Yeomen of England

by Ken Tout

  The Northamptonshire Yeoman, with high mettl’d steeds

  Should occasion present, would display noble deeds

  And boldly chastise every foe to the cause

  Of our King, our Religion, our Freedom and Laws.

  Both Yeomen and horse are equally good

  And if e’er they’re opposed they will prove British blood:

  With broadswords and pistol they’ll make their foes fly

  For the true British Yeomen will conquer or die.

  For those who desired peace and a quiet existence, the ambitions of Napoleon produced an unwelcome shock as war broke out again on 18 May 1803. Napoleon had now become the First Consul of France. He had also annexed Piedmont and Elba, and was refusing to withdraw French troops from the Netherlands. This was seen as a direct threat to Britain and caused a renewal of hostilities. The Northants volunteers again subscribed to the ‘Articles of Enrolment’ originally published on 3 May 1794. One interesting article allowed that ‘personnel desirous of furnishing a Substitute … may do so on condition that he be a Man of good Character, having a fixed residence in the County; that he be accustomed to Riding … and that he be approved of by a Majority of those Persons who compose the Troop in which he is to serve’, again revealing the rather democratic nature of service. The Notes and Explanations of the formal contract enlarge on the ponderous legal terms:

  (a) Substantial Householders, or their sons, whether Farmers, Tradesmen, or of any other Occupation, may enrol their names.

  (b) … the Days of Exercise shall not be oftener than once a Week, unless with the general consent of the Persons called … Weekly exercise will be dispensed with during Hay-Time and Harvest.

  (c) The Corps … can be marched out of the County into any Part of the Kingdom only in Case of actual Invasion, and into any adjoining County only in Aid of any similar Corps for the Suppression of Riots and Tumults …

  (d) Those who shall enrol … are not obliged to incur any other Expence than the Maintenance of themselves and their Horse.

  (e) The Approbation of a Majority of those serving in Person in any Troop being required for any Substitute, the Yeomen are effectually secured against the Admission of any Person with whom they may not wish to associate.

  (f) As the Officers … [who are] entitled to Pay, engage to put it into one general Stock-Purse for all … the daily Allowance of every person … will be augmented considerably beyond the Pay allowed by Government to the regular Light Cavalry.

  Yeomen of the First World War and especially those conscripted in the latter years of the Second World War would no doubt have been both surprised and delighted if they had been able to refuse to serve with someone whom they disliked, and if they knew that officers’ pay was going into a common ‘Stock-Purse’ to enhance their own meagre remittance.

  On 2 December 1804 Napoleon assumed the title of Emperor of the French, and by 1805 he had 132,000 soldiers and 2,000 sea-going craft assembled at Boulogne for an invasion of Britain; the Yeomanry might still be needed on the beaches of Britain. Measures were taken to ensure that the county Yeomanry regiments maintained a high level of military readiness. In September 1805 the Northampton men were inspected by Lieutenant General Gwynn, as the first of a series of inspections by regular officers from the rank of colonel upwards on a quarterly basis. At the moment of a national call-out, all Northants troops were to rendezvous centrally as one body at the Market Hall in Northampton.

  Training of Yeomanry in the use of firearms in battle was in some ways more complicated than training with modern small arms. To state the obvious, shooting a pistol from horseback is more difficult than shooting a pistol from a tank turret: the tank does not shy away when a pistol is fired between its ears, nor does the tank suddenly decide to veer in the opposite direction from the one to which the driver is aiming. But even dismounted, the firearms of the 1800s were awkward and time-consuming to fire.

  The carbine, which might hit a target at between 50 and 100 yards, required several actions to fire successive shots. The troops’ carbines were best fired as a united volley rather than single shots by individuals, which required further training over and above the burden of actually firing the gun. The process of loading and firing went as follows:

  ‘Load!’ Make a quarter face to the right, drawing the right foot back six inches, bring the left hand smartly across the body, grasp the carbine a little above the gripe [buckle of the sling], and bring it down with the butt against the outside of the left leg and resting on the swivel, the barrel turned towards the front, the muzzle pointed forward and opposite to the middle of the chest, the right hand holding and steadying the muzzle.

