Thieves quarry, p.32
A History of the Regular Mounted Infantry, page 32
A History of the Regular
Mounted Infantry
A History of the Regular
Mounted Infantry
From Victoria’s Colonial Wars to the
Russian Campaign of 1919
Paul Baker
First published in Great Britain in 2024 by
Pen & Sword Military
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Yorkshire - Philadelphia
Copyright © Paul Baker, 2024
ISBN 978 1 03610 651 5
ePub ISBN 978 1 03610 653 9
Mobi ISBN 978 1 03610 653 9
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Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 Early history
Chapter 2 Early Victorian Colonial campaigns
Chapter 3 Egyptian campaigns of 1882 and 1884
Chapter 4 Establishment of the mounted infantry and operations in
Mashonaland and Northern Nigeria
Chapter 5 Mounted infantry in the South African war
Chapter 6 6th Mounted Infantry march to Bloemfontein
Chapter 7 6th MI on the heels of de Wet and operations in Cape Colony
Chapter 8 6th MI driving to plan - clearing the Northern Free State
Chapter 9 6th MI, blockhouse drives
Chapter 10 Training - School of instruction for mounted infantry and manoeuvres
Chapter 11 MI swansong and Russian campaign 1919
Preface
An online auction offered for sale an unpublished, incomplete manuscript intending to be a short history of the mounted infantry for remaining members of the Mounted Infantry Club. Included were various letters and first-hand accounts resulting from an appeal by Major Maurice Tomlin1 who, in July 1936, sent out on behalf of the President of the Club, General Sir Ian Hamilton2, requests to battalions, depots and editors of regimental journals for records of services and war diaries which dealt with the mounted infantry. He also requested them to notify serving and retired officers that their personal reflections were being sought.
Major Tomlin, recognising problem of aging membership, had written to senior members of the MI Club on 30 March 1936 stating that the club was like a tontine (an investment linked to a living person which provides an income for as long as that person is alive). Since the disbandment of the mounted infantry on the eve of the First World War the only new members were the winners of their races at staff college point-to-point meetings. He proposed that new membership should be extended to all infantry officer winners of point-to-point races. However, this would not be sufficient to prolong the club’s existence as aging membership and the forthcoming Second World War put paid to its long-term survival.
The appeal elicited several responses and Major Tomlin worked on the manuscript, which appeared to have been completed in 1939 though, by the outbreak of the war, it had not been published. Tragically, it appears that during a wastepaper salvage drive at the start of the war an enthusiastic cull of papers by Tomlin’s family included much of the work he had completed for this project. This would have been the end of the project but, in August 1942, Brigadier Standish G. Craufurd3 wrote to Tomlin to see what was happening regarding publication of the manuscript. When he realised nothing was happening and most of the original manuscript lost, he undertook to rewrite the work using what material remained and his own resources. His view was, ‘That it is a great pity to let slip an account of a side issue of the old Army, a very distinct phase, just before the great change brought by the Great War.’ He went on to say that, ‘If the publication is much delayed it will be too late for the majority of the participants.’
With Craufurd completing his draft by mid-1943 and the final input from General Sir Alick Godley4, Sir Ian Hamilton (then 91) was approached to write the foreword. His response was not supportive; he felt this was a ‘makeshift history’ that would best be left until the end of the war, when access to records would be easier and the manuscript could be improved upon. Thus, the work remained in the hands of Major Tomlin in its unpublished state. He passed away in August 1945 as the war was ending, followed by Sir Ian Hamilton in 1947 and Craufurd in 1956.
Despite Sir Ian Hamilton’s opinion, the manuscript and correspondence provide a unique and interesting archive by surviving members of the mounted infantry. Considering that history of this corps has been poorly documented, this collection of reminiscences and research by mounted infantry veterans deserves a wider audience.
1 Major Maurice Hilliard Tomlin OBE. Born 28 June 1868, died 10 August 1945. Commissioned into the Yorkshire Regiment (Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment) in 1888. Served in operations on the Niger 1897–98, Boer War commanding Northern Company, 2nd MI Battalion, in 1901. Left the army in 1908 and joined the police force where he was appointed a Chief Constable in the Metropolitan Police in 1912 and Assistant Commissioner in 1932.
2 General Sir Ian Hamilton GCB, GCMG, DSO, TD. Born 16 January 1853, died 12 October 1947. In 1900 commanded a mounted infantry division and ended the war in 1902 commanding the military columns operating in the Western Transvaal. In 1905 he was military attaché for the British Indian Army with the Japanese forces serving in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese war. He went on to command the Mediterranean Expeditionary force in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1915. He was President of the Mounted Infantry Club.
