The West Suffolk Militia was an auxiliary military unit in the English county of Suffolk in East Anglia. First organised during the Seven Years' War it served on internal security and home defence duties in all of Britain's major wars. It later became a battalion of the Suffolk Regiment and supplied thousands of recruits to the fighting battalions during World War I. After 1921 the militia had only a shadowy existence until its final abolition 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 two acts of 1557 (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 3 and 4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 2), 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 Suffolk Trained Bands were active in the Siege of Colchester and Battle of Worcester, 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 Suffolk Militia played a prominent part in the Second Dutch War of 1667. 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. 11–7, 60–2, 88, 99–104.Hay, pp. 272–3.Holmes, pp. 90–4.Hussey, pp. 17, 20–1, 47–111.Ive, pp. 212–4, 230–2.Webb, pp. 422–4.
West Suffolk Militia 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. There was a property qualification for officers, who were commissioned by the lord lieutenant.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299, 301–2, 521.Webb, pp. 424–5.Hay, pp. 136–44.Western, English Militia, pp. 127–61. Suffolk was given a quota of 960 men to raise. The militia was strongly supported by the new Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, the 3rd Duke of Grafton, and the county was one of the first to raise its quota. Grafton was ordered organise his men into two battalions as the 1st or Western Battalion at Bury St Edmunds under Colonel the 'Honourable Nassau', and the 2nd or East Suffolk Battalion at Ipswich commanded by Col Francis Vernon of Orwell Park. The government would only issue arms from the Tower of London to militia regiments when they had enrolled 60 per cent of their quota: for the two Suffolk regiments this was on 27 April 1759, which was taken as their official date of formation. The regiments were embodied for full-time service on 16 October 1759.Western, English Militia, p. 124.Western, English Militia, Appendices A & B.Frederick, p. 222.Hay, p. 218.West Suffolk Militia at Regiments.org.
At the end of 1759 the Suffolk Militia regiments made their first marches outside the county, which was a novel experience for most of the junior officers and men.Western, English Militia, p. 399. The West Suffolks went to Peterborough and Oundle. On 14 October 1760 both regiments marched back to Bury St Edmunds and went into winter quarters in their home county, the West Suffolks in Sudbury. In May 1761 the West Suffolks marched to Hilsea outside Portsmouth, where it suffered much sickness. In October it returned to winter quarters in Suffolk, at Sudbury, Ballingdon and Lavenham. In June 1762 the battalion concentrated at Bury St Edmunds. With the Seven Years War drawing to a close, Grafton was instructed on 20 December 1762 to disembody the Suffolk Militia, which was carried out for the West Suffolks on 24 December. Annual training continued thereafter, and officers were commissioned to fill vacancies.Webb, pp. 426–9.
War of American Independence
The militia was called out after the outbreak of the War of American Independence when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain. On 26 March 1778 Grafton was ordered to embody the two regiments once more. On 24 May the West Suffolks marched out to Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham, and on 2 June reached Coxheath near Maidstone in Kent. During the summer of 1778 the West Suffolk Militia, commanded by the Duke of Grafton, formed part of a concentration at Coxheath Camp, which was the army's largest training camp. Here 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. The West Suffolks formed part of the Right Wing under Maj-Gen William Amherst. The Duke of Grafton was chosen to train the grenadier companies of the battalions in camp, and he worked them hard, 7–8 hours a day. The intention had been to form four composite grenadier battalions and deploy them in 'flying encampments' along the likely invasion coast, but there is no evidence that this was actually carried out. Observers of the camp noted that the discipline of the West Suffolk Militia under Grafton was especially good.Herbert.
The regiment returned to winter quarters in Bury St Edmunds on 7 November 1778. The following spring it moved into neighbouring Essex, by 3 April seven companies were distributed between Chelmsford, Springfield and Moulsham, and the other company split between Bromfield, Woodford and Writtle Green. On 5 July the whole regiment was sent to camp at Warley Common in Essex, another large training encampment. In 1778 Parliament had permitted militia regiments to be augmented by voluntary enlistment to the extent of once additional company, and when the Warley encampment broke up on 26 November, the West Suffolks had a ninth company. These were distributed across Hertfordshire for winter quarters: Battalion headquarters (HQ) and 3 companies to Hitchin, 2 to Hatfield and Bell Bar, 1 between Welwyn, Codicote and Lemsford Mills, 2 to Stevenage and 1 to Baldock.Western, English Militia, p. 210.
