The Leeds Rifles was a unit of the 19th century Volunteer Force of the British Army that went on to serve under several different guises in the World Wars of the 20th century. In the First World War, both battalions served as infantry on the Western Front. They were later converted into an anti-aircraft and tank units, and fought in North Africa, Italy, and Burma during the Second World War.
Origin When a call was issued for the formation of local Rifle Volunteer Corps in 1859,Beckett, p. 19. the City of Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire responded enthusiastically. A unit calling itself the Leeds Rifles was quickly raised with support from the city's business leaders. It was claimed that the whole of 'A' Company was recruited from employees of Joshua Tetley & Son's brewery, beginning a long association between the Tetley family and the regiment. The Leeds Rifles was accepted as the 11th Yorkshire West Riding Rifle Volunteer Corps, with the first commissions being issued to its officers by the Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire on 17 November 1859. In May 1860, it absorbed the less-successful 22nd (Leeds) Yorkshire West Riding RVC, and the combined battalion-sized unit was renumbered the 7th West Riding RVC.Beckett, Appendix VII.Frederick, pp. 178–9. Its first headquarters was next to Leeds Town Hall. (Separately, the city also raised the 1st (Leeds) Yorkshire West Riding Artillery Volunteer Corps on 2 August 1860 Beckett, Appendix VIII. and 2nd West Riding (Leeds) Engineer Volunteer Corps formed on 21 May 1861.)Beckett, Appendix IX.
Nineteenth century
Government funding for the RVCs was strictly limited, and they had to rely upon members' subscriptions and the generosity of their officers. Captain Thomas Kinnear of the Leeds Rifles, a partner in the textile firm Benjamin Gott & Son, lent over £1,100 of his own money to offset the unit's debts. In 1866, he sent a circular to other RVCs that revealed the level of dissatisfaction around the country about the insufficiency of the government grant, but despite strong support for the Volunteer movement in Parliament, funding was not increased.Beckett, p. 151.
The primary purpose of the RVCs was home defence, but their enthusiastic members often volunteered for service overseas in other units. At least three members of the Leeds Rifles volunteered to serve in the unofficial British Legion that went to fight with Giuseppe Garibaldi in his 1860 campaign in Naples.Holyoake Papers 11/2, Bishopsgate Library, London. Officers from the Leeds Rifles apparently served in Captain Watt Whalley's Natal Light Horse in the Anglo-Zulu War.Beckett, p. 196.Morris, p. 451.
As part of the 1881 Childers Reforms, the Leeds Rifles was attached to its local county regiment, the Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), formally becoming that regiment's 3rd Volunteer Battalion in 1887. This was despite an offer from the War Office to join a different regiment, a dispute that ran for several years. As part of the compromise, the Leeds Rifles retained their Rifle green uniforms, despite the West Yorkshires being a redcoated regiment. The Leeds Rifles was sufficiently large to purchase Carlton Barracks, the old militia barracks at Carlton Hill in Leeds, and modernise it as its Regimental HQ.
During the Second Boer War, the Leeds Rifles raised two service companies to supplement the Regular Army on campaign. As a result, the Leeds Rifles was awarded South Africa 1900–1902 as its first battle honour.Leslie.
Territorials
When the Territorial Force was created in 1908, the Volunteer Battalions became Territorial Battalions of their linked regiments. The 1st and 2nd (V) Bns became 5th and 6th Bns of the West Yorkshires, while 3rd (V) Bn became 7th and 8th (Leeds Rifles), a double battalion of the West Yorkshires with RHQ at Carlton Barracks. The four battalions formed the West Yorkshire Brigade in the TF.
First World War
On the outbreak of the First World War, the West Yorkshire Brigade mobilised as 146th Brigade in 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division. The First Line TF battalions soon raised duplicate battalions (2/7th 15 September, 2/8th 14 September), initially for home service, which constituted 185th Brigade in 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division. In 1915 they formed further reserve battalions (3/7th 15 March, 3/8th, 13 March) that served in the British Isles. On 8 April 1916 the 3rd Line battalions were redesignated Reserve battalions, and on 1 September 1916, 7th Reserve Bn absorbed the 8th Reserve Bn. 7th Reserve Bn served in the West Riding Reserve Brigade, and in the summer of 1918 this battalion was sent to Ireland. (In addition, the City of Leeds raised two battalions for Kitchener's Army: the 15th West Riding (1st Leeds) was known as the 'Leeds Pals', and the 17th West Riding (2nd Leeds) was a 'Bantam' battalion.)
Battalions in 1st West Riding Division
146 Brigade landed at Boulogne on 15 April 1915 and served in 49th (West Riding) Division on the Western Front for the rest of the war. 49 Division had a peripheral role in the British attack on Aubers Ridge, 9 May 1915, soon after its arrival at the front. Much more serious was the German attack of 19 December 1915 on the British line between Frezenberg and Boesinghe (Boezinge) on the Northern side of the Ypres Salient. The Germans employed phosgene gas for the first time, delivered by shells instead of a cloud released from cylinders. The British line stood firm, despite heavy casualties from gas and shellfire.Edmonds, pp. 159–161.
