The King's Own (3rd Staffordshire) Rifle Militia, later the 4th Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment was an auxiliary regiment raised in Staffordshire in the West Midlands of England in 1853. Under the Cardwell and Childers Reforms it became part of the North Staffordshire Regiment and saw active service during the Second Boer War. During World War I it trained reinforcements for the battalions serving overseas before proceeding to the Western Front itself and seeing a considerable amount of combat during the last year of the war. After a shadowy postwar existence it was formally 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 the Military Service Act 1557 (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 2) and the Military Service (No. 2) Act 1557 (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 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.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 5, 12, 16.Hay, pp. 11–17, 25–6, 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–1. The Staffordshire Trained Bands saw some active service during the English Civil War. The Militia was re-established in 1662 after the Restoration of the Monarchy, and was popularly seen as the 'Constitutional Force' in contrast to the 'Standing Army' that was tainted by association with the New Model Army that had supported the military dictatorship of The Protectorate. However, the militia declined in the years after the Peace of Utrecht in 1713.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 195–6.Hay, pp. 348–50.Hay, pp. 89, 99–104.Staffordshire TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project. Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 reinvigorated 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. The Midland counties further from the threat of invasion were generally apathetic: Staffordshire was given a quota of 560 men to raise, but the county leaders failed to do so, and paid a fine instead.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299, 301–2, 521.Hay, pp. 136–44.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Western, Appendices A & B.Western, pp. 125, 251.
It was not until the War of American Independence, when Britain was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, that the Staffordshire Militia was reformed on 7 February 1777. It served until 1783 and was called out again at the beginning of the French Revolutionary War. Additional quotas (the Supplementary Militia) were called up in 1797 – Staffordshire's quota rose to 2,095 men – and the following year the 2nd and 3rd Staffordshire Militia were formed from these men. In 1799 there was a recruiting drive to get militiamen to volunteer for the Regular Army. The colonel of the 2nd Staffordshire Militia, Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, offered to raise a regiment for foreign service and soon obtained 300 recruits from the three Staffordshire regiments; however, King George III objected and the plan was scrapped. The following year the militia quotas were reduced, the 2nd and 3rd Staffordshires were disbanded and their remaining men incorporated into the 1st Regiment. After the Peace of Amiens broke down in 1803, the militia were embodied once more. After several periods of duty guarding the royal residences, George III commanded in 1805 that the 1st Staffordshire Militia should become the King's Own Staffordshire Militia. The King's Own served until the end of the Napoleonic Wars.Frederick, p. 309.Wylly, pp. 7–15.Staffordshire Militia at School of Mars.
1852 Reforms After the Battle of Waterloo there was another long peace. Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots were still held until they were suspended by the Militia Act 1829, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and the permanent staffs of sergeants and drummers (who were occasionally used to maintain public order) were progressively reduced.Hay, p. 154. The Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act 1852, enacted during a renewed 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 home defence service in three circumstances:Dunlop, pp. 42–5.Grierson, pp. 27–8.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'.
King's Own (3rd Staffordshire) Rifles Under the Militia Act 1852, two new militia regiments of were raised in Staffordshire in 1853, the King's Own (2nd Staffordshire) Light Infantry Militia and the King's Own (3rd Staffordshire) Rifle Militia; the original regiment was redesignated the King's Own (1st Staffordshire) Militia. The new 3rd Regiment was raised on 5 April 1853 at Lichfield, and gained its Rifle designation in June.Frederick, pp. 312–3.Bathurst.Hay, pp. 399–401. The new regiment established its headquarters (HQ) at Newcastle-under-Lyme; the Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant was Charles Bagot, formerly of the Grenadier Guards.Army List, various dates.Harts, various dates.Burke's: Bagot. When the list of militia precedence (originally assigned by lot) was revised in 1855, the 3rd Staffordshires received the number 78th; in line with most other militia regiments the Staffordshires paid little attention to the additional number.Baldry.Parkyn.
