The South Devon Militia was a part-time military unit in the maritime county of Devonshire in the West of England. The Militia had always been important in the county, which was vulnerable to invasion, and from its formal creation in 1758 the regiment served in home defence in all of Britain's major wars, later as a reserve battalion for the Devonshire Regiment. It was disbanded in 1908.
Background
The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in England and its legal basis was updated by two acts of 1557 (4 & 5 Ph. & M. cc. 2 and 3), which placed selected men, the 'trained bands', under the command of Lords Lieutenant appointed by the monarch. This is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England. The Devon Trained Bands were divided into three 'Divisions' (East, North and South), which were called out in the Armada year of 1588.Hay, pp. 11–17, 25–6, 88.Hay, pp. 269–71.Walrond, pp. 1–17.
Although control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between King Charles I and Parliament that led to the First English Civil War, most of the county Trained Bands played little part in the fighting. After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 the militia of Devon were called out on a number of occasions when the appearance of hostile fleets caused alarm, and in 1685 they prevented the rebel Duke of Monmouth from accessing recruits and supplies from Devon and Cornwall. After the Battle of Sedgemoor the Devon Militia were active in rounding up rebels.Hay, pp. 99–104.Scott.Walrond, pp. 23–4.
The Devonshire Militia continued to be mustered for training during the reign of William III, the six 'county' regiments together with the Exeter and Plymouth regiments and several Troops of Horse, mustering 6163 men.Hay, pp. 116–7. But after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 the militia was allowed to dwindle.Western, p. 73.Walrond, pp. 25–7.
South Devon Militia Seven Years War Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 re-established county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. Front-line Devonshire was given a quota of 1600 men to raise. There was a property qualification for officers, who were commissioned by the Lord Lieutenant. The size of the militia was increased as the war continued.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299, 301–2, 521.Hay, pp. 136–44.Holmes, pp. 94–100.'Militia and Volunteer Lists' at Devon – Military History.Walrond, pp. 28–31.Western, Appendices A & B.Western, p. 251. The first issue of arms to the Devon Militia was made on 5 December 1758, and they were embodied for permanent service on 23 June 1759. Two, later four (Exeter, North, East and South), battalions were formed in Devon under the command of the Duke of Bedford as Lord Lieutenant. They served in the West Country for the whole of their service; the duties included guarding French prisoners of war. In December 1762 the battalions were stood down ('disembodied') and the following year were reorganised into three peacetime regiments: the 1st or East, 2nd or North and 3rd or South Devon Militia. The South Regiment consisted of 500 men organised in eight companies commanded by Colonel Sir John Rogers, 3rd Baronet, who had raised the regiment in 1758.Frederick, p. 86.Parkyn.Walrond, pp. 31–55.Western, p. 124.
War of American Independence The militiamen's peacetime training was widely neglected, but the Devonshire regiments do appear to have completed their training each year. After the outbreak of the War of American Independence in 1775 Lord North's government introduced a Bill in Parliament to 'Enable His Majesty to call out and assemble the Militia in all cases of Rebellion in any part of the Dominion belonging to the Crown of Great Britain'; the Bill was passed in December 1775.Walrond, pp. 59–65. The militia was called out when Britain was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, and the regiment was embodied at Plymouth on 26 March 1778. During the summers the militia went into camp where they were exercised as part of a division alongside Regular Army troops. In 1782 the South Devons were at Roborough near Plymouth where all three Devon regiments were gathered. The South Devon were in 1st Brigade alongside the 75th Foot and the Carmarthen and Worcester Militia regiments. The Light Companies of the regiments at Roborough were formed into a composite Light Battalion, which trained separately. The Militia also had to find guards for the American prisoners of war lodged in Mill Prison. The camp at Roborough was broken up on 10 November 1782 and the regiments went into winter quarters. American independence was recognised in November 1782, and peace was settled with France and Spain early in 1783, so the militia could be stood down. The South Devons were disembodied on 3 March.Walrond, pp. 66, 99–100, 105, 107.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 173–4.
French Revolutionary War From 1787 to 1793 the South Devon Militia was assembled at Plymouth for its annual 28 days' training, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were mustered each year. In view of the worsening international situation the whole Devonshire Militia was embodied for service on 22 December 1792, even though Revolutionary France did not declare war on Britain until 1 February 1793.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1.Walrond, pp. 112–5.
In June 1793 both the South and North Devon regiments marched to join a large militia training encampment at Broadwater Common, Waterdown Forest, outside Tunbridge Wells. The whole camp moved to Ashdown Forest at the beginning of August and then to Brighton for two weeks before returning to Broadwater Common. The camp broke up in the autumn and the regiments went to their separate winter quarters. 'Broadwater Common 1793' at Royal Collection Trust.Sargeaunt, p. 85. In the summer of 1795 the South Devons were brigaded with the South Hampshires, 1st Somerset and West Yorks at a camp in Barham Downs outside Canterbury.Kerr, pp. 34–5.
