The 2nd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) was a volunteer infantry battalion of the British Army under various titles from 1860 to 1961. It served in Malta, Gallipoli, Egypt and on the Western Front during World War I. In World War II it saw service in Iraq, North Africa and Italy. After a postwar spell as an air defence unit, it reverted to the infantry role, and merged into the Territorials of the Royal Fusiliers.
Volunteer Force The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs) composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need.Beckett. One such unit was the Royal National Rifles, proposed in August 1860 by Sir John Shelley, 7th Baronet, MP for Westminster, which was to be raised from 'Artisans and other respectable persons'. The prospectus suggested that uniforms would be paid for by a benevolent fund rather than the men themselves. However, there was a protracted controversy over its foundation: the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, the Marquis of Salisbury, was opposed to any unit that would 'place upon its class the stamp of inferiority to another' and refused to accept it even when Shelley proposed to change its concept from a purely artisan corps to include clerks from banks, printing houses and lawyers' offices. There were accusations of political prejudice and eventually the Secretary of State for War, Sidney Herbert, was forced to instruct Salisbury to accept the unit in March 1861.Grey, pp. xxiv–xxv.Beckett, p. 46.
The unit became the 46th (London and Westminster) Middlesex RVC with its first officers commissioned on 16 April. The delay in its formation explains its high number in the Middlesex RVC order of battle. Shelley became its first commanding officer (CO) and its headquarters (HQ) was at 5 Victoria Street, close to Westminster Abbey. By June 1861 the corps had eight companies, four raised in the City of London and four from the City and Liberty of Westminster and the district of Pimlico, and it moved into a larger HQ at 31 Great George Street. The recruits were reported to be from 'the respectable working class' and the officers were 'men of good social position'.Beckett, Appendix VIII.Frederick, pp. 285–286.Westlake, Rifles, p. 175. The Second-in-Command (appointed 29 January 1862) was Major Lord Stratheden and Campbell, and the adjutant (appointed 26 September 1864) was Robert Beatty Henderson, who had served 19 years as a regular officer in the 21st Foot and the Ceylon Rifle Regiment.Beckett, p. 126.Army List.
After the initial enthusiasm the number of companies was reduced to six in 1864, reverting to eight in 1878. Lieutenant-colonel Shelley died in 1866 and was succeeded as acting CO by Major Lord Stratheden until Lt-Col F. Burlton Bennett, a former regular officer, was appointed on 19 February 1873. Bennett resigned on 11 November 1874, and Lord Stratheden was promoted to Lt-Col on 9 May 1875. When Lord Stratheden left to become Honorary Colonel of the Central London Rangers in 1876, Maj Robert Routledge, one of the unit's early officers, was promoted to succeed him. At one point seven of Routledge's sons were serving in the corps.The 46th Middlesex gained its own Honorary Colonel in 1877 when Lt-Col Sir Charles Russell, 3rd Baronet, VC, MP for Westminster and formerly of the Grenadier Guards, was appointed to the position.Grey, pp. xxvi–xxviii. In 1876 the corps' HQ was at Great Smith Street.Money Barnes, Appendix III.
When the Cardwell Reforms introduced 'Localisation of the Forces' in 1873, the 46th Middlesex was brigaded, together with several other London and Middlesex Volunteer and Militia battalions, in Brigade No 49 (Middlesex and Metropolitan) under the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). In 1880, following disbandments and amalgamations among less successful corps, the 46th Middlesex became the 23rd Middlesex RVC. In July 1883 as part of the Childers Reforms it became the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.
The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 proposed a comprehensive Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war. In peacetime these brigades provided a structure for collective training.Beckett, pp. 135, 185–186.Dunlop, pp. 60–61. The battalion formed part of the West London Brigade, together with other VBs of the Royal Fusiliers and Middlesex Regiment, whose place of assembly was Caterham Barracks. In 1899 the battalion moved to a purpose-built HQ at 9 Tufton Street, next to Dean's Yard.Grey p. xxxi. An affiliated Cadet Corps was formed at St John's, Smith Square; at one point it was commanded by the Rev William Enderby Lutyens, the 2nd VB's Chaplain.
Second Boer War After Black Week, the battalion was one of the first units to answer the call for volunteers to serve alongside the regulars in the Second Boer War. A composite Service Company drawn from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd VBs Royal Fusiliers and under the command of Maj W.S. Freidberger of the 2nd VB joined the 2nd Royal Fusiliers on 7 May 1900 at Fourteen Springs. G Company of the City of London Imperial Volunteers (CIV) was also formed from the three Royal Fusiliers VBs. The CIV returned to London when the war seemed over in the summer of 1900, but the service company continued with the regulars during the guerrilla phase of the war. This involved long marches, including the 'Great De Wet Hunt', and then tedious garrison duty in the blockhouse lines. A second composite company joined the 2nd Royal Fusiliers on 22 July 1901, and a third on 1 April 1902. Altogether, four officers and over 150 volunteers from the battalion served in the war, of whom nine were killed or died on active service. The battalion was awarded the Battle honour South Africa 1900–1902.Grey, pp. xxx–xxxi and 423.
