The Brecknockshire Militia, later the Royal Brecknockshire Rifles, was an auxiliary regiment reorganised from earlier precursor units in the Welsh county of Brecknockshire during the 17th Century. Primarily intended for home defence, it served in Britain and Ireland through all Britain's major wars. After a series of shortlived mergers it was finally amalgamated into the Royal South Wales Borderers Militia in 1876. This regiment's title and headquarters at Brecon were adopted in 1881 when the South Wales Borderers (SWB) was formed as the local regiment of the Regular Army. The battalion saw active service during the Second Boer War. It became at Special Reserve battalion of the SWB and trained thousands of recruits for the fighting battalions of the regiment during World War I. After 1921 the militia had only a shadowy existence until its final abolition in 1953.
Brecknockshire Trained Bands
The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in England and was extended to Wales.Fissel, pp. 178–80, 218.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Hay, pp. 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–1. King Henry VIII called a 'Great Muster' in 1539, which showed 2015 men available for service in the Lordship of Brecknock (including the town of Brecon and the Lordship of Crickhowell).Hay, p. 83.Hay, pp. 309–12.
The legal basis of the militia was updated by two acts of 1557 covering musters (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 3) and the maintenance of horses and armour (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 2). The county militia was now under the Lord Lieutenant, assisted by the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace (JPs). The entry into force of these Acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised Militia of England and Wales.Cruickshank, p. 17.Fissel, pp. 184–5.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16, 125. Hay, pp. 11–17.Hay, p. 88. 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 a proportion of men for the Trained Bands, who were mustered for regular training. It was these men who were called out during the Spanish Armada crisis of 1588.Cruickshank, pp. 24–5.Fissel, pp. 178–87.
In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than send the trained bandsmen. Between 1585 and 1602 Brecknockshire supplied 825 men for service in Ireland and 30 for the Netherlands. The men were given three days' 'conduct money' to get to Chester or Bristol, the main ports of embarkation for Ireland. Conduct money was recovered from the government, but replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–7, 61–2, 66, 92, 126; Appendix 2.
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands declined in the early 17th Century. Later, King Charles I attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the king rather than local control.Fissel, pp. 174–8, 190–5.Hay, pp. 97–8. The Brecknock Trained Bands of 1638 consisted of 300 men, 180 armed with muskets and 120 'Corslets' (body armour, signifying pikemen). They also mustered 30 horse.Brecknock TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. Brecknockshire was ordered to send 200 men overland to Newcastle upon Tyne for the Second Bishops' War of 1640. However, substitution was rife and many of those sent on this unpopular service would have been untrained replacements. Many of the soldiers objected to serving under Roman Catholic officers, including Henry O'Brien and John Fitzgerald among the captains conducting the Brecknock contingent to Newcastle.Fissel, pp. 208, 262–3, 285.
Civil Wars Control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War. When open war broke out between the King and Parliament, neither side made much use of the trained bands beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops. Most of Wales was under Royalist control for much of the war, and was a recruiting ground for the King's armies.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.Wedgwood, pp. 28, 38, 41, 65–8, 95., 114, 119–20 However, the Brecknock 'County Troop' of horse under Lieutenant-Colonel Jefferies was mustered at Crickhowell in 1645.
Once Parliament had established full control in 1648 it passed new Militia Acts that replaced lords lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State. At the same time the term 'Trained Band' began to disappear in most counties. Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country.Hay, pp. 99–104. By 1651 the militias of the South Welsh counties appear to have been combined, with the 'South Wales Militia' being ordered to rendezvous at Gloucester to hold the city during the Worcester campaign.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.
Brecknockshire Militia After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the 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.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Grierson, pp. 6–7.Hay, pp. 104–6.Holmes, pp. 94–100.
The militia forces in the Welsh counties were small, and were grouped together under the direction of the Lord President of the Council of Wales.Western, pp. 10, 19, 37. As Lord President, Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort carried out a tour of inspection of the Welsh militia in 1684, when the Brecknockshire Militia consisted of one troop of horse under a Captain, and a regiment of five Foot Companies commanded by a Colonel. Beaufort reviewed them in a field near Brecon 'where they were drawn up to exercise, and made several close and laudable firings'.Hay, p. 111.Scott, Table 3.1.4. The 1697 militia returns showed that Brecknock and Radnorshire had a combined Regiment of Foot 505 strong under Col Edward Price and a Troop of 48 Horse under Capt Sir Edward Williams.British Library, Egerton MSS 1626, summarised in Hay; Illustrated Naval & Military Magazine, Vol VI, January–June 1887, pp. 317–8; and Camden Miscellany, 1953, Vol 20, pp. 8–10.Hay, p. 134.
