The Royal Tyrone Militia was a line infantry regiment of the Irish Militia raised in 1793 for domestic security during the French Revolutionary Wars, seeing action during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. In 1801 the regiment became part of the British Militia under the Acts of Union 1801 and was renamed the Royal Tyrone Fusiliers in 1833. The regiment was later embodied during all of Britain's major wars and in 1881 became a battalion of the British Army's Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. During World War I, as part of the Special Reserve the battalion trained thousands of reinforcements for battalions of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers serving overseas. The battalion subsequently did little of note before being formally disbanded in 1953.
Background Although there are scattered references to town guards in 1584, no organised militia existed in Ireland before 1660. After that, some militia forces were organised in the reign of King Charles II and in the war between James II and William III, but it was not until 1715 that the Irish Militia came under statutory authority. During the 18th Century there were various Volunteer Associations and local militia units controlled by the landowners, concerned mainly with internal security. In 1778, during the War of American Independence, the threat of invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, appeared to be serious. While most of the Regular Army was fighting overseas, the coasts of England and Wales were defended by the embodied Militia, but Ireland had no equivalent force. Under the leadership of George Ogle, the Parliament of Ireland passed a Militia Act. This failed to create an effective militia force but opened the way for the Irish Volunteers to fill the gap; even Ogle became a general in the Volunteers. The paramilitary Volunteers, however, were outside the control of either the parliament or the Dublin Castle administration. The invasion threat having receded, the Volunteers diminished in numbers but remained a political force. On the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War In 1793, the Irish administration passed an effective Militia Act that created an official Irish Militia, while the paramilitary volunteers were essentially banned. The new Act was based on existing English precedents, with the men conscripted by ballot to fill county quotas (paid substitutes were permitted) and the officers having to meet certain property qualifications.Hay, pp. 146–7.McAnally, pp. 1–31.
Royal Tyrone Militia
Under the new Act County Tyrone was given a quota of 560 men to raise in 10 companies,McAnally, Appendix VI. and on 3 May the regiment was ordered to be formed.McAnally, p. 31. John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn, a prominent figure in Co Tyrone politics and a friend of British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, was commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant, and he appointed his officers during May, with Lt-Col the Hon Thomas Knox, MP, as his second-in-command. (Abercorn also commissioned his six-year-old son, Viscount Hamilton, as an Ensign.) The warrant to call out the regiment for fulltime duty was issued from Dublin Castle on 18 July and the regiment was duly embodied on 23 August 1793 at the county town of Caledon. At the same time, it was granted the title Royal Tyrone Militia.Core, 'List of officers', facing p. 1; pp. 1–2.Frederick, pp. 259–60.Hay, p. 325. Balloting for the Tyrone regiment seems to have passed without incident, though there were serious anti-militia protests in a number of other Irish counties.McAnally, pp. 31–8.
Training and service There was some difficulty in providing arms for the new regiments (many were bought second-hand), and in September a corporal's guard of the Royal Tyrones had to hand their seven muskets over to their reliefs when they went off duty. Equipment such as knapsacks arrived in December. From January 1794 a detachment under Lieutenant Andrew Bell was trained to man the light cannon issued as 'battalion guns'. During this training period, the regiment was quartered at Strabane, Co Tyrone, and in March the men were commended by Lt-Col Knox and their officers and by the town officials for their discipline and good conduct when they were called out to deal with the 'criminal and highly improper behaviour' of the militia of a neighbouring county. However, official policy was to station militia regiments away from their recruiting area. On 15 March the new muskets were issued to the men and on 17 March the Royal Tyrone Militia marched out to its appointed station at Waterford, which it reached in April. Three companies were then detached to the barracks at New Geneva on 23 May. When the regiment had a field day at New Geneva in June, the gun detachment was reported to be 'admirably trained'.Core, pp. 2–5.McAnally, pp. 54–5, 61–4, 67.
Lieutenant-Col Knox resigned his commission soon afterwards and the Marquess of Abercorn appointed Nathaniel Montgomery-Moore in his place on 1 June. Moore took over the command at Waterford, and at the end of August the regiment moved to the various barracks at Galway, with detachments at Tuam and Oughterard Barracks. The regiment, including its battalion guns and a detachment of the Royal Artillery, were ordered to be on high alert in case of a French invasion. Early in 1795 the Irish government ordered an augmentation of the militia from 1 April; the establishment of the Royal Tyrone Militia was increased to 42 sergeants, 22 drummers, and 700 rank and file. The additional men were to be found by voluntary enlistment where possible, and in March the regiment sent recruiting parties back to various towns in Co Tyrone: Dungannon, Strabane and Newtownstewart, and later to Augher, Clogher and Aughnacloy. While many Irish militia regiments were concentrated in training camps in the summer of 1795, the Royal Tyrone was dispersed across Counties Leitrim, Mayo and Roscommon, two companies each to Carrick-on-Shannon and Boyle on 28 April, the other six companies to various stations from 12 June with the regimental headquarters at Westport. However, the regiment had marched to Dublin by November 1795, quartered in various barracks around the city and with detachments at Dunboyne, Rathcoