The 4th Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own Light Infantry) was an auxiliary regiment raised in the county of Lancashire in North West England just before the Crimean War. It later became part of the South Lancashire Regiment. Although primarily intended for home defence, it saw considerable active service during the Second Boer War. After conversion to the Special Reserve (SR) under the Haldane Reforms it supplied reinforcements to the fighting battalions during World War I and carried out internal security duties in Ireland. After a shadowy postwar existence the unit was finally disbanded 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. cc. 2 and 3), 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 English Militia was re-established under local control in 1662 after the Restoration of the monarchy, and the Lancashire Militia fought in King William III's campaign in Ireland in 1690–91, and against the Jacobite Risings in 1715 and 1745. However, between periods of national emergency the militia was regularly allowed to decline.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 125, 133–40, 194–7, 294–5.Grierson, pp. 6–7.Hay, pp. 11–17, 25–6.LRO, Handlist 72.Williamson & Whalley, pp. 2–3, 10–25, 29–84.
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 1760 Lancashire's quota was set at 800 men in one regiment, which received the title Royal Lancashire Militia in 1761.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 299–302.Frederick, p. 119.Hay, pp. 138–44, 242–3.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255.Western, p. 251, Appendices A & B. These reformed regiments were 'embodied' for permanent service in home defence until the end of the Seven Years' War and again during the War of American Independence. In peacetime they assembled for 28 days' annual training. The militia were re-embodied shortly before Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793.Fortescue, Vol II, p. 521.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 173–4, 530–1.Williamson & Whalley, pp. 87–170.
French wars Lancashire's militia quota set in 1760 was small in proportion to its population, which soared during the Industrial Revolution. By 1796 it represented only one man in every 43 of those eligible. But in that year an additional ballot was carried out to raise men for the 'Supplementary Militia' to reinforce the standing militia regiments and to form additional temporary regiments. Lancashire's quota was increased to five regiments, and recruitment became difficult. The 3rd Royal Lancashire Supplementary Militia was raised on 3 March 1797 under the command of Colonel Le Gendre Pierce Starkie of Huntroyde Hall. The regiment may have assembled nine companies but it never reached full establishment and attempts to convert it into a permanent 4th Royal Lancashire Militia failed. The supplementary militia was abolished in 1799, the remaining balloted men in Lancashire being distributed to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Royal Lancashire Militia to fill vacancies.Williamson & Whalley, pp. 167–74.2nd–5th Royal Lancashire Militia (1st–4th Supplementary Militia) 1797–1816 at School of Mars.Western, pp. 246, 269, 282.
During the French wars, the militia 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, such as the time of the Luddite disturbances. The three regiments of Lancashire militia were serving in Ireland during the final Waterloo campaign and were finally disembodied in 1816. Once again, the militia was allowed to decline in the years of the long peace that followed.Knight, pp. 411, 437–47.Williamson & Whalley, pp. 175–246. In 1831 King William IV bestowed on the three Lancashire Militia Regiments the additional title The Duke of Lancaster's Own.
4th Royal Lancashire Militia The long-standing Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act 1852, enacted during a period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on a county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment (although conscription by means of the militia ballot might be used if the counties failed to meet their quotas). Training was for 56 days on enlistment, then for 21–28 days per year, during which the men received full army pay. Under the Act, militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time service in three circumstances:Dunlop, pp. 42–52.Grierson, pp. 27–9.Hay, pp. 155–7.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 91–2. 'Whenever a state of war exists between Her Majesty and any foreign power'. 'In all cases of invasion or upon imminent danger thereof'. 'In all cases of rebellion or insurrection'.
With the threat of war against Russia, the three Lancashire regiments were ordered to recruit up to their full establishment of 1200 men. Additional infantry and artillery militia regiments were also formed in Lancashire at this time including the 4th Duke of Lancaster's Own Light Infantry raised at Warrington on 22 March 1853 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant John Ireland Blackburne of Hale Hall, a former captain in the 5th Dragoon Guards. The new unit was retitled the 4th Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own Light Infantry) (4th RLM) a month later.Frederick, pp. 188–9.Hart's, various dates.Hay, pp. 354–7.Parkyn. Soon there were seven militia infantry regiments in Lancashire, each with a defined recruiting area after 1855: the 4th at Warrington also recruited from Liverpool, St Helens and Wigan.