Generally the militia declined in the long peace after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.Western, pp. 73–4. Jacobites were numerous amongst the Welsh Militia, but they did not show their hands during the Risings of 1715 and 1745, and bloodshed was avoided.Owen, Denbigh & Flint, p. 12.
Seven Years' War
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.Hay, pp. 136–44.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Western, pp. 124–57, 251.
Brecknockshire was given a quota of 160 men to raise. Some of the Welsh counties were slow to complete their regiments: the problem was less with the other ranks (ORs) raised by ballot than the shortage of men qualified to be officers, even after the requirements were lowered for Welsh counties. Nevertheless, the Brecknock 'corps' (it was too small to class as a regiment) was formed and received its arms on 6 December 1759. It was embodied for permanent service on 29 January 1760 under the command of Col Sir Edward Williams, 5th Baronet.Frederick, pp. 293–4.Owen, Carmarthen, Pembroke and Cardigan, pp. 19–22.Parkyn.Sargeaunt, pp. 70–2.Western, Appendices A & B.Western, pp. 124–5.
In July 1760 the Brecknockshires were moved from Abergavenny to Yarmouth in Norfolk to relieve the Norfolk Militia who were guarding French prisoners-of-war. The march took 20 days to complete. In November the unit was relieved by the 2nd Norfolk Militia and returned to its own county for the winter. In May 1761 the Brecknockshires were ordered to Bristol to relieve the Monmouthshire Militia. On arrival they were immediately ordered to continue their march to Bideford in North Devon, to guard French prisoners. In the summer of 1761 the Brecknockshires were stationed at Barnstaple in North Devon, where the main duty was again to guard prisoners-of-war and provide escorts when they were moved between Barnstaple and Plymouth. In October the Brecknock unit marched in company with the Carmarthenshire and Denbighshire Militia from Barnstaple back to Bideford to relieve the 1st Devon Militia, which had been carrying out similar duties. Later that month the unit was relieved by the North Gloucestershire Militia and went home to Brecon for the winter. In June 1762 the Brecknockshires and Monmouthshires were again quartered at Pilmouth, Barnstaple, to guard the French prisoners, but in August the Brecknockshires moved to Plymouth. In September they marched back to their own county. By now the war was coming to an end, and the militia were ordered to call in their detachments and quarter their men conveniently for disembodiment, which followed at the end of the year.Owen, Denbigh & Flint, p. 17.
The disembodied units were kept up to strength by means of the ballot over subsequent years, but were rarely assembled for training.Owen, Carmarthen, Pembroke & Cardigan, p. 70.Owen, Denbigh & Flint, p. 18.Sargeaunt, pp. 73–4.
American War of Independence The American War of Independence broke out in 1775, and by 1778 Britain was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain. The militia were embodied for garrison duty and coastal defence. In the summer of 1780 the Brecknockshires formed part of the large garrison of Plymouth. On 12 August there was a serious riot brought on by a quarrel at a 'disorderly house' in the Dock area between some of the Brecknockshire Militia and the two black musicians of the Somerset Militia band. A large mob formed and the Somersets armed with bayonets and assisted by the Herefordshire Militia attempted to storm the Brecknocks' lines, despite the efforts of the officers. The mob surged towards Stoke Church, where the picquet guard of the 97th Foot was ordered to fire, killing two and wounding nine. This and the persuasion of the officers quelled the trouble.Kerr, p. 26.Western, p. 426.
In Summer 1781 and spring 1782 the Brecknockshires were at Coxheath Camp near Maidstone in Kent. This was the army's largest training camp, where the militia were exercised as part of a division alongside regular troops while providing a reserve in case of French invasion of South East England. In 1781 it was with the Monmouthshire and other regiments under the command of Lt-Gen Gage, and in 1782 it was part of a brigade including the Merionethshire and Pembrokeshire Militia regiments and Sir John Leicester's Dragoons, all commanded by Lt-Col Colby of the Pembrokes. By the end of the year a peace treaty had been agreed and the war was coming to an end, so warrants to disembody the militia were issued on 28 February 1783.Owen, Carmarthen, Pembroke & Cardigan, pp. 72–3.Herbert.Burgoyne, p. 16.Sargeaunt, pp. 76–8.
From 1784 to 1792 the militia ballot was used to keep up militia numbers and the regiments were assembled for their 28 days' annual peacetime training, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually mustered each year.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1.
Monmouth and Brecon Militia French Revolutionary War