The 10th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, was an infantry unit of Britain's Territorial Force from 1908 to 1920. Based in Ravenscourt Park, West London, its part-time soldiers saw service at Gallipoli, in Palestine, and on the Western Front during the First World War. After the war the battalion was amalgamated into a unit of the new Royal Corps of Signals.
Origin When the former Volunteer Force was subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms in 1908,Beckett, pp. 247–53.Dunlop, Chapter 14.Spiers, Chapter 10. the 2nd (South) Middlesex Volunteer Rifle Corps and the 4th Middlesex Volunteer Rifle Corps (The Kensington Rifles) were reorganised to form the 13th (Kensington) Battalion in the new London Regiment. This amalgamation, with its loss of traditions of their old unit, was not popular with the 2nd (South) Middlesex, and about 300 officers and men left to form the nucleus of the 10th Battalion, Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment). This was considered a new unit, and was not allowed to retain the battle honour that detachments of the 2nd (South) Middlesex had won for service in the Second Boer War.Bailey & Hollier, p. 7.Westlake, Rifle Volunteers, p. 164.Frederick, p. 214. However, the 2nd Middlesex's Honorary Colonel, Lord Wolverton, and Regular Army adjutant, Captain J.F.C. Fuller, continued in their positions with the 10th Middlesex and helped to set up the new unit.
The new battalion established its headquarters (HQ) with C–H Companies at Stamford Brook Lodge, Ravenscourt Park; A Company was based at St John's College, Battersea, and B Company at St Mark's College, Chelsea, in King's Road. The St Pauls School Cadet Corps transferred its affiliation from the 2nd (South) Middlesex to the new unit.Monthly Army List, various dates.Lineage of London units at Stepping Forward.Drill Hall Register at Stepping Forward. Together with the 7th, 8th and 9th Bns, the 10th Battalion formed the Middlesex Brigade of the TF's Home Counties Division.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 49–54.James, pp. 93–4.Middlesex Rgt at Long, Long Trail.44th (HC) Division at Long, Long Trail.
First World War Mobilisation When mobilisation orders arrived on 4 August 1914 about half of the 10th Battalion were with the Home Counties Division at its annual training, marching from Aldershot to Salisbury Plain. The Middlesex Brigade was at Larkhill, and 10th Battalion had to lay out in the rain outside Amesbury station before it could entrain at 05.30 on 5 August. It then returned to Ravenscourt Park and together with the men who could not attend camp it mobilised under Lieutenant-Colonel C.R. Johnson, TD, who had been its Commanding Officer (CO) since 27 July 1912. The battalion moved to its war station at Sheerness the same day, leaving an officer to enlist the 300 or so men required to bring the battalion up to its war establishment. This was quickly accomplished by the flood of volunteers coming forwards.Wyrall, Vol I, pp. 2, 67–9.
On 10 August, units of the Territorial Force were invited to volunteer for overseas service, and on 31 August, the formation of a reserve or 2nd Line unit was authorised for each 1st Line unit where 60 per cent or more of the men had volunteered. The titles of these 2nd Line units would be the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. The Home Service-only and under-age men, together with the recruits who were coming forward, remained at the depot to form the 2/10th Bn, which came into existence on 12 September under the command of Lt-Col Johnson and was almost at full strength by the end of October. Subsequently, 3/10th and 4/10th Battalions were formed.Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6.Wyrall, Vol I, pp. 69–72.Wyrall, Vol I, pp. 183–4.
1/10th Battalion Two 1st Line TF battalions of the Middlesex Regiment left in early September 1914 to relieve Regular battalions in the Gibraltar garrison, then in October the rest of the Home Counties Division was ordered to India to relieve Regular troops there. The 1/10th Middlesex embarked at Southampton on 29 October in the transport Royal George, and disembarked at Bombay on 2 December. On arrival, the Home Counties Division was split up and the battalions were distributed to stations all over India. By May 1915, the 1/10th Bn was at Fort William (Calcutta), with 'hill parties' (convalescents and leave men) at Darjeeling. For the next four years the 1/10th Bn acted as a peacetime garrison, while suffering a steady drain of its best men to officer training and other duties. For example, on 5 November 1917 the battalion supplied a draft of 100 men to the 1/9th Middlesex to bring that battalion up to full strength to take part in the Mesopotamian campaign.Wyrall, Vol II, pp. 331–2, 335, 341. The battalion returned to the UK after the end of the war and was demobilised at Crowborough in Sussex on 20 November 1919.
2/10th Battalion The 2/10th Battalion joined the 2nd Middlesex Brigade, which was close to full strength by 22 October 1914, and the 2nd Home Counties Division began to form in the Windsor area soon afterwards. Training was hampered by lack of modern arms and equipment: only a few old .256-in Japanese Ariska rifles were available for the infantry. However, in this half-trained and -equipped state, the 2/10th Middlesex was sent on 24 April 1915to join the Welsh Border Brigade in the Welsh Division, which was preparing to go overseas. The Welsh Border Brigade had sent its 1st Line battalions to reinforce Regular divisions on the Western Front and was being reconstituted at Cambridge with 2nd Line Home Counties battalions; soon afterwards it was renumbered 160th Brigade when the division became the 53rd (Welsh) Division.Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 75–82.67th (2nd HC) Division at Long, Long Trail.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 117–23.53rd (W) Division at Long, Long Trail.
