 Schlaefli Emergency Sahib p.16.

  54 Craig Broken Plume pp.26–7.

  55 Quoted in French Churchill’s Army p.75.

  56 Picot Accidental Warrior pp.25, 307.

  57 Picot Accidental Warrior p.24.

  58 Stuart Hills By Tank into Normandy (London 2002) pp.44, 48, 54–5, 85, 242.

  59 French Churchill’s Army pp.12–13.

  60 Picot Accidental Warrior p.11.

  61 Quoted in Sidney Jary ‘Reflections on the Leader and the Led’ Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps No 156 (2000) p.55.

  62 Bridgeman Memoirs p.299.

  63 French Churchill’s Army p.80.

  64 Sidney Jary Eighteen Platoon (Carshalton Beeches 1987) p.16.

  65 ‘Corrected figures’ in Brig. Gen. Sir James E. Edmonds History of the Great War … Military Operations, France and Belgium 1916, Vol I (London 1932) p.483. It must be acknowledged that this sort of statistical analysis is fraught with peril.

  66 Farrell Reflections pp.152, 16–17.

  67 Picot Accidental Warrior p.263.

  Chapter 9: Sandhurst: Serve to Lead

  1 R. G. L. von Zugbach Power and Prestige in the British Army (Aldershot 1988) p.83.

  2 Beevor British Army p.68.

  3 General Sir Mike Jackson Soldier (London 2007) pp.9, 15.

  4 Zugbach Power and Prestige pp.62–3.

  5 Beevor British Army pp.68–9.

  6 Reggie von Zugbach and Mohammed Ishaq Public Schools and Officer Recruitment in the Late 20th Century (Paisley 1999).

  7 Jackson Soldier p.43.

  8 Zugbach Power and Prestige p.139.

  9 Zugbach and Ishaq Public Schools pp.13–14.

  Chapter 10: Church Militant

  1 Quoted in Keith Roberts Cromwell’s War Machine: The New Model Army 1645–1660 (Barnsley 2005) p.121.

  2 Firth Cromwell’s Army p.325.

  3 Ibid. p.332.

  4 Quoted in Michael Snape The Royal Army Chaplains’ Department: Clergy Under Fire (Woodbridge, Suffolk 2008) p.15.

  5 Edward Ward Mars Stript of his Armour: or the Army displayed in all its True Colours (London 1708) p.21.

  6 Stephen Brumwell Redcoats: The British Soldier in North America (Cambridge 2002) p.70. Cuthbertson’s A System for the Compleat Interior Management and Oeconomy of a Battalion of Infantry (Dublin 1768, reprinted with corrections Bristol 1776) was one of the best privately produced manuals. Its author had served as adjutant in the 5th Foot in 1755–68, and he had studied the practice of several well-conducted battalions, notably the 20th Foot under James Wolfe. See Houlding Fit for Service pp.216–17.

  7 Ward Mars Stript pp.60, 63.

  8 Roger Hudson (ed.) Memoirs of a Georgian Rake: William Hickey (London 1995) pp.396–7.

  9 The Marquess of Anglesey (ed.) Sergeant Pearman’s Memoirs, being chiefly, his account of service with the Third (King’s Own) Light Dragoons (London 1968) p.65.

  10 Robert Graves Goodbye to All That (London 1929) pp.242–3. The story seems apocryphal, and reflects Graves’ dislike of Anglican clergy and his admiration for Roman Catholics – ‘we never heard of one who failed to do all that was expected of him and more.’

  11 Personal communication from a senior chaplain 26 January 2011.

  12 Todd Journal pp.213–14, 317.

  13 Snape Royal Army Chaplains’ Department p.25.

  14 Quoted in Snape Royal Army Chaplains’ Department pp.17, 23. Bedford refused the request, saying that every chaplain in Ireland should either do duty himself or have a properly approved deputy.

  15 Ibid. p.23.

  16 ‘The Letters of Samuel Noyes, Chaplain of the Royal Scots 1703–4’ in Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research No 37 1959.

