The Royal Westminster Militia, later the 5th (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, was an auxiliary regiment raised in the City of Westminster in the suburbs of London. Descended from the Westminster Trained Bands, which were on duty during the Armada campaign of 1588 and saw considerable service during the English Civil War, the regiment underwent reorganisation in 1760 as part of the Middlesex Militia. From 1778 until 1918 the regiment served in home and colonial defence in all of Britain's major wars, and supplied thousands of reinforcements to the Royal Fusiliers during World War I. 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 the militia under the command of county Lords Lieutenant appointed by the monarch. This is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England. Although the militia obligation was universal, it was clearly impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man, so after 1572 the practice was to select only a proportion of men for the, who were mustered for regular drills.Davis, pp. 1–12.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 5, 12, 16.Grierson, pp. 6–7.Hay, pp. 11–17, 25–6, 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–1.
Trained Bands
Although the City of Westminster was in the county of Middlesex, its Trained Bands were listed among the 'Out-Liberties' of London. During the Armada crisis of 1588, Westminster and the other suburban parishes such as St Giles-in-the-Fields and St Martin-in-the-Fields mustered a company consisting of 150 pikemen and 300 calivermen.Leslie.
During the English Civil War Westminster and the suburban parishes of Middlesex were included within the defences dug round London, and from 1643 their Trained Bands came under the London Militia Committee rather than the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex. The Westminster Liberty Regiment (also known as the 'Westminster Red Regiment') operated alongside the London Trained Bands (LTBs), and like the City of London regiments raised an Auxiliary regiment to share the duties. The two Westminster regiments saw action during the cvil war at the Siege of Basing House and the battles of Alton, Cropredy Bidge and Second Newbury.Davis, pp. 43–61.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 195–6.Hay, pp. 99–104.Westminster Liberty Regiment at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. Westminster Auxiliary Regiment at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.
Restoration Militia After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the English Militia was re-established by the Militia Act 1661 under the control of the king's lords-lieutenant, the men to be selected by ballot. This was popularly seen as the 'Constitutional Force' to counterbalance a 'Standing Army' tainted by association with the New Model Army that had supported Cromwell's military dictatorship, and almost the whole burden of home defence and internal security was entrusted to the militia.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 195–6, 294–5.Hay, pp. 104–6.Holmes, pp. 94–100.
Under Charles II the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex was always a professional soldier, first George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, later the 1st Earl of Craven (who was the son of a Lord Mayor of London). In times of national emergency when the king was absent from London (for example in 1682), Craven was made lieutenant-general of all the forces in London and Westminster.Western, p. 38. During the Popish Plot crisis in 1678, the militia were mobilised to guard London, Westminster, Southwark and the suburbs.Western, p. 80.
Middlesex had three regiments including the Red Regiment of Westminster. In 1697 it was commanded by Colonel the Hon Philip Howard, former MP for Westminster, and consisted of 1400 men in 10 companies together with the Westminster Troop of Horse Militia under Captain Anthony Rowe (actually two Troops, with 46 an 101 men respectively). Although most of the militia declined after the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, the London Trained Bands remained fully active, and the Westminster units continued to appear at least as late as 1728 (the colonel in 1722 was Robert Gardiner).Hay, pp. 123–36.JHL & ACW.Linney-Drouet.
1757 reforms Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 re-established 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. An adjutant and drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299–302, 521.Hay, pp. 136–44.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Western, p. 251. Middlesex was given a quota of 1600 men to raise,Western, Appendices A & B. but failed to do so – possibly because the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, the Duke of Newcastle, was Leader of the Opposition, who had opposed the Militia Acts. A patriotic ballad of the time declared: All over the land they'll find such a stand, From our English Militia Men ready at hand, Though in Sussex and Middlesex folks are but fiddlesticks, While an old fiddlestick has the command (the 'old fiddlestick' was Newcastle, who was also powerful in Sussex).Western, pp. 125, 159–60.
Claiming insufficient numbers of qualified officers, Newcastle suspended the execution of the Act in Middlesex for two years. However, opinion in the county shifted and in July 1760, the lieutenancy began forming three regiments (Eastern, Western and Westminster) and the arms and accoutrements were supplied from the Tower of London on 7 and 12 August However, by then the war was going in Britain's favour and the threat of invasion had lifted: no further militia were required, and the Middlesex regiments were not actually embodied before the war ended in 1762. Parliament did however provide the money to continue training the militia in peacetime (two periods of 14 days or one period of 28 days each year).Frederick, pp. 284–9.Parkyn.Western, pp. 189–94.
