The South Hampshire Light Infantry Militia (or colloquially the 'South Hants Militia') was an auxiliary military regiment in the county of Hampshire on England's South Coast. First organised during the Seven Years' War it carried out internal security and home defence duties in all of Britain's major wars until 1853.
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, which placed them under the command of Lords Lieutenant appointed by the monarch. This is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England. From 1572 selected men were given regular training as the 'Trained Bands'. These were an important element in the country's defence at the time of the Spanish Armada in the 1580s: the Hampshire and Isle of Wight TBs would have been in the front line in the event of invasion. Control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between King Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War. Although hardly employed during the civil wars, the Hampshire Trained Bands were active 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 Hampshire supported six regiments of foot, with independent companies in Southampton and Winchester, two Troops of horse, and a regiment of foot on the Isle of Wight. The Hampshire Militia was called out during the Monmouth Rebellion. However, after the Peace of Utrecht in 1715 the militia was allowed to decline.Atkinson, Vol I, pp. 368–77.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16, 125, 294–5.Frederick, p. 250.Hay, pp. 11–17, 25–6, 60–1, 88, 99–105=4.Hay, pp. 345–8.Holmes, pp. 90–4.
South Hampshire Militia
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.
Hampshire was given a quota of 960 men to raise in two regiments with an independent company on the Isle of Wight. The North Regiment had been formed by 14 September 1759, when its arms were ordered to be issued, and the South Regiment by 3 October 1759.Parkyn.Western, Appendices A & B. The Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Lieutenant-General Charles Powlett, 5th Duke of Bolton, took personal command of the North Regiment as Colonel. Alexander Thistlethwayte, MP for Hampshire, was nominal colonel of the South Regiment (having apparently been a militia colonel since 1741), with Sir Thomas Worsley, 6th Baronet as his Lieutenant-Colonel. The regimental agent complained that neither Thistlethwaite not Bolton had been issued with a formal commission. The secretary of state for war regarded the two Hampshire regiments as battalions of a single regiment under the direct command of the Duke, who tried to take over as colonel of the South Regiment in 1760. Worsley firmly resisted the Duke's efforts to secure control of both regiments. Legal opinion pointed out that the Act prohibited lords-lieutenant from commanding more than one regiment, and that with eight companies the South Hampshires were a full regiment and not a battalion. It seems that a compromise was reached in 1762 when the Duke was appointed Brigadier-General of Hampshire Militia, while Worsley was established as Lt-Col Commandant of the South Regiment. Among other officers appointed in 1759, Edward Gibbon Sr was the Major, and his son the future historian Edward Gibbon Jr was Captain of the Grenadier Company.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 38–9, 161.Verney, pp. 143–52.
The South regiment was ordered to be embodied for permanent duty at Southampton on 12 May 1760, although the Duke of Bolton actually assembled it at Winchester on 3 June before it marched to Blandford in Dorset. It was quartered there until the end of August when it was stationed at Gosport Hospital. In October the two Hampshire regiments camped together outside Portsmouth while Hilsea Barracks were being cleaned. In November the South Hampshires marched under Lt-Col Worsley to winter quarters at Maidstone in Kent, with a 200-strong detachment guarding French prisoners-of-war at Sissinghurst. At the end of December the regiment was moved to Dover and Deal, Kent, where as the younger Gibbon related, 'On the beach at Dover we exercised in sight of the Gallic shores'. At the end of May 1761 the South Hants were issued with tents and ordered to Winchester, where they joined a large militia encampment under Lt-Gen the Earl of Effingham. The younger Gibbon considered that the regiment benefited greatly from the combined training and field days at this camp and the following year he applied unsuccessfully to be Effingham's Brigade major at the camp. The regiment left camp on 15 October 1761 and marched to Devizes in Wiltshire for the winter. The following year the regiment was ordered on 27 May to march as two 'divisions' to Southampton, and then provided a 250-strong detachment to guard French prisoners at Fareham and Forton. However, the detachment was too small for the duty, and a 130-man detachment from the North Hampshires was sent from Winchester Camp to reinforce it. The detachment returned to Southampton in July when that year's newly-balloted recruits were being integrated in to the regiment, but it went back to Fareham and Forton in October, while the rest of the regiment went to Gosport and Haslar Hospital.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 153–71.