  17 Quoted in Michael Snape The Redcoat and Religion (Abingdon 2005) p.25.

  18 Ibid. pp.36, 19.

  19 Lieutenant Colonel John Gurwood (ed.) Selections from the General Orders and Dispatches of Field Marshal The Duke of Wellington (London 1841) pp.429–30.

  20 Quoted in Snape Royal Army Chaplains’ Department pp.42–3.

  21 Ibid. p.53.

  22 George Bell Soldier’s Glory: Rough Notes of an Old Soldier (London 1956) p.99.

  23 Wheeler Letters pp.153, 92–3.

  24 George Gleig The Subaltern (London 1909) p.130. Gleig’s views must be taken with caution, for he had a particular dislike of Samuel Briscall, with whom he vied for Wellington’s favour.

  25 Snape Royal Army Chaplains’ Department p.51.

  26 Snape Redcoat and Religion p.191.

  27 Henderson Highland Soldier p.217.

  28 A. W. Kinglake The Invasion of the Crimea 8 Vols (London 1863–87) II p.427.

  29 Edward Cotton A Voice From Waterloo (London 1849) pp.106–7.

  30 Bancroft Recruit to Staff Sergeant pp.29, 15.

  31 Fraser Sixty Years p.133.

  32 Quoted in Philip Guedalla The Duke (London 1997) p.163.

  33 Quoted in Snape Redcoat and Religion p.161.

  34 Ibid. p.168.

  35 Quoted in Snape Royal Army Chaplains’ Department p.80.

  36 Ibid. p.131.

  37 Wyndham The Queen’s Service pp.66–7.

  38 Wyndham Soldiers of the Queen p.185.

  39 Maitland Hussar of the Line p.35.

  40 Wyndham Soldiers of the Queen p.57.

  41 Maitland Hussar of the Line pp.65, 67.

  42 Robertson Private to Field-Marshal p.9.

  43 Richards Old Soldiers p.14.

  44 Wyndham The Queen’s Service p.68.

  45 Evelyn Wood From Midshipman to Field Marshal 2 Vols (London 1906) II 265.

  46 William Forbes-Mitchell Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny (London 1894) pp.256–7.

  47 Two chaplain generals were indeed bishops, but had attained this rank before their military preferment.

  48 Snape Royal Army Chaplains’ Department p.160.

  49 John Bickersteth (ed.) The Bickersteth Diaries (London 1995) p.81.

  50 Quoted in Alan Wilkinson The Church of England and the First World War (London 1986) p.127.

  51 Stephen Graham A Private in the Guards (London 1919) pp.253–6.

  52 Alan Hanbury-Sparrow The Land-Locked Lake (London 1932) p.160.

  53 Guy Chapman A Passionate Prodigality (London 1985) p.117.

  54 Snape Royal Army Chaplains’ Department pp.11–12.

  55 W. M. Nicholson Behind the Lines (London 1939) p.156.

  56 Quoted in Mary P. Wilkinson The Unknown Warrior: Unknown and Yet Well Known (London 2000) p.64.

  57 Citation for the MC 21 December 1944 in National Archives WO 373/9.

  58 Quote in Snape Royal Army Chaplains’ Department p.302.

  59 Leslie Skinner The Man Who Worked on Sundays (Epsom, Surrey 1996) pp.26, 44, 48–9.

  60 Snape Royal Army Chaplains’ Department p.310.

  61 Ibid. p.329.

  62 Ibid.

  63 Ibid. p.354.

  64 ‘Man of God in the Line of Fire’ Sunday Times 1 April 2007.

  65 Stephen Armstrong ‘The Good Fight’ The Guardian 15 October 205.

  66 Army Rumour Service, accessed 15 March 2011.

  PART III

  Chapter 11: Soldier Boys

  1 Manual of Military Law 1914 p.158.

  2 Ibid.

  3 John Loesberg Folk Songs and Ballads Popular in Ireland (Cork 1982) III p.75.

  4 Andrew Cormack and Alan Jones (eds) The Journal of Corporal William Todd 1745–1762 (Stroud, Gloucestershire 2001) pp.6–7.