The militia were frequently moved around the country but in the winter of 1795–6 all three Devon regiments were at Plymouth guarding the fortifications and the French prisoners of war.Walrond, pp. 140–1. In March 1798 the standing militia regiments were reinforced by men from the newly raised Supplementary Militia, the remainder forming new regiments (such as the 4th Devon Militia formed at Exeter).Walrond, pp. 153–5.
In August 1798 the Colonel of the South Devons, Lord Rolle, offered his regiment for service in Ireland during the Rebellion of 1798–99, but found his men unwilling to follow him on board ship. He paraded them and asked each man in turn why he would not go, correcting their misconceptions and hearing grievances. His persuasion induced a good number to embark. He suggested to the authorities that the men who stayed behind should be given a spell of really hard duty, but that they should be moved elsewhere before the taunts onf the regular soldiers in their barracks led to a fight.Western, pp. 265–6.
In 1799 an Act was passed to allow militiamen to transfer to the Regular Army. This caused a dispute between Lord Rolle, who opposed the legislation, and his second-in-command, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Elford, Member of Parliament for Plymouth, who had voted for it and had obtained around 50 volunteers from the regiment. In November 1799 the Militia was partially disembodied, two-fifths of the men being stood down together with the whole of the Supplementary Militia. The hope was that the men dismissed from service would enlist in the Regulars. The militia's traditional local defence duties had been taken over by the Volunteers. Although he remained colonel, Lord Rolle was no longer serving with the regiment, and was concerned with raising the Beer and Seaton Volunteers, which he offered to help the 1st Devon Militia in putting down rioting in Plymouth in 1801. The militiamen disembodied in 1799 were called up again.Walrond, pp. 167–77, 189–97.
However, a peace treaty having been agreed (the Treaty of Amiens), the Militia could be stood down, the South Devon being disembodied on 24 April 1802.
Napoleonic Wars The Peace of Amiens did not last long, and the Militia were soon called out again. The warrant to embody the Devon and Exeter Militia was sent to the Lord Lieutenant (Earl Fortescue) on 11 March 1803, and the South Devons were duly embodied on 31 March 1803. All three Devon regiments assembled at Plymouth, where they trained alongside the Regulars, with particular emphasis on the Light Companies, and six chosen men from each of the other companies trained as marksmen alongside the Light Companies.Walrond, pp. 204–7. Rewards were posted on 1 August 1803 for the apprehension 23 men who had not rejoined the regiment and were listed as deserters, though a number were believed to be serving on naval warships, in the Regular Army or working in London or Newfoundland.Trewman's Exeter Flying Post, 25 August 1803, quoted at Devon – Military History.
During the summer of 1805, when Napoleon was massing his 'Army of England' at Boulogne for a projected invasion, the South Devons, with 575 men in 10 companies under Lt-Col Sir William Elford, were stationed at Bristol as part of a brigade under Maj-Gen Josiah Champagné.Brown.
Once again the militiamen were encouraged to volunteer for the Regular Army (or the Royal Marines, in the case of men from Devon and Cornwall), and by 1805 Lord Rolle was complaining that, his South Devons being the weakest, men should be transferred into it from the other Devon regiments, but this was rejected. An Act to augment the militia was passed in 1807 by which 1134 additional men were to be raised in Devon and distributed to the three regiments. Lord Rolle successfully argued for the three to be made up to equal strength, which meant his regiment receiving men from East Devon, some of whom refused to serve in the South Devons. This led to a long and angry correspondence between the three colonels and the Lord Lieutenant.Knight, p. 238.Walrond, pp. 230, 243–6. In 1809 another recruitment drive for men to transfer to the Line regiments was accompanied by balloting to bring the Militia up to strength, and the regiments were allowed to obtain recruits 'by beat of drum' (as in regiments of the Line) and by volunteers from the Local Militia, which had replaced the Volunteer Corps. This led to a resumption of the correspondence between the colonels in 1810, and Lord Rolle and the officers of the South Devons threatened to resign.Walrond, Appendix C.Walrond, pp. 254–7, 261–3.
In 1812 there was an outbreak of Luddite machine-breaking in the industrial Midlands and the regiment was part of the force employed in suppressing the Luddite Riots, operating in the Nottingham area. It was officially thanked for its service by the commander. In the summer of 1813 the South Devons rejoined the Plymouth garrison, but the regiment was detached in camp on Dartmoor; it moved into the city for winter quarters.Walrond, pp. 288–92. By now the war was over, the Treaty of Fontainebleau having been signed in April 1814. Plymouth was busy with militia regiments returning from Ireland to be disembodied, and returning British prisoners of war. On 16 June the warrant for disembodying the Devonshire Militia was signed and the regiment completed the process by 9 August.Walrond, pp. 296–301.
Waterloo campaign