  ‘Handle Cartridge!’ Carry the hand to the pouch, take hold of a cartridge, draw it out and bite off the end.

  ‘Two!’ Bring the right hand down to the muzzle; shake the powder into the barrel, put in the paper and the ball; and then take hold of the head of the ramrod with the fore finger and thumb.

  ‘Draw Ramrod!’ Draw out the ramrod and put it into the barrel about six inches.

  ‘Ram Down Cartridge!’ Push the cartridge to the bottom.

  ‘Return Ramrod!’ Draw the ramrod out of the barrel, and restore it into the pipe, forcing it well home; the fore finger and thumb still holding the ramrod.

  ‘Prime!’ Bring the carbine to the ‘priming position’ against the right side, the muzzle raised as high as the upper part of the peak of the cap or helmet, but pointing directly to the front; the left hand across the body holding the carbine at the gripe, and the thumb a little above the swivel-bar; the thumb of the right hand placed upon the cock, the fingers behind the guard, half-cock the carbine (here removing an old cap, if there be one), and then grasp the small of the butt.

  ‘Two!’ Carry the right hand to the cap pocket, take out a cap and place it on the nipple, the thumb pressing on the cap with the fingers shut.

  ‘Ready!’ Place the thumb of the right hand upon the cock, the fingers behind the guard; cock the carbine and grasp the small of the butt.

  ‘Present!’ Raise the carbine steadily to the ‘Present’ and look along the barrel; place the fore finger before the trigger but avoid touching it, the carbine well pressed to the shoulders by the three last fingers of the right hand.

  ‘Fire!’ By the action of the fingers alone, and by a gradual but firm pressure, pull the trigger and remain looking along the piece.

  At that point the carbine might fire if, in the meantime, it had not rained and wet the powder. Whilst the entire operation took several seconds, it would give the gunner opportunity for perhaps two shots before a person on foot could approach from about 50 yards away. As the general issue pistol was equipped with a similar cocking and firing mechanism to that of the carbine, much of the carbine firing drill was used also for the pistol. The pistol instructions commenced with a reminder, on the command ‘Draw Pistol!’, to take off the right-hand glove, unbutton the flounce, push forward the cloak, or draw back the sheepskin and shabraque (saddle cloth) according to the equipment, and passing the right hand under the left arm, seize the butt of the pistol. To fire, the pistol must be ‘nearly as high as, and in line with the right eye, with the muzzle lowered to the object; the hand lightly grasping the butt, the arm a little bent, and without stiffness’.

  Once the mechanical movements for firing the carbine and pistol had been mastered on foot, there came the problem of carrying out the same movements on the back of a very sensitive living creature, often of revolutionary tendencies. The text-book admonition proposed the following safeguards:

  Yeomanry with muzzle-loading carbines and sabres up to 1870. (Worcestershire Yeomany Enacters)

  In all the motions connected with firing, great care must be taken to avoid altering the accustomed feeling of the bridle in the horse’s mouth, or the usual seat and balance of the man. And the position of his legs, as tending to alarm the animal; for a horse once rendered timid by an accident in firing from his back will make the practice of it b
oth difficult and dangerous. When the recruit is familiar with the firings at the halt he is then to practise them while his horse is in motion. Great care must be taken that, in presenting to the front or left, he does not strike or touch the horses’ head with the Carbine or Pistol.6

  Similarly for the Yeoman recruit, swordsmanship was not a simple matter of ‘bash and slash’. As he learned the routine, on foot at first, he could not move about or take evasive action as in the athletic pursuit of fencing. He must turn, bend or stoop, from the hips only, without twisting the legs and feet, as would be necessary when fixed in the saddle. Thus immobilised he would use a system of cuts and guards. There was general advice, such as for the ‘Cut’ where the effective part of the blade is about 6in from the point; for the ‘Guard’, oppose to the adversary the half nearest the hilt; hold the sword flexible in the hand (not an instinctive reaction) as no strength is gained by too stiff a grasp. Then on to drill by numbers.