  5 ‘Recruiting Instructions for the 93rd Regiment of Foot’ in Bagshawe pp.210–12.

  6 Harris Recollections p.52.

  7 Quoted in Matthew H. Spring With Zeal and Bayonets Only (Norman, Oklahoma 2008) p.30.

  8 J. M. Craster (ed.) Fifteen Rounds a Minute: The Grenadiers at War, August to December 1914 (London 1976) p.141.

  9 Ray Westlake Kitchener’s Army (Staplehurst 1998) p.137.

  10 Bennet
t Cuthbertson Scheme for the Interior Economy of a Battalion of Infantry (Bristol 1776) pp.55–6.

  11 Quoted in Philip J. Haythornthwaite The Armies of Wellington (London 1988) p.51.

  12 Haythornthwaite Armies p.50.

  13 Anglesey History of the British Cavalry III p.46.

  14 Quoted in Houlding Fit for Service p.134.

  15 Anglesey History of the British Cavalry III p.49.

  16 My interest in the Sweeneys was sparked by Diana Henderson Highland Soldier: A Social History of the Highland Regiments 1820–1920 (Edinburgh 1999) and extended into the internet’s Glasgow Guide Boards.

  17 Roberts Forty-One Years in India (London 1897) p.181.

  18 A. W. Cockerell Sons of the Brave (London 1984) p.95

  19 Ibid. p.96.

  20 Ibid. p.128.

  21 Ibid. p.109.

  22 Ibid. p.73.

  23 N. W. Bancroft From Recruit to Staff Sergeant (London 1979) p.4. Bancroft enlisted into the Bengal Artillery, then in the East India Company’s employment, but its terms of service were not unlike those of the British army.

  24 George Coppard With a Machine-Gun to Cambrai (London 1969) pp.6, 64–5.

  25 George Adams papers, Liddell Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds. Jack Badrick is almost certainly Private George Henry Badrick, killed in action on 15 September 1915 and buried in Cambrin Churchyard Extension.

  26 Dunn The War the Infantry Knew p.579.

  27 Manual of Military Law 1914 p.18. The staff officer who used my copy of this book has underlined the ‘Evidence of intention not to return’ paragraph.

  28 David Lister Die Hard Aby! Abraham Bevistein – The Boy Soldier Shot to Encourage the Others (Barnsley 2005) passim.

  29 The question of under-age soldiers executed during the war is examined in Ch. 24 ‘Young Offenders’ of Cathryn Corns and John Hughes-Wilson Blindfold and Alone. For further thoughts, some measured and others not, see ‘Britain’s Boy Soldiers’ on the internet’s Great War Forum.

  30 Charles Kirke ‘An Upstream Journey for the Military Recruit?’ in Teri McConville and Richard Holmes (eds) Defence Management in Uncertain Times (London 2003) p.154.

  31 Ashurst My Bit pp.19–20, 24–6.

  32 Quoted in Holmes Dusty Warriors p.331.

  Chapter 12: The King’s Shilling

  1 Lieutenant Colonel Edward Windus to Colonel Samuel Bagshawe 26 March 1760 in Bagshawe pp.219–20.

  2 Lieutenant Charles Crawford to Colonel Samuel Bagshawe 31 March 1760 in Bagshawe p.221.

  3 Haythornthwaite Armies p.48.

  4 ‘Recruiting Instructions’ in Bagshawe p.212.