Crimean War and after War having broken out with Russia in March 1854 and an expeditionary force sent to the Crimea, the militia were called out for home defence. The 3rd Staffords were embodied for full-time service from 19 December 1854 to 26 May 1856. Colonel Bagot retired in 1858 and became the regiment's Honorary Colonel; the senior Major, Richard Byrd Levett, previously a captain in the 60th Rifles took over as Lt-Col Commandant, followed in turn by Charles Coyney and then Peter Broughton (formerly of the 3rd Dragoon Guards) over the next few years.
After the Crimean War the regiment carried out the usual round of annual training. In 1870 all three Staffordshire Militia regiments took part in a field day on Stafford Common.Wylly, p. 45. The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war.Dunlop, pp. 42–52.Grierson, 84–5, 113, 120.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, pp. 97, 102.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, pp. 126–7.
Cardwell reforms Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the Cardwell Reforms of 1872, militia regiments were brigaded with their local regular and Volunteer battalions – for the King's Own (3rd Staffordshire) Militia this was with the 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot, the 98th (The Prince of Wales's) Regiment of Foot and the King's Own (2nd Staffordshire) Militia in Sub-District No 20 (County of Stafford). The Militia now came under the War Office rather than their county lords lieutenant.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 195–6.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, pp. 4, 15, 19. Whittington Barracks was completed on Whittington Heath outside Lichfield in 1881 as a combined depot for the north and south Staffordshire brigades.
Although often referred to as brigades, the sub-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 1st, 2nd and 3rd Staffordshire Militia formed 2nd Brigade of 2nd Division, VI Corps. The brigade would have mustered at Liverpool in time of war.
4th Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment
The Childers Reforms of 1881 took Cardwell's reforms further, with the linked regular regiments becoming two-battalion regiments and the militia formally joining them. On 1 July the 64th and 98th Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment) (the 'North Staffs') and the King's Own (3rd Staffordshire) Rifle Militia became the 4th Battalion (the 2nd Staffordshire Militia became the 3rd Bn).Grierson, p. 33.Spiers, Late Victorian Army, p. 32. 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. It was not uncommon for Militia officers to be attached to Regular forces for a particular service: Lt-Col Charles Bill served with the staff on the Burma Expedition of 1886; he became commanding officer (CO) of the battalion on 29 May 1893.
Although Cardwell's army corps scheme had been abandoned, the Stanhope Memorandum of 1888 proposed that the home defence army should consist of three corps, of which the first two would be regular, and the bulk of the third would be militia, while the rest of the militia and the volunteers would be assigned to fixed defences round London and the seaports.Dunlop, p. 16; Appendix A.Spiers, Army and Society, p. 229.
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, and many militia units were embodied to replace them for home defence and some overseas garrisons. The 4th North Staffs was embodied on 24 January 1900 and volunteered for service in South Africa. It embarked with a strength of 24 officers and 546 other ranks (ORs) under the command of Lt-Col Richard Mirehouse, and disembarked at Cape Town on 29 March.
At first the battalion was stationed at Green Point, Cape Town. On 31 March two companies sailed to St Helena guarding General Piet Cronjé and other Boer prisoners captured at the Battle of Paardeberg who were interned on the island. The companies returned after completing this duty. From June several companies were moved inland to guard various places, with HQ moving to Fraserburg in December. The battalion was commanded by Lt-Col Twemlow while Col Mirehouse was commandant at Beaufort West. On 25 June 1901 a determined attack was made on Fraserburg by the combined Commandos of Malan, Smit and Reitz totalling about 400 men. At the time the town was garrisoned by 85 North Staffs, with a few men of the town guards and the Cape Colony Cyclist Corps. Firing began at 05.30, when all the troops were standing-to The first attack was made on a small post held by a Corporal and three men, eventually working round behind a sangar on a high ridge of kopjes dominating the town, which was held by Sergeant White and 17 men, the Boers taking advantage of an unfinished blockhouse nearby. After three hours' fighting the post was rushed and captured by superior numbers. The remaining post on the ridge was also taken, the three men being captured. Captain Hawkshaw in Flagstaff Sangar refused a call to surrender, even though it was under fire from the commanding ridge. Although the Boers rode through the town, and Cape rebels were firing from the rooftops, Flagstaff and Tower Hill sangars held out, as did another held by the Town Guard, who also defended the prison. Firing died down at 18.00 when a relief force arrived; the North Staffs had lost 12 men killed and wounded.