On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 49 Division was in X Corps' reserve. During the morning, 146 Bde was ordered to move to Thiepval Wood to support the 32nd and 36th Divisions who had attacked at Zero. This move entailed crossing a swamp by two duckboarded causeways: 1/7th and 1/8th Leeds Rifles took the North causeway. They came under German machine-gun fire and had to cross in small parties, but by 11.35 am the brigade was in the assembly trenches in Thiepval Wood. The brigade was put at the disposal of 36th (Ulster) Division, which had gained some success at the Schwaben Redoubt, and was ordered to make a frontal assault on Thiepval village at 4.00 pm. However, due to congestion in the trenches, only the 1/6th Bn and one company of 1/8th Leeds Rifles were in position to attack. Their lines were swept by machine-gun fire from Thiepval Fort, and the survivors were withdrawn into reserve and the rest of the attack cancelled. But 36th Division had been promised support, so two companies of 1/7th Leeds Rifles advanced. It was not until 9.00 pm that the rest of the Leeds Rifles went forward and began to reach Schwaben Redoubt, but it was too late and the Ulstermen were forced to abandon the position about 10.30 pm.Edmonds, pp. 411–20.Farrar-Hockley, pp. 137–8.
However, a 30-man party of 1/7th Leeds Rifles got left behind in the redoubt, and held out for two more days under the command of Corporal George Sanders until it could be withdrawn. Sanders was awarded the Victoria Cross for this exploit, and was later commissioned as an officer.Edmonds, p. 420.Middlebrook, pp. 224, 329.
For much of the war, the 1st West Riding Division was involved in static trench warfare, holding parts of the notorious Ypres Salient. In July 1917 it was withdrawn to begin training for an amphibious operation against the German U-boat bases on the Belgian Coast (Operation Hush), but this was cancelled after a German spoiling attack and the opening failure of the British Army's Third Ypres Offensive.
Later, the Yorkshiremen were fed into the later stages of Third Ypres under the command of II ANZAC Corps. On 9 October 1917, 49th and the untried 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Divisions of II ANZAC attacked along two parallel ridges towards the village of Passchendaele (the Battle of Poelcappelle). Although recent British attacks had been successful, 49th's 'attempt to advance was marked by one mishap after another'.Wolff, p. 233. The artillery preparation was poor, hampered by the mud.Lee, p. 221. The two attacking brigades barely reached their jumping-off line on time, covered with mud from the approach march through the swampy ground, and 'looking like men who had been buried alive and then dug up again'.Wolff, p. 227. In trying to advance, they found that the Ravebeke stream – marked as 5 feet wide on their maps – had swollen to 150 feet across. The other brigade failed to cross it, leaving the West Yorkshires of 146 Bde to advance alone. They managed a few hundred yards and then 'they were staggered by shrapnel and heavy machine-gun fire from pill-boxes on the higher ground ahead'. Next they encountered a wide belt of uncut barbed wire, followed by the belt of pillboxes, each surrounded by wire, which had to be attacked individually. Finally, the Yorkshiremen faced the main resistance from the rifles and light machine-guns of the Rhinelanders of the German 16th Infantry Division hidden among the hundreds of shell-holes in the front. By 10.00 am the advance had stalled, and in early afternoon, both brigades returned to their starting points. At the end of the day 49th Division had suffered 2585 casualties and had no net gains at all.Wolff, pp. 233–5.Pugsley, p. 282.
The casualties of 1916–17 led to a manpower crisis for the British Expeditionary Force and brigades had to be reduced from four to three battalions. On 30 January 1918, 1/8th Bn transferred from the 1st to the 2nd West Riding Division and absorbed 2/8th Bn, being renamed 8th Bn.
During the second great attack of the German spring offensive of 1918, the Lys Offensive, 49 Division fought at the Battles of Estaires, Messines, Bailleul (in which the division defended Neuve Eglise), 1st and 2nd Battles of Kemmel Ridge, and the Scherpenberg.
Following the defeat of the German 1918 offensives, 49 Division took part in the pursuit to the Selle and the subsequent Battle of the Selle and Battle of Valenciennes. 7th and 8th Battalion were disembodied on 26 June and 7 May 1919 respectively.
Battalions in 2nd West Riding Division
The Second Line Territorials were released for overseas service under the Military Service Act 1916. The two Leeds Rifles battalions of 185th (2/1st West Riding) Brigade landed at Le Havre in January 1917 and served in 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division on the Western Front for the rest of the war. That spring they took part in the operations on the Ancre (15 February–13 March), the follow-up of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line (14–19 March), the First Battle of Bullecourt (11 April), the German attack on Lagnicourt (15 April), the Second Battle of Bullecourt (3–17 May) and the actions on the Hindenburg Line (20–28 May).