Crimea and Indian Mutiny War having broken out with Russia in 1854 and an expeditionary force sent to the Crimea, the militia were called out for home defence and service in overseas garrisons.Spiers, Army and Society, pp. 162–3. The 4th RLM was embodied on 8 December 1854 and served at Berwick-upon-Tweed and Edinburgh, and then crossed to Ireland, serving at Dublin and Newry. It was disembodied on 24 June 1856.
A number of militia regiments were also embodied to relieve regular troops required for India during the Indian Mutiny. The 4th RLM was one of the units called out, from 22 September 1857 to 1 April 1859, serving at Aldershot and Portsmouth.
Thereafter the militia regularly carried out their peacetime annual training. The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war.Grierson, p. 29.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, pp. 97, 102, 126–7.
Cardwell reforms
Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the Cardwell Reforms of 1872, Militia regiments were brigaded with regular and Volunteer battalions in a regimental district sharing a permanent depot at a suitable county town. Seven double-battalion or paired single-battalion regular regiments were assigned to Lancashire, and each was linked with one of the militia regiments. The militia now came under the War Office rather than their county lords lieutenant, and officers' commissions were signed by the Queen.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 195–6.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, pp. 4, 15, 19.Williamson & Whalley, pp. 327–8.
The 4th RLM was linked with the 40th (2nd Somersetshire) and 82nd (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) Regiments of Foot in Sub-District No 14 (Lancashire), with the depot at Orford Barracks, Warrington, (shared until 1910 with the 8th (King's) Regiment). It was intended for the 4th RLM to raise its own 2nd Battalion, but this never happened.Army List, various dates.'Townships: Warrington', in William Farrer and J Brownbill (eds), A History of the County of Lancaster, Vol 3, London, 1907, pp. 316-324, at British History Online (accessed 6 February 2021). Although often referred to as brigades, the regimental districts were purely administrative organisations, but in a continuation of the Cardwell Reforms a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the Army List from December 1875. This assigned regular and militia units to places in an order of battle of corps, divisions and brigades for the 'Active Army', even though these formations were entirely theoretical, with no staff or services assigned. The 4th Royal Lancashire Militia was assigned to 1st Brigade of 2nd Division, VI Corps. The brigade would have mustered at Liverpool in time of war.
3rd Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment
The Childers Reforms completed the Cardwell process by incorporating the militia battalions into the expanded county regiments. On 1 July 1881 the 40th and 82nd Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Prince of Wales's Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment) ('PWV' or 'South Lancs') at Warrington with the 4th Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own Light Infantry) as its 3rd Battalion.
Militia battalions now had a large cadre of permanent staff (about 30). Around a third of the recruits and many young officers went on to join the Regular Army.Grierson, pp. 33, 84–5, 113, 120.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, p. 32.
Second Boer War After the disasters of Black Week at the start of the Second Boer War in December 1899, most of the regular army was sent to South Africa, followed by many militia reservists as reinforcements. Militia units were embodied to replace them for home defence and a number volunteered for active service or to garrison overseas stations.Dunlop, pp. 77–9, 91–3.Spiers, Army and Society, p. 239.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, p. 309. One of the first embodied was the 3rd South Lancashires, on 3 December 1899, and the battalion embarked for South Africa on 10 January 1900, with a strength of 24 officers and 703 other ranks (ORs) under the command of Lt-Col Robert Ireland Blackburne, son of the unit's first colonel.
The battalion arrived at Cape Town on 13 February 1900. At that time the operations to relieve the Siege of Kimberley were reaching a climax and reinforcements were being rushed to the front by rail and forced marches: 3rd South Lancashires was immediately sent up. Battalion Headquarters (HQ) and the left half-battalion went up to Naauwpoort, but the right half, following on a day behind, was stopped at Hanover Road on 17 February to meet an expected Boer attack. The rest of the battalion then came back in support, the aim being to prevent the Boers cutting the Naauwpooer–De Aar railway that provided the army's main Line of communications. Major Alexander Tarbet was posted with three companies at the Diamond Mine Kopje to guard against an attack from the east. The force at Hanover Road stood to at daybreak on 18 February, with 1500 Boers with six guns being reported nearby. During the day the South Lancs were reinforced by about 50 Royal Engineers and 100 mounted troops, and dug entrenchments to cover the town and the bridge over the river. By now the relief of Kimberley had led to the Battle of Paardeberg (18–27 February), and on 21 February the 3rd South Lancs went out to cover the successful attempt by the Victorian and Tasmanian Mounted Rifles to break through to Arundel.Kruger, pp. 223–33.