  5 Haythornthwaite Armies pp.46–7.

  6 Manual of Military Law 1914 p.190.

  7 Anglesey History of the British Cavalry III p.47.

  8 Todd pp.111–13.

  9 Roy Palmer (ed.) The Rambling Soldier (London 1977) p.27.

  10 The Life and Diary of Lieut Col J Blackadder of the Cameronian Regiment … (London 1824) p.236.

  11 Quoted in Holmes Riding the Retreat pp.32–3.

  12 Wyndham Soldiers of the Queen pp.17–20.

  13 Quoted in Scott Hughes Myerly British Military Spectacle (Harvard 1996) p.229.

  14 Anglesey History of the British Cavalry III p.49.

  15 David French Military Identities (Oxford 2005) p.60.

  16 William Surtees Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade (London 1973) p.41.

  17 Quoted in French Military Identities p.50.

  18 Anglesey History of the British Cavalry IV p.484.

  19 Quoted in Myerly British Military Spectacle p.59.

  20 Christopher Hibbert (ed.) The Recollections of Rifleman Harris (London 1985) p.109.

  21 Antony Brett-James (ed.) Military Memoirs: Edward Costello The Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns (London 1967) p.24

  22 Quoted in Haythornthwaite Armies p.47.

  23 Quoted in The United Service Magazine, Third Part for 1846 p.560.

  24 Michael Crumplin Guthrie’s War: A Surgeon of the Peninsula and Waterloo (Barnsley 2010) pp.157–8.

  25 Lieutenant Colonel Sir Arthur Leetham ‘Old Recruiting Posters’ Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research I 1921 p.120. Leetham dates the poster between 1803 and 1812.

  26 J. Paine ‘Recruiting Poster: 73rd Regiment, 1813’ in Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research XXXI 1953 p.184 and Leetham ‘Recruiting Posters’ p.119.

  27 Lucy Devil in the Drum.

  28 John Miller Former Soldier Seeks Employment (London 1989) pp.15, 20.

  29 Quoted in French Military Identities p.39.

  30 Christopher Hibbert (ed.) A Soldier of the Seventy-First (London 1976) p.1.

  31 Walter Mitton The Boer War: A Bombardier’s Memoirs (Knebworth, Hertforshire 1996)

  32 Harris Recollections p.6.

  33 Haythornthwaite Armies p.51.

  34 Memoirs of a Sergeant late in the Forty-Third Light Infantry Regiment (London 1839) p.13.

  35 Timothy Gowing A Voice From the Ranks (London 1954) p.6.

  36 Alexander Somerville The Autobiography of a Working Man (London 1967) p.125.

  37 Anglesey British Cavalry I p.115.

  Chapter 13: Pressed into Service

  1 Information from Andrew Cormack’s ongoing doctoral research into British army pensioners in the 18th century.

  2 Todd Journal pp.38–9.

  3 George Larpent (ed.) The Private Journal of Judge-Advocate Larpent, attached to the head-quarters of Lord Wellington … (London 1854) p.244.

  4 Table in Roger Norman Buckley The British Army in the West Indies (Gainesville 1998) pp.102–3.

  5 Houlding Fit For Service p.118.

  6 John Selby (ed.) Military Memoirs: Thomas Morris (London 1967) p.105.

  7 Houlding Fit for Service p.118.

  8 Arthur N. Gilbert ‘An Analysis of Some Eighteenth Century Army Recruiting Records’ in Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research Spring 1976 p.47.

  9 Haythornthwaite Armies p.49.

  10 Roger Norman Buckley (ed.) The Napoleonic War Journal of Captain Thomas Henry Browne 1806–1816 (London 1987) pp.23–4.

  11 B. H. Liddell Hart (ed.) The Letters of Private Wheeler (London 1951) p.196.

  12 Gowing Voice from the Ranks p.12.

  13 Robertson Private to Field Marshal p.28.

  14 Con Costello A Most Delightful Station: The British Army and the Curragh of Kildare (Cork 1999) p.261.

  15 Robertson Private to Field Marshal p.29.

  16 Lt Col W. Gordon-Alexander Recollections of a Highland Subaltern (London 1898) p.6.

  17 Arthur Swinson and Donald Scott (eds) The Memoirs of Private Waterfield (London 1968) p.xxiii.

  18 ‘British Cavalry Officer Trussed up Naked in Drunken Prank’ published 25 June 2009 on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews

  19 ‘Sent Home in Shame, the British Commandos who Stripped Naked for a Crass Stunt in a Foreign Bar’ published in Daily Mail Online 4 March 2008.

