The Royal London Militia was an auxiliary regiment organised in the City of London during the French Revolutionary Wars from the former London Trained Bands. It later became part of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). After conversion to the Special Reserve (SR) under the Haldane Reforms it was one of just a handful of SR units to see combat during World War I, fighting in many actions on the Western Front from 1916 until the Armistice in 1918. After a shadowy postwar existence the unit was finally disbanded in 1953.
Background
The universal obligation to military service in the shire levy was long established in England and its legal basis was updated by the Military Service Act 1557 (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 2) and the Military Service (No. 2) Act 1557 (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 3), which placed selected men, the 'trained bands', under the command of lord -lieutenants appointed by the monarch (in the City of London the lieutenancy was exercised by commissioners headed by the Lord Mayor). While trained bands of the counties most threatened by invasion were given professional captains for training, the large and efficient force of London Trained Bands (LTBs) was drilled by its own officers, many of whom had learned the necessary skills as members of the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC). The LTBs were an important element in the army mustered at Tilbury at the time of the Armada. During the English Civil War the six city regiments were joined by six auxiliary regiments, together with three regiments and their auxiliaries from the suburbs (the Liberties). This part-time force constituted Parliament's strategic reserve during the early years of the war, ensuring that the city's extensive fortifications were fully manned, and also providing brigades to reinforce the field armies for specific operations.Emberton.Roberts. The English Militia was re-established under local control in 1662 after the Restoration of the monarchy, but the LTBs remained a separate body, under their old title.Hay, pp. 258–61.
Royal London Militia The London Trained Bands, with their own act of Parliament, remained outside many of the reforms of the militia system over the next century, although they were still a useful force for putting down civil unrest (for example during the Gordon Riots of 1780). When the City militia were finally reorganised in 1794 the traditional six regiments were reduced to two, the East London Militia and the West London Militia under the Commissioners of Lieutenancy for the city. Unlike most county militia regiments which could be 'embodied' for permanent service anywhere in the country, one of the London regiments had to remain in the city at all times and the other could not legally be employed more than 12 miles away. Both regiments were awarded the prefix 'Royal' in 1804.Frederick, pp. 284–9.Parkyn.Royal London Militia at Regiments.org.
In the summer of 1805, with Napoleon's 'Army of England' assembling at Boulogne, the Royal West London Militia, 579 men in eight companies under Lt-Col Edward Wigan, were camped on Clapham Common. Together with the 2nd Tower Hamlets Militia at Mile End, they formed an infantry brigade under the command of Maj-Gen Thomas Grosvenor. Meanwhile the Royal East London, with 588 men under Lt-Col John Thacker Jennings, were distributed with seven companies at Greenwich, one at Woolwich and one at Lewisham. Together with the 1st Tower Hamlets at Deptford, they formed the militia elements in Maj-Gen Sir George James Ludlow's brigade.Brown.
The two regiments were amalgamated as the Royal London Militia in 1820, under its own act of Parliament, the Militia (City of London) Act 1820 (1 Geo. 4. c. 100).
After years of decline following the Battle of Waterloo, the Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act 1852, enacted during a period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on a county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment. Training was for 56 days on enlistment, then for 21–28 days per year, during which the men received full army pay. Under the act, militia units could be embodied by royal proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances:Dunlop, pp. 42–5.Grierson, pp. 27–8.Hay, pp. 155–6.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 91–2. 'Whenever a state of war exists between Her Majesty and any foreign power'. 'In all cases of invasion or upon imminent danger thereof'. 'In all cases of rebellion or insurrection'.
Now, rather than being drawn from city merchants and the HAC, many of the Royal London regiment's officers were retired from the regular army, including a number of members of the exclusive Gentlemen at Arms.Army List, various dates.Hart's.
The Royal London Militia was embodied for full-time duty from 20 February 1855 during the Crimean War. In 1856 the regiment was at the new North Camp at Aldershot, where the huts had only just been finished and the camp was a sea of mud. At Aldershot the regiment was in the 6th London Brigade for training, alongside the 2nd Royal Surrey, 1st Somerset and Cavan militia regiments. Peace having been signed, the militia dispersed from camp and the Royal Londons were disembodied on 12 June 1856.Davis, pp. 258–65.
The Commission of Lieutenancy for the City built Finsbury Barracks for the Royal London Militia on a site adjacent to the HAC's headquarters at Armoury House. The building was designed by Joseph Jennings and was completed in 1857.'Estate' at HAC.