In May the division moved to Bedford to continue its training, and on 2 July was reported fit for service in the Mediterranean. The battalion entrained for Devonport Dockyard on 17 July and embarked on HM Transport Huntsgreen (formerly the German Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping line's Derfflinger). It disembarked in Alexandria on 1 August and moved to Port Said.Westlake, Gallipoli, pp. 179–80.
Gallipoli The 53rd (W) Division was destined as reinforcements for the Gallipoli Campaign. After sailing to Lemnos and then Imbros, the battalion landed on C Beach at Suvla Bay at about midnight on 8 August under the command of Lt-Col C.H. Pank. It began beach fatigues under shellfire before moving to the western slopes of Lala Baba at nightfall on 9 August. The landing had been chaotic, but 53rd (W) Division was ordered to attack the W Hills the following day to recover the position. The first phase of the attack, on Scimitar Hill, was to be carried out by 159th (Cheshire) Brigade, after which 158th (North Wales) Bde reinforced by 2/10th Middlesex from 160th Bde would pass through to attack the Anafarta Spur. 2/10th Middlesex set off at dawn across a salt lake to join the firing line at Chocolate Hill, with no cover and under heavy shelling, machine gun and rifle fire, and from Chocolate Hill the firing line was unable to advance to Scimitar Hill. A second attack was ordered for 16.30, but the only troops to advance were two companies of the 2/10th, who went forward about before discovering that they were unsupported and fell back, having lost further casualties.Aspinall-Oglander, pp. 297–302.North, p. 174.Dudley Ward, pp. 34–41.Wyrall, Vol I, pp. 185–9.
The companies were gathered during the night and the battalion was moved a few hundred yards to its left, where it dug in until relieved on 13 August. It then returned to the beach and fatigue duties until the end of the month, under continual shellfire during daylight hours.Dudley Ward, p. 41.Wyrall, Vol I, p. 189. From then on the battalion endured spells in the front line alternating with digging positions in the rear. By the end of October it was reduced by battle casualties and sickness to about half of its pre-landing strength. In November the 2/10th Middlesex was reinforced by four officers and 200 men from the 9th Bn Sherwood Foresters in 11th (Northern) Division. The battalion was evacuated to Lemnos aboard the El Kahirah on 13 December.
Palestine From Lemnos the 53rd Division was shipped to Alexandria, and began a long period of rest and recuperation guarding the Nile Valley in Egypt. When the Turkish Army attacked the Suez Canal defences in August 1916, leading to the Battle of Romani, only part of 53rd Division was actually engaged, but the 2/10th Middlesex was present and so was later awarded the battle honour for Rumani.MacMunn & Falls, p. 156.Wyrall, Vol I, Ch. XXVI.
The British opened the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in March 1917 when the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) advanced towards Gaza, with 53rd Division in the Desert Column. The 1st Battle of Gaza began at 03.30 on 26 March, when 160th Brigade started to cross Wadi Ghuzzee. Shortly afterwards, fog began to roll in from the sea, slowing the advance, but the attack began shortly after 11.45. By 13.30 the brigade had captured 'The Labyrinth', a maze of entrenched gardens, but 2/10th Middlesex's further advance was slowed up by four belts of barbed wire and at 15.30 it requested reinforcements and ammunition; two companies of 2/4th Queens (Royal West Surrey Regiment) arrived at 17.00. By 18.30 the whole position had been secured. But events had not gone so well elsewhere, and the brigade's advanced positions were still outflanked. At 19.00 the Middlesex's CO reported that unless reinforced, his position was untenable; nevertheless, he was ordered to consolidate. However 160th Bde was ordered to pull back at midnight, and by 04.30 on 27 March 2/10th Middlesex was back on its starting position behind Wadi Ghuzzee. The battalion's casualties amounted to four officers killed and five wounded, 14 other ranks (ORs) killed, 108 wounded and 22 missing.Bullock, pp. 44–5.MacMunn & Falls, pp. 279–315Wyrall, Vol II, pp. 309–13.
A second attempt to take Gaza began on 17 April, and the 53rd Division attacked in the second phase on 19 April. The objective for 160th Brigade was Samson Ridge, and 2/10th Bn set out at 07.15 towards the right hand Redoubt on the ridge. The attack proceeded slowly, held up by machine gun fire, the top eventually being taken at the point of the bayonet. However, the attack elsewhere failed, and the troops dug in at the end of the day. The battalion had lost 2 officers killed and 7 wounded, 35 ORs killed or died of wounds, 6 missing and 132 wounded.Bullock, pp. 46–7.MacMunn & Falls, pp. 334–49.Wyrall, Vol II, pp. 313–5.