  Chapter 14: All Pals Together

  1 Quoted in Myerly Military Spectacle p.64.

  2 Quoted in Anglesey British Cavalry I pp.263–4.

  3 General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall Wars and Rumours of War (London 1984) pp.1–2.

  4 http:///www.jwmilne.freeservers.com/speech.htm accessed 29 May 2010.

  5 Quoted in Peter Simkins Kitchener’s Army (Manchester 1988) p.92.

  6 Andrew Riddoch and John Kemp When the Whistle Blows: The Story of the Footballers’ Battalion in the Great War (Sparkford, Somerset 2008) pp.211, 155–6.

  7 Harry Ogle The Fateful Battle Line (London 1993) p.10.

  8 John Baynes and Hugh Maclean A Tale of Two Captains (Edinburgh 1990) p.65.

  9 Quoted in Charles Messenger Call to Arms: The British Army 1914–18 (London 2005) pp.96–7.

  10 Mitchinson and Innes Cotton-Town Comrades p.45.

  11 Adrian Gregory The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War (Cambridge 2008) pp.278–9.

/>   12 Ibid. p.280.

  13 Papers of Captain John Norwood VC, Department of Documents, Imperial War Museum.

  14 C. E. Montgue Disenchantment (London 1922) pp.33, 59.

  15 Unpublished typescript memoir ‘K. J. Fenton late Lance Corporal 1/7th Middlesex Regiment’ private collection.

  16 Quoted in Messenger Call to Arms pp.167–8.

  17 Brig Gen J. E. Edmonds History of the Great War Based on Official Documents … Military Operations, France and Belgium 1914 (London 1922) I pp.442–3.

  18 Gregory Last Great War p.296.

  Chapter 15: Foreign Friends

  1 Childs Army of Charles II p.24.

  2 Peebles American War pp.71, 311.

  3 Joseph P. Tustin (ed.) Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal (New Haven, Conn. 1979).

  4 Bruce E. Burgoyne (transl. and ed.) A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution (Norman, Okla. 1990) p.209.

  5 Christopher Duffy The Army of Frederick the Great (Newton Abbot 1974) p.74.

  6 Lt Gen Sir Christopher Wallace The King’s Royal Rifle Corps … the 60th Rifles: A Brief History 1755 to 1965 (Winchester 2005).

  7 Matthew Glozier The Huguenot Soldiers of William of Orange and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 (Brighton 2002) p.131.

  8 Stephen Wood ‘A Huguenot Regiment’ Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 67 1989 pp.116–7.

  9 Glozier Huguenot Soldiers p.137.

  10 Ibid. p.148.

  11 The most accessible studies of émigré units are René Chartrand and Patrice Courcelle Émigré and Foreign Troops in British Service (1) 1793–1802 (Wellingborough, Northamptonshire 1999), and (2) 1803–15 (Wellingborough, Northamptonshire 2000).

  12 Alistair Nichols Wellington’s Mongrel Regiment: A History of the Chasseurs Britanniques Regiment 1801–1814 (Staplehurst, Kent 2005) p.76.

  13 Ian Fletcher (ed.) In the Service of the King: The Letters of William Thornton Keep (Staplehurst, Kent 1997) p.163.

  14 Nichols Mongrel Regiment p.78.

  15 Ibid. p.176.

  16 Haythornthwaite Armies p.146.

  17 John H. Gill ‘Vermin, Scorpions and Mosquitoes: The Rheinbund in the Peninsula’ in Ian Fletcher (ed.) The Peninsular War: Aspects of the Struggle in the Iberian Peninsula (Staplehust, Kent 1998).

  18 Robert Burnham, ‘Filling the Ranks’ in Rory Muir et al. Inside Wellington’s Peninsular Army (Barnsley 2006), pp.211–12.

  19 G. C. Moore Smith The Autobiography of Sir Harry Smith (London 1910) p.185.

  20 Edward Costello pp.125–6, p.149.