Militia battalions now had a large cadre of permanent staff (about 30). Around a third of the recruits and many young officers went on to join the Regular Army. The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war.Dunlop, pp. 42–52.Grierson, 84–5, 113, 120.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, pp. 97, 102.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, pp. 126–7.
In 1871 a number of militia regiments combined their annual training with the Autumn Manoeuvres at Aldershot. The Royal Londons were included in 1st Brigade along with the 1st Royal East Middlesex, 2nd (Edmonton Rifles) Middlesex and 2nd Royal Tower Hamlets militia regiments. The regiments marched and camped around Sandhurst, Frensham and Chobham and took part in divisional 'sham fights'.Davis, pp. 288–91.
Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the Cardwell Reforms of 1872, militia regiments were grouped into county brigades with Regular battalions and their local Rifle Volunteer Corps – for the Royal Londons this was in Brigade Nos 51 and 52 with the 60th Rifles and the 2nd Middlesex Militia. This was not particularly convenient, when the regimental depot for the Rifles was in Winchester.Spiers, pp. 195–6.Barnes, Appendix II. These were purely administrative arrangements, but a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the Army List from December 1875. This assigned Regular and Militia units to places in an order of battle of corps, divisions and brigades for the 'Active Army', even though these formations were entirely theoretical, with no staff or services assigned. The Royal London Militia were assigned to 1st Brigade of 3rd Division, III Corps. The brigade, consisting of three Irish Militia regiments as well as the Royal Londons, would have mustered at Tunbridge Wells in time of war.
4th (Royal London Militia) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers The Childers Reforms of 1881 took Cardwell's reforms further, formally turning the militia regiments into battalions of their linked regular regiments. However, while the 2nd Middlesex remained with the 60th Rifles, the Royal Londons were transferred to the more convenient Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). Consequently, the regiment became the 4th (Royal London Militia) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, on 1 July 1881. When the Royal Fusiliers raised two additional regular battalions in 1898, the Royal Londons became the 6th Battalion.Barnes, p. 283.
The battalion was embodied from 1 May to 18 October 1900 during the Second Boer War, but did not serve overseas.
7th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers After the Boer War, the future of the militia was called into question. There were moves to reform the Auxiliary Forces (Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers) to take their place in the six Army Corps proposed by the Secretary of State for War, St John Brodrick. However, little of Brodrick's scheme was carried out.Dunlop, pp. 131–40, 158-62.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 243–2, 254. Under the more sweeping Haldane Reforms of 1908, the Militia was replaced by the Special Reserve (SR), a semi-professional force whose wartime role was to provide reinforcement drafts for regular units serving overseas, rather like the earlier Militia Reserve.Dunlop, pp. 270–2.Frederick, pp. vi–vii.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 275–7. The battalion became the 7th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, on 28 June 1908.
World War I On the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914 the battalion mobilised at Artillery Place and the men reported daily to Finsbury Barracks until 8 August when a 100-strong party marched to Guildhall to hand over the colours to the Lord Mayor for safekeeping. The battalion then entrained with a strength of 18 officers and 750 other ranks (ORs) under the command of Lt-Col George Cockerill (CO since 30 March) for its war station at Falmouth, Cornwall. Here it carried out the dual tasks of garrison duty and preparing reinforcement drafts of regular reservists, special reservists, recruits and returning wounded for the regular battalions serving overseas. It formed 16th (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, at Falmouth from Kitchener's Army volunteers in October 1914 (see below). During this period Lt-Col Cockerill was transferred to a post in Military Intelligence and Maj R.S.I. Hesketh was promoted to take over command.James, p. 49.Royal Fusiliers at Long, Long Trail.O'Neil, pp. 2–3, 8–9, 13.O'Neil, pp. 361–2.London Gazette, 3 April 1914.
In July 1916 the battalion was sent to France to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front, landing at Le Havre on 24 July. Three days later (together with the infantry battalion of the HAC and the 1st Artists Rifles of the Territorial Force, and the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, another SR battalion) it joined 190th Brigade in 63rd (Royal Naval) Division.Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 117–28.63d (RN) Division at Long, Long Trail. The Royal Naval Division had been formed from surplus Royal Navy (RN) reservists and Royal Marines (RM) on the outbreak of war and had taken part in the Defence of Antwerp and the Gallipoli campaign. In April 1916 the division was transferred to the War Office, taking the number of a disbanded 63rd Division, and was transported to the Western Front, where it was reorganised with one army brigade (190th) and two RN/RM brigades.Cave, pp. 106–8.
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