The 2nd Somerset Militia was an auxiliary military regiment in the county of Somerset in South West England. First organised during the Seven Years' War it was reformed at the start of the French Revolutionary War and continued on internal security and home defence duties in all of Britain's major wars. It later became a battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry and served in South Africa during the Second Boer War, but 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. It was an important element in the country's defence at the time of the Spanish Armada in the 1580s, and control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between King Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War. The Somerset Trained Bands were active in local skirmishes and sieges during the early part of the civil war, and later in controlling the country under the Commonwealth and Protectorate. The English militia was re-established under local control in 1662 after the Restoration of the monarchy, and the Somerset Militia played a prominent part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685. However, after the Peace of Utrecht in 1715 the militia was allowed to decline.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16, 125, 294–5.Hay, pp. 11–17, 25–6, 60–1, 88, 99–104.Hay, pp. 275–8.Holmes, pp. 90–4.Kerr, pp. 1–5, 106–7.
Seven Years' War
Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 reorganised the county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. In peacetime they assembled for 28 days' annual training. There was a property qualification for officers, who were commissioned by the lord lieutenant. An adjutant and drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299–302.Hay, pp. 136–44.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Western, pp. 124–57, 251.
Somerset's quota was set at 840 men in two regiments, each of seven companies. The Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, Earl Poulett, was an enthusiast for the militia, but even he was slow to act, finding the Somerset gentry averse, and the 'common people outrageously against it' for fear of being 'Digby'd abroad' (Lord Digby had recently raised a regular regiment in Somerset and Dorset for home service but the men had been forcibly sent overseas). In 1758 Poulett tried to recruit officers, but the first lieutenancy meeting was a failure with only eight persons putting themselves forward out of 40 required. Poulett then began a publicity campaign, giving a rousing speech and having copies of its circulated. He proposed taking the colonelcy of both regiments himself, and appointed the other senior officers from across the political spectrum. By January 1759 he had obtained almost all the officers and balloting and enrolment of the other ranks began.Western, pp. 121–2, 150–2.Western, Appendices A & B. The 1st Somerset Militia was formed at Taunton, the 2nd Somerset Militia at Bath, and both received their arms on 22 March 1759.Frederick, p. 135.Kerr, pp. 8–10, 16.Kerr, pp. 100–1.Parkyn.
The 1st and 2nd Somerset Militia were both embodied for fulltime service on 3 July 1759. Despite the delays, Somerset was still one of the earliest counties to complete its militia, but the lack of experience in any county at this date led to problems over pay and administration. The counties were offered the help of a regular officer, but Poulett refused this, to reassure his men that they were not being conscripted into the regulars. The Somerset Militia also produced its own simplified drill book.Western, pp. 372–3, 405.
The 2nd Somerset Militia was embodied under the command of Colonel Sir Charles Kemys Tynte, 5th Baronet, MP for Somerset. The adjutant was Lieutenant Daniel Daniel of the 13th Foot, who had been wounded at the Battle of Fontenoy and had been at the Battle of Culloden. The day after embodiment the regiment was ordered to march to Bideford in Devon to come under the command of Major-General Duroure. It set off from Bath on 16 July. Two years later, in July 1761, it was serving at Godalming in Surrey. Poulett continued to have difficulties over officers for the Somerset Militia: after the death of King George II and the accession of George III in 1760 their commissions were continued by royal proclamation. Some officers chose to regard them as new commissions outside the Militia Act and retired in 1761. While balloting was held in Somerset in November 1761 to replace the time-expired men in the ranks, the lieutenancy published advertisements in December seeking candidates for junior officers. After serving in home defence for most of the war, the regiment was ordered to disembody on 30 December 1762, shortly before hostilities were ended by the Treaty of Paris. The officers and men of the Somersets left so quickly that it was difficult to settle up the regimental accounts.Kerr, pp. 10–15.Western, p. 376. In 1763 the disembodied Somerset militia regiments were reorganised into a single regiment of 12 companies, and the 2nd Somerset Militia ceased to exist for the next 35 years, while the 1st served during the War of American Independence.Cokayne: 'Tynte'.
French Revolutionary Wars
The militia was already being embodied when Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793 and the Somerset Militia took up its usual home defence and garrison duties.Kerr, p. 30. In an attempt to have as many men as possible under arms for home defence to release regulars, in 1796 the Government created the Supplementary Militia, a compulsory levy of men to be trained for 20 days a year in their spare time, and to be incorporated in the Regular Militia in emergency. Somerset's new quota was fixed at 2960 men, and two additional battalions were formed from these men in 1797 as well as bringing the 1st Somerset Militia up to full strength. The new battalions were the Eastern Battalion at Bath, and the Western Battalion at Taunton; later they were designated the 2nd and 3rd Somerset Militia. On 24 February 1797 the 1st Somerset Militia sent a detachment of three officers, six sergeants, two drummer and 15 rank and file to Bath to train the supplementaries. Both new regiments were embodied on 12 March 1798 and each was sent a cadre of 3 sergeants, 3 corporals and 6 'well-drilled privates' from the 1st Somersets to serve as non-commissioned officers.Fortescue, Vol V, pp. 167–8, 198–204.Hay, pp. 148–52.Kerr, pp. 37–9.Sleigh, p. 88.Western, pp. 220–3.