War of American Independence The militia were called out in 1778 after the outbreak of the War of American Independence, when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 173–4, 295. The three regiments of Middlesex Militia were embodied for the first time on 31 March 1778, the Westminsters mustered at Brentford. On mobilisation the inspecting general reported that the officers of the Westminsters were few and poor. In 1779 they were described as 'mostly old and apparently ignorant: during parade they fell to the rear and left it to the sergeants to give orders'.Western, pp. 408, 422.
The Peace of Paris ended the war in 1783, but the militia had already been disembodied in 1782. From 1784 to 1792 the militia were assembled for their 28 days' annual peacetime training, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually mustered each year.Davis, p. 112.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1. By 1788, Thomas Sockwell had 30 years' service with the Westminster Regiment and had risen to the rank of major. He was now the commanding officer, because both the colonel and lieutenant-colonel had died.Western, p. 312. At their 1791 muster the Westminsters were described as 'the refuse of London' and 'little books' of seditious literature were circulating among them, while the officers were little better than the men.Western, p. 427.
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars The militia was already being embodied when Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793. The French Revolutionary Wars saw a new phase for the English militia: they 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, while their traditional local defence duties were taken over by the Volunteers and mounted Yeomanry.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255, 411.
The Westminster Regiment was 'ordered into actual service' (embodied) in 1793. The colonel, John Fenton-Cawthorne, Member of Parliament, was later accused of withholding the 'Marching Guineas' he had received from the paymaster to the forces – the sum of 21 shillings to be paid through the company commanders to every militiaman on embodiment for his clothing and kit other than the basic uniform. The men complained to higher authority, and when the regiment was part of the force camped at Brighton in October, the camp commander, Maj-Gen Francis Lascelles, was ordered to investigate. Cawthorne was ordered to pay the money he had received, but did nothing. He was also accused of taking money (usually £10) from balloted men in order to find substitutes, but paying a smaller bounty to the men he actually enlisted (some of whom had already deserted from the regiment before) and pocketing the difference. At the following summer's camp, at Lydd in 1794, he forced men to pay for replacement clothing they did not need. The men complained again in September, and by November Gen Sir William Howe and Lt-Gen Lascelles again ordered Cawthorne to pay the Marching Guineas, without effect. While in camp near Hythe in the summer of 1795 he was found to be submitting 'false musters' (including on the roll the names of men who were not in the regiment, in order to pocket their pay). He was also found to have submitted the names of under-age boys to the county lieutenancy for commissions as ensigns; the boys were too young to do duty, and again Cawthorne was accused of pocketing the pay and allowances. He was brought before a Court-martial at Horse Guards in January 1796. The court consisted of 15 senior militia officers under the presidency of the Earl of Powis, colonel of the Montgomeryshire Militia. After a long and widely reported trial, the court found him guilty on seven of the 14 charges laid against him, and ordered him to be cashiered from the service. He was also expelled from Parliament as a result of the scandal (though he returned some years later).Anon, Court Martial.Western, pp. 344–54.Fenton Cawthorne at History of Parliament. Fenton-Cawthorne was replaced as colonel of the regiment by James Clitherow, appointed on 25 July 1796.WO, 1805 List.
Middlesex was one of the 'black spots' for militia recruitment. In a fresh attempt to have as many men as possible under arms for home defence in order to release regulars, the Government created the Supplementary Militia, a compulsory levy of men to be trained in their spare time, to be incorporated in the Militia in emergency and to keep up the numbers. Middlesex's 's quota was fixed at 5820 men, the suburban subdivisions of Westminster, Holborn and Finsbury providing 4987. But in 1799 the Westminster Regiment was 745 men short of it establishment.Hay, pp. 148–54.Western, pp. 220–3, 281–2.
The war ended with the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802 and all the militia were stood down. However, the Peace of Amiens was short-lived and the regiments, whose training commitment had been increased from 21 to 28 days a year, were called out again in 1803. In 1804 the Middlesex Militia were awarded the prefix 'Royal', the regiment becoming the Royal Westminster, or 3rd Middlesex Militia on 23 April.Hay, pp. 256–7.3rd Middlesex Militia at Regiments.org.
During the summer of 1805, when Napoleon was massing his 'Army of England' at Boulogne for a projected invasion, the Westminsters, with 883 men in 10 companies under Lt-Col William Allen, were stationed at Norman Cross Barracks as part of a brigade under Brigadier-General Nicholas Nepean.Brown.