3 Brigadier General Sir George Standish Gage Craufurd, CB, CMG, CIE, DSO. Born 10 November 1872, died 6 January 1956. Commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders in 1892, served in India, with the 6th Mounted Infantry in the Boer War and ended the First World War as Temporary Brigadier General commanding 18th Infantry Brigade on the Western Front.
4 General Sir Alexander Godley GCB, KCMG. Born 4 February 1867, died 6 March 1957. Appointed adjutant of the MI School at Aldershot in 1895 and Alderson’s adjutant for the MI Battalion that was sent out to South Africa in 1896 to quell the rebellion originating in Matebeleland and spread to Mashonaland. He served in the Boer War helping to raise irregular mounted units, serving as Baden Powell’s adjutant during the siege at Mafeking, as Plumer’s Chief Staff officer and then commanding the Rhodesian Brigade. Godley’s talent for training was recognised by Field Marshal Roberts and in 1901 he was appointed DAAG on the HQ staff at Aldershot, which carried with it command of the School of Instruction for mounted infantry. In 1903 he commanded the Mounted Infantry School at Longmoor. In the First World War he was the Divisional Commander of the New Zealand and Australian Division serving in the ANZAC Corps at Gallipoli and replaced Birdwood when he succeeded Hamilton in Command of the Dardanelles Army towards the end of the campaign. Commanded II ANZAC when they were moved to France. He ended the war commanding XXII Corps. In 1923 he was promoted General and in 1928 he was given the governorship of Gibraltar.
Introduction
Brigadier General Sir George Standish Gage Craufurd, who served with the 6th Mounted Infantry Battalion during the Boer War, wrote, ‘Regarding the MI history, I feel it was a very distinct phase in the old British Army. It was, in fact, a dying flash of the old Regular Army which was almost annihilated in 1914/15 and rose from its ashes a new creation albeit, with old tradition.’ He penned this in a letter to Major Maurice Tomlin in September 1942 when the two were involved in writing a short history of the mounted infantry intended for the members of the MI Club, a club formed of surviving veterans who had served in the mounted infantry. Although that manuscript was not published, the draft, original correspondence and recorded reminiscences of members have survived. As a collection, these eyewitness accounts provide an insight into how the Victorian Army met the requirement for mobile forces in an age before the internal combustion engine and today’s modern mechanised units - the successor to the mounted infantry. The principal role of the mounted infantry was:
a) The rapid transportation of a fighting force to a distant point, where they would fight dismounted.
b) Reconnaissance over a wide expanse of country, beyond the capacit
The mounted infantry had a short, but active, existence playing a significant role in the British Army’s small wars of the Victorian period, a major role in the war in South Africa and continued as an influence up until its disbandment on the eve of the First World War. Although, as will be seen in the last account, the mounted infantry concept could be resurrected as the need arose and perform a role as evidenced in this account of the British expedition to Russia in 1919.
With virtually all battalions having representation in the MI battalions at some point during the South Africa war of 1899-1902, accounts and records are widely disbursed and have not been centralised in an orderly, accessible manner. What records exist are found in personal papers and regimental records that generally focus on their participation in MI operations. Published records tend to be found in biographies, regimental journals and histories. The lack of centralised records can be explained by the fact that the MI was not a separate, permanent unit, although from 1888 it was responsible for the training of the mounted infantry. Following their training period soldiers would return to their parent units to be abstracted to form MI units as required when hostilities commenced. Mounted infantry battalions were therefore impermanent units composed of trained infantry formed into sections or, as the South African war progressed, as complete companies, when required and returning to their parent units at the end of operations. An example of the composition of 9th Battalion Mounted Infantry in January 1901 illustrates the various battalions represented in the single MI battalion:
No. 1 Company
2nd Battalion Derbyshire Regiment
Malta Mounted Infantry
2nd Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
3rd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers
No. 2 Company
1st Battalion Derbyshire Regiment
No. 3 Company
2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles
No. 4 Company
1st Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers
The Boer War saw expediential growth of the MI from the 1st and 2nd Mounted Infantry battalions formed at the MI school, Aldershot that sailed to South Africa with the Cavalry Division, and the immediate expansion to eight battalions (by requiring infantry battalions already serving South Africa to form a mounted infantry company). Further battalions were added during the course of the war so that by its end about 16,000 soldiers had served in the MI.