Territorial Force When the Volunteer Force was subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908,Dunlop, Chapter 14.Spiers, Chapter 10. the Volunteer units in and around London were formed into a new London Regiment, with the 2nd VB of the Royal Fusiliers becoming the 2nd (City of London) Battalion, the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), conveniently shortened to '2nd Londons'.Grey, p. xxxii.H. Martin, pp. 6–7.Money Barnes, Appendix IV. The 1st–4th Bns London Regiment (formerly the 1st–4th VBs Royal Fusiliers) remained brigaded together as 1st London Brigade of the 1st London Division of the TF.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 141-147.
Units of the TF were granted the privilege of carrying Colours if their strength was at least three-quarters of establishment. The 2nd Londons did not qualify, but the battalion began a vigorous recruitment campaign beyond its usual area of Westminster, Pimlico and North Lambeth, and established a new C Company in Willesden and Kilburn, with its HQ at Kingsgate Road, later at the Red Lion Hotel in Kilburn High Road. The unit therefore qualified alongside other battalions of the London Regiment for the presentation of colours at Windsor Castle on 19 June 1909.Grey, pp. xxxii–xxxiiv.
World War I Mobilisation The 1st London Division left by train from Waterloo Station on Sunday 2 August 1914 for its annual training camp, which was to be held at Wareham in Dorset. No sooner had the battalions reached camp than they received orders to return to London for mobilisation. This process had been carefully planned, and was completed on 3 August, so that before war was declared on 4 August the battalions of the 1st London Brigade were already at their war stations, guarding the vital London and South Western Railway line between Waterloo and Southampton. Under their commanding officer, Lt-Col Edwin Marler, the 2nd Londons were assigned to X Section, including Southampton Docks and the line from Eastleigh to Andover Junction to Amesbury. In the docks C Company boarded and seized the SS Hanna Larsen, a German-registered vessel moored suspiciously close to a vulnerable wooden railway bridge; the crew were interned for the duration of the war.James, pp. 113–117.Grey, pp. 1–5.Grimwade, pp. 2–4.D. Martin, pp. 4, 7.
The TF was intended to be a home defence force and members could not be compelled to serve outside the country. However, on 10 August 1914 TF units were invited to volunteer for overseas service and the majority did so. On the night of 31 August/1 September the 1st London Bde was ordered back to its peacetime headquarters to mobilise for garrison duty overseas. At first the men of 2nd Londons were billeted in the Royal Horticultural Hall or camped in the adjacent Vincent Square, while recruits were drilled in Dean's Yard.The 1st London Brigade was the first Territorial formation to go overseas, sailing on 4 September aboard HM Transport Nevasa to relieve the Regular troops in garrison in Malta. A small number of officers and men ruled medically unfit or who had not volunteered for overseas service were left at Tufton Street to begin recruiting a reserve battalion. Shortly afterwards this was designated the 2/2nd Bn London Regiment, after which the parent unit became the 1/2nd Bn.Grey, pp. 5–14.Grimwade, pp. 5–7, 14.
Recruitment was rapid, many volunteers coming from the 1st Royal Fusiliers Cadet Battalion and others from local department stores (Harrods, Army & Navy Stores, and half a company from Barkers of Kensington), and the 2/2nd was soon ready for overseas service, while a 3rd Line was formed as a reserve battalion to provide drafts for the 1/2nd and 2/2nd. Later a 4/2nd Battalion was also raised (see below).Becke, Pt 2b, pp 9–15.
1/2nd Londons The 1/2nd Bn disembarked in Malta on 14 September and began guard duties at Valletta as well as training the recruits in its ranks. While in Malta Lt-Col Marler was injured in an accident and Maj James Attenborough was promoted to succeed him in command. On 2 January 1915 the 1/2nd Bn was relieved by the 2/2nd Bn (leaving its obsolete rifles and equipment for the newcomers) and embarked for Marseille in France to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front. After disembarking on 6 January it was moved by train to Étaples where it had to make camp. After re-equipping with charger-loading Long Lee-Enfield rifles and 1914 pattern equipment and reorganising into the four-company establishment, 1/2nd Londons joined GHQ Reserve at Saint-Omer on 25 January for further training. It then joined 17th Brigade in 6th Division at Armentières on 21 February.Becke, Pt 1, pp. 73–79.Grey, pp. 9–13, 18–22.Grimwade, pp. 8–14, 18.Ward, Appendix.
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