On 17 March both the 1st Somerset and the 'Somerset Supplementary' regiments were ordered to complete their Grenadier and Light Companies to 100 strong, ready to be incorporated with those from other militia regiments into composite Grenadier and Light battalions. These were formed on 8 May, at Maker and Stanborough respectively, in the coast defences of South West England. After training, the rest of the Eastern Battalion under Colonel Tynte followed them to camp at Charleston Down, arriving on 18 June.Walrond, pp. 151–2.
The French Revolutionary Wars saw a new phase for the English militia: they were embodied for a whole generation, and became regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in the British Isles), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits. They served in coast defences, manning garrisons, guarding prisoners of war, and for internal security, while their traditional local defence duties were taken over by the Volunteers and mounted Yeomanry.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255, 411.
Hostilities ended with the Treaty of Amiens on 27 March 1802, and the militia were disembodied.Kerr, p. 43.
Napoleonic Wars
However, the Peace of Amiens was short-lived and Britain declared war on France once more in May 1803. The 1st and 2nd Somerset Militia had already been embodied in March and were brought up to a higher establishment by supplementaries in June. Both regiments did duty in South West England. Both had detachments of selected Sharpshooters, and early in November the district commander, Maj-Gen Thomas Grosvenor, held a competition between them, the best marksmen to be awarded a red feather in their cap.Kerr, p. 44.
From August to October 1804 the 1st and 2nd Somerset Militia were both stationed at Weymouth, Dorset, in a brigade commanded by Maj-Gen Lord Charles FitzRoy, while King George III was in residence at Gloucester Lodge.Kerr, pp. 45–7. Viscount Hinton, son of the 4th Earl Poulett, who had been a captain in his father's 1st Somerset Militia, was appointed colonel of the 2nd Somerset on 20 September 1804.WO List, 1805. In August and September 1805, while Napoleon assembled an invasion force across the English Channel at Boulogne, the 1st and 2nd Somersets were again camped at Weymouth, brigaded with the 1st Royal Lancashire and the North Yorkshire Militia. On 1 September the 2nd Somersets consisted of 843 men in 10 companies under the command of Lt-Col Edward Andrews.Steve Brown, 'Home Guard: The Forces to Meet the Expected French Invasion/1 September 1805' at The Napoleon Series (archived at the Wayback Machine). In the autumn of 1805 the 2nd Somerset was again brigaded with the 1st Somerset, this time at Silverhill, East Sussex.
Ireland An Act of Parliament in 1811 permitted militia regiments to volunteer for periods of two years' service in Ireland.Hay, p. 152.Kerr, p. 52. The 2nd Somerset volunteered, and on 28 June 1813 the regiment embarked at Bristol bound for Dublin. Napoleon abdicated in April 1814 and it appeared that the wars were over. In September the English militia regiments in Ireland were ordered back to their home counties to be disembodied. On its return in 1814 the 2nd Somerset re-established its HQ at Bath. Early in 1815 Napoleon returned from Elba, sparking off the short Waterloo campaign, but it appears that the 2nd Somerset was not embodied during this crisis.
Long peace
After Waterloo there was another long peace. Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots were still held until 1831, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and the permanent staffs of sergeants and drummers were progressively reduced.Kerr, pp. 58–60.Hay, p. 154.
On the death of the 4th Earl Poulett in 1819, Viscount Hinton succeeded to the earldom and also to the colonelcy of the 1st Somerset Militia; Sir Thomas Lethbridge, 2nd Baronet, became colonel of the 2nd Somerset.London Gazette, 9 March 1819.Burke: 'Lethbridge'.Hart's. After the death of Sir Thomas Lethbridge, William Pinney, MP for East Somerset, was appointed colonel on 18 January 1850. His lieutenant-colonel was Francis Fownes Luttrell, who had been wounded at Waterloo while serving as an officer in the Grenadier Guards.
1852 Reforms The Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act 1852, enacted during a renewed period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on a county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment (although conscription by means of the Militia Ballot might be used if the counties failed to meet their quotas). 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.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 91–2. 'Whenever a state of war exists between Her Majesty and any foreign power'.