By the end of 1762 a peace treaty was being negotiated. Lieutenant-Col Worsley was ordered to call in his detachments, and the regiment was disembodied on 23 December 1762, Maj Gibbon's company being paid off at Buriton and his son's Grenadier Company at Alton. The younger Gibbon recorded that 'the few men of property' among the officers welcomed the demobilisation, but that it was bad news for the junior officers, many of whom had little money.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 171–4.Western, pp. 314–5.
The disembodied militia remained in existence, the adjutant, sergeants and drummers retaining their positions and pay, and the officers and balloted men assembling in May each year from 1766 onwards for training (though young Gibbon thought the peacetime training to be useless). A few officers were commissioned or promoted during the years of peace, the younger Gibbon rising to Lt-Col before he resigned in 1770.
American War of Independence
The militia was called out on 28 March 1778 during the War of American Independence when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain. The South Hampshire regiment with seven companies was embodied at Southampton in April under the command of Col Sir Simeon Stuart, 3rd Baronet, MP, and then marched to Chichester, Sussex, on 1 May. Before leaving Southampton the regiment had been inoculated against smallpox (Variolation) and the people of Chichester were frightened by the men showing mild symptoms of the disease, demanding that the militiamen should be quarantined. At the end of May the regiment was on duty to prevent rioting as the Sussex magistrates carried out the militia ballot. Parliament permitted the addition of one company raised by voluntary enlistment to supplement the balloted men in each regiment, bringing the South Hampshire up to eight companies.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 174–7.Western p. 209.
On 12 June the South Hampshire Militia under Col Stuart marched in two divisions to Coxheath Camp near Maidstone, the army's largest training camp, where the completely raw Militia were exercised as part of a division alongside Regular troops while providing a reserve in case of French invasion of South East England. In November the regiment returned to winter quarters in small towns across Hampshire. The following spring the South Hants crossed to the Isle of Wight, relieving the North Hants, who returned to the mainland. The regiment was stationed at Newport and Carisbrooke Castle with 2 companies detached to Cowes.Herbert.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 177–82. Sir Simeon Stuart died in November 1779 and was succeeded as colonel by Maj Sir Richard Worsley, 7th Baronet, son of Sir Thomas.
On 19 May 1780 the South Hants received orders to return to the mainland, sailing to Portsmouth and then marching via London to camp at Danbury, Essex. However, on 6 June the regiment was halted at Lambeth to assist in suppressing the Gordon Riots. It joined the North Hants and four other militia regiments at a camp in Hyde Park facing Park Lane. The riots having died down, the Park Lane camp was broken up on 10 August, but the South Hants remained close to London in camp on Finchley Common. On 16 October the regiment was sent into winter quarters across Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. It went to Coxheath Camp again in 1781, the companies beginning their concentration in April, and arriving at the camp on 7 June, where the South Hants remained until 2 November. The winter quarters for 1781–82 were scattered across Sussex in towns and villages around Lewes, Uckfield, Hastings and Eastbourne. They were ordered to aid the Revenue officers in anti-smuggling duties. On 21 February 1782 all the detachments were ordered to Hilsea Barracks, Portsmouth. By the beginning of 1783 a peace was being negotiated and the militia could be stood down. The South Hampshire Militia was disembodied at Southampton on 12 March.Burgoyne, p. 16.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 182–7.Western p. 431.
From 1784 to 1792 the militia were assembled for their 28 days' annual peacetime training, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually mustered each year.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 187–8.
French Revolutionary War On 5 December 1792 the 6th Duke of Bolton, as lord-lieutenant, was ordered to recall the militiamen of the county who had already been trained in May that year. Once they had assembled for a 20-day embodiment, it was changed to permanent service. Thus a portion of the militia was already under arms before Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793. On 29 January the South Hampshire Militia was 259 strong, needing 182 men to complete its establishment.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 188–9.Sleigh, p. 84.
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, manned garrisons, guarded prisoners of war, and carried out internal security duties, while their traditional local defence duties were taken over by the Volunteers and mounted Yeomanry.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255, 411.
After the outbreak of war the regiment was sent to Portsmouth and on 8 August 1793 it was at Gosport Barracks with 7 companies. It spent the winter quartered at Lymington and Christchurch. Once again a volunteer company was added to the regiment, on 29 April 1794, at county expense. That summer the regiment was quartered in the towns and villages of East Kent.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 189–91.London Gazette, 1 July 1794.