The Duke of Grafton resigned his commission on grounds of ill-health in February 1780 and on 2 June 1780 his 20-year-old son and heir, George, Earl of Euston, was commissioned as colonel of the West Suffolk Militia.Militia List, 1805. On 28 April that year the West Suffolks went to North East England, first to Newcastle upon Tyne, then from 10 May at Kingston upon Hull for the summer. ON 30 October it took up winter quarters at Newcastle (3 companies), Alnwick (3), and between Morpeth, Bedlington and Blyth (3). During the summer of 1781 the regiment was at Warley Camp once more from 1 June to 30 October, and then (now only 8 companies again) wintered in its home county of Suffolk, at Newmarket (HQ and 4 companies), Mildenhall and Barton Mills (1), Stowmarket and Needham Market (2), and between Botesdale and Ixworth (1). It was camped at Danbury Common in Essex for the summer of 1782 (5 July to 8 November) under the command of Major-General St John, and then wintered in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire: Newmarket, All Saints (Halesworth) and Woodditton (4 companies), Bury St Edmunds (3), and Mildenhall, Barton Mills and Brandon (1). By the end of 1782 a peace treaty had been agreed and the war was coming to an end, so orders to disembody the Suffolk Militia were issued on 4 March 1783.Burgoyne, p. 17.
From 1784 to 1792 the militia were supposed to assemble for 28 days' annual training, even though to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually called out each year. In 1786 the number of permanent NCOs was reduced.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1.Western, English Militia, p. 333.
French Revolutionary Wars The militia was already being called out when Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793. The order to embody the Suffolk Militia had gone out on 4 December 1792. Each of the Suffolk battalions was to consist of eight companies, one of which was a light company. They were also issued with two light 'battalion guns'.Webb, pp. 428–31. Lord Euston reported that substitutes would be unwilling to serve if their families were not eligible for the allowances given to balloted men, and so they were included in the Militia Bill before Parliament.Western, English Militia, p. 288.
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.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255, 411.
On 14 January 1793 the West Suffolk Militia travelled to Hilsea, outside Portsmouth, and then on 19 June to join a large militia 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. After the camp broke up, the West Suffolks were quartered in Hampshire and Surrey, at Farnham (3 companies), Alton, Chawton and Farringdon (3), and Alresford (2). By November there were also detachments at Arundel in Sussex, Bentley and Aldershot, and in March and April 1794 companies were detached to Petersfield, Odiham, Elvetham and Harslem.Webb, pp. 428–31.Sargeaunt, pp. 85–6.'Broadwater Common 1793' at Royal Collection Trust.
With a French invasion possible, the Government augmented the strength of the embodied militia in early 1794: the West Suffolks by 63 men, recruited by voluntary enlistment and paid for by county subscriptions.Hay, pp. 148–9. Western (1956).Western, English Militia, p. 219. That summer the West Suffolks were in camp at Brighton from 12 May to October. When they marched out they left behind their battalion guns, and on arrival at Margate in Kent on 29 October they took over those of the 1st Somerset Militia who had been camped on Barham Downs. The battalion wintered with 10 separate detachments around Margate. It then returned to Brighton on 13 May 1795, where it took over its own guns once more.Kerr, pp. 34–5. In June that year it was part of a large camp at Warley under Lieutenant-General Cornwallis.Burgoyne, p. 22.
In October 1795 the regiment was sent into Berkshire and Buckinghamshire for its winter quarters, with 4 companies sent to High and West Wycombe, the other 4 distributed between Maidenhead, Marlow, and Bexham, with HQ first at Marlow, then at Maidenhead. On 29 April 1796 it was sent to quarters in Uxbridge in Middlesex, with several outlying detachments, before going to Warley Camp on 8 June for the summer. When the camp broke up in October the regiment marched back to Bury St Edmunds for the winter. On 17 February 1797 the militia were directed to be formed into brigades for their summer training. The West Suffolks, together with the Cambridgeshires, East Norfolks and Warwickshires, formed 2nd Brigade of Gen Sir William Howe's Division. On 20 March the West Suffolks went to Ipswich, and then in July to Colchester, returning to Ipswich on 27 January 1798.