  The drill commenced with positions of the sword: draw, slope, carry, prove distance (from adversary), engage, recover, port, salute and return (to scabbard). There were seven different ‘Cuts’ (or slashes) and three different ‘Points’ (or stabs). On the receiving end, there were seven ‘Guards’, a ‘Parry’ and a ‘Left Defend’. Once these basic moves had been mastered they then had to be practised both on foot and on horseback. A further step to battle readiness consisted of practising as a division, with all men responding in unison to a standard series of command shouts from an officer. The combination of ‘Guards’, ‘Cuts’ and ‘Points’ in each series could change at the whim of the commander. There is, remarkably, no record of horses’ ears being lopped off at early stages of recruits’ mounted practice.

  Napoleon was still kicking his heels at Boulogne while waiting for his navy to gain control of the seas. But in 1805 the church bells of Britain rang with the news of a magnificent victory which would secure control of the seas for Britain and her ally, Portugal: the Battle of Trafalgar. Almost immediately, the bells had to be muffled to toll the calamitous news that the nation’s great sailor hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, had been killed at the moment of victory. An extraordinary tide of mourning swept the country in a manner seen only rarely in the nation’s history. From the War Office an invitation, with the weight of an instruction, went out to Yeomanry regiments to provide details which would stand in full ceremonial dress along the route of the approaching funeral. The Yeomen from various counties would form as a regiment and be stationed on the west side of Temple Bar en route from the Admiralty to St Paul’s Cathedral.

  The funeral took place of 9 January 1806, and the Yeomanry stood at the point where the Lord Mayor received the procession. The regular bands caused ‘muffled drums to roll’ and ‘music to play solemn dirges occasionally’. The Yeomen, in their varying hues of splendid dress, wore black crape ‘on the left arm below the elbow’ as they stood two deep, charged with ‘ensuring that no unauthorised individuals joined the procession’ and not to ‘suffer any carriage to enter the Grand Route except those forming the procession’. In this sad and solemn setting the still infant Yeomanry was afforded its only great opportunity for ostentation and public display, even though dismounted, on a national scene during the wars which lasted until 1815.7

  The hostilities between 1789 and 1815 had been something of a ‘stop and go’ sequence. There had been the ‘Peace’ of Amiens in 1802; in April 1814, with France on the verge of defeat, Napoleon had been removed from the French throne and sent in the guise of a governor, but virtually exiled, to the small island of Elba – the war appeared to be at an end. After the celebrated ‘Hundred Days’ Napoleon returned to France, regained power and mobilised an army to start another war. On 18 June 1815 he was defeated at Waterloo and sent into exile on St Helena in the remote south Atlantic. But he was still alive, relatively young and still popular in his native France. Was this really the end of the Napoleonic Wars?

  This uncertainty led to many Yeomanry regiments continuing to function for another decade, rather than being demobilised immediately after the 1815 treaty. In addition to a possible foreign threat, there was also an internal dilemma. Although France had reverted from its aggressive and proselytising republicanism of the 1790s to a traditional Bourbon monarchy, there was still mounting pressure for political reform within Britain itself. This was accompanied by the threat of civil strife due to unemployment, food shortages and tardy reform measures. In this respect, the Yeomanry might still be needed in its ‘Riot Squad’ role during times of peace.

  NOTES AND REFERENCES

  1 Retail Price Index comparison charts.

  2 All Northamptonshire Yeomanry archive data (NYA) from archives at the Northampton Record Office, or held by the Northamptonshire Yeomanry Association, or in the possession of the author as editor of the NY magazine.

  3 Thanks to various Yeomanry museums and regimental records.

  4 The Yeomanry Cavalry of Gloucestershire and Monmouth, 1898.

  5 Pembrokeshire Museum.

  6 National Maritime Museum.

  7 As later formulated in Yeomanry Regulations, 1844.

  CHAPTER TWO

  CALL OUT THE RIOT SQUAD!