With virtually all battalions being represented at some point in the war, surviving accounts and records were widely disbursed. Brigadier Craufurd served with the Gordon Highlanders Company of the 6th Mounted Infantry and wrote an account of their exploits originally intended for their regimental history. This account is used here as a representative example of MI operations during the Boer War. The company served from the date of its formation to the day peace was declared, as a unit continuously engaged on column work in different areas including the Transvaal, Free State and Cape Colony. Veterans from other battalions provided their memoirs, but space here prevents their inclusion.
Tomlin and Craufurd were successful in obtaining accounts from members for small colonial conflicts in Burma and Northern Nigeria involving the use of mounted infantry with their own peculiarities. Burma used sturdy little Burmese ponies averaging from 13 hands to 13.2 hands, while the Nigerian MI was formed from specially enlisted locals and was the only MI unit that did not rely on abstraction to provide its complement.
Their close relations with General Sir Alexander John Godley elicited his contribution of additional notes from the Mounted Infantry Schools of Instruction, Aldershot where he was attached for instruction in 1894. Fellow officers included Thomas D’Oyly Snow, Henry Wilson, and Harry Rawlinson of the Coldstream Guards. He was appointed commandant in 1901 and published his autobiography, Life of an Irish Soldier. He also suggested using the chapter he contributed to E.A.H. Alderson’s With the Mounted Infantry and the Mashonaland Field Force, 1896, detailing his experience in the expedition.
The first-hand accounts brought together in this book have either been specially written by veterans of the Victorian conflicts in response to the original appeal for information sent out in 1936 or have been selected by Tomlin and Craufurd from lesser-known published sources. The accounts written by Victorian soldiers during the period 1936–1943 reflect the thoughts and ideas of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and are reproduced here as they wrote them, with minor grammatical or spelling amendments.
Chapter 1
Early history
Mounted infantry, as a recognised arm to the British Regular Army, had a meteoric, but brief, career in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It reached its zenith in the South African war only to sink into decline with the reorganisation of the Army prior to the First World War. That quarter of a century coincided with a great expansion of the British Empire in the latter half of Queen Victoria’s reign.
Mounted infantry, in one form or another, is, however, a constantly recurring phase of military history stretching back to the earliest campaigns on record. Victory on the field of battle generally comes to those who can put in a smashing blow at the critical moment. Hence the problem of transporting the archer rapidly to the point where his firepower could be most effective must always have exercised the mind of every military commander. The chariot offered the earliest solution - rapidity of transport, freedom of action, accuracy of aim, and weight behind the attack. This was in use towards the close of twentieth century BC with the Pharaoh, King of Egypt employing his chariots and archers in the Libyan desert to repel an invasion of ‘blond barbarians’, threatening the civilization of his day in much the same way as General Alexander employed his mobile infantry columns to repel another invasion of blond barbarians threatening the same historic land of Egypt in the twentieth century AD.
The military genius of Alexander the Great and his natural inclination and aptitude for the cavalry branch is to whom we owe the earliest instance of the cavalrymen trained as a dragoon. In the early days of the Roman Republic, the Roman cavalry seemed to have been kept in reserve, either for pursuit or to reinforce a critical point on the field of battle. In this latter case, they fought dismounted, thus performing the duties of mounted infantry rather than true cavalry. The Germanic tribes employed as auxiliaries by the Romans fought, at first, entirely as mounted infantry. They used their small horses principally to give them tactical mobility on the field of battle. In later campaigns they were better mounted by their Roman employers and trained in true cavalry tactics and the idea of mounted infantry vanished from the field.
The fall of Rome was also to witness the revival of the East under the followers of Mohammed, and under the impact of Islam, the Franks, as the nations of Western Europe were now called, were to regain much lost knowledge.
Feudalism became a highly organised institution. After the Crusades, chain armour gradually gave way to plate armour, and for a century the knight in armour reigned supreme. In their coats of mail they were almost unassailable by the lighter-armed feudal infantry, mostly conscripted serfs.
During the French Wars of the fourteenth century, the English longbow archers at Crecy, at Poitiers and at Agincourt were able to defeat the mailed chivalry of France. At Poitiers the timely use of the mounted English archers contributed in no small measure to the final victory and was to form a precedent for future campaigns. The English longbowmen too had not unworthy competitors in the Swiss Free Companies of mercenaries with their powerful, if slower, crossbows. In any event the bowman could no longer be ignored and the mounted archer, known thereafter as hobelars, had come to stay and each nation in turn adopted them. From the hobelar of the fifteenth came the arquebusier of the sixteenth, the carabiner of the seventeenth, and the dragoons of the eighteenth, to be succeeded by the mounted rifleman and mounted infantry of the nineteenth century. These, in turn, gave place to the mechanised forces of today.