  (1815–1899)

  For the new Yeomanry regiments peacetime meant a gentle routine of regular training parades interrupted occasionally by the more dramatic episodes of call-out. The call-outs were divided between ‘Riots’ and ‘Royals’, mounted police duties or escorts to visiting dignitaries. The regular army was mainly occupied by colonial wars, with one major conflict, the Crimean War, occurring midway through the century. Some Yeomanry regiments lapsed into what was officially termed ‘suspended animation’, but which one historian has called ‘glamorous inactivity’. There may have been some glamour in the splendid uniforms but there was no opportunity for military glory.

  However, in 1819 one Northamptonshire ‘Gentleman Yeoman’, James, Lord Brudenelle volunteered to raise a Deene troop and thus qualified for the rank of captain. On 14 December forty-six of his men were measured for jackets and overalls to his own design, he being a man of taste in matters of couture, and on 10 February 1920 arms were issued to the troop. For the adventurous James, Yeomanry parades were not considered thrilling enough and, after inheriting the title of the Earl of Cardigan, he purchased a colonelcy. In the Crimea he was to lead the infamous ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’, which galloped at the enemy guns on mistaken orders and at great cost, with ‘cannon to the left of them, cannon to the right of them’. Although the horsemen overran the guns the attack failed because of a lack of infantry. (The 2NY and other yeomanry regiments were to suffer equivalent losses in July 1944 due to similar lack of sufficient infantry with enemy guns on all sides. Do generals not read history?) Perhaps the earl’s more laudable claim to fame relates to his invention of the article of clothing named after him, the humble cardigan.

  In Britain it was a time of increasing civilian discontent. New types of machinery caused unemployment; only about 2 per cent of people enjoyed the right to vote in parliamentary elections; there were food shortages and rising food prices were blamed on the Corn Laws. Some reaction to such conditions was spontaneous and localised, while other uprisings were better organised and spread more widely. In rural areas there was much anger because newly developed threshing machines replaced the traditional labour-intensive manual work which provided winter income for many families. A mysterious Captain Swing wrote threatening letters to landowners and the following period of violence became known as the Swing Riots.

  Twenty-nine different Yeomanry uniforms reflecting individual colonels’ choices. (NYA)

  In its role as an extempore ‘Riot Squad’, there being no appropriate police force, the Yeomanry gained a bad press which has persisted to this day. The ugly side of riot policing led to the so-called Battle of Peterloo. This took place at St Peter’s Field in Manchester on 16 August 1819 when the Manchester Patriotic Union organised a huge rally at which a notable radical orator, Henry Hunt, was
to speak. Some reports speak of people gathering quietly in their Sunday best. Others reported activists marching in columns to music, carrying flags and slogans. Eventually a crowd, estimated variously at 50,000 to 80,000, assembled around the cart from which Hunt was to give his oration. The extraordinary size of the crowd caused the magistrates to panic before any undue violence had occurred. They ordered the arrest of the leaders, but the special constables refused to act. The nearest troops were the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry and their captain, Hugh Birley, was ordered to make the arrests. Birley was a businessman of Draconian disposition and not likely to shirk such a duty.

  The event has generally been reported as all innocence on one side and all vicious violence on the other. Recent events tend to suggest that, where there is a focus of great anger, however justified, other malign elements find an opportunity to disturb what might have been intended as a peaceful demonstration. When the magistrates saw the Yeomanry engulfed in the vast crowd, which, no doubt, was in a dangerous state of increasing anger, fear and panic, they ordered in the regular cavalry. Later the official inquiry into the incident produced a ‘whitewash’, but the statistics were horrifying. Somewhere between fifteen and eighteen people were killed and perhaps around 500 injured. Those killed included a 2-year-old child and two special constables. Although the event failed to produce any immediate improvements, rather an increasingly severe response from the government, its story resonated through the radical movement as being a crucial moment in the fight for reform.1 One lasting outcome was that radical local businessmen founded the Manchester Guardian (now the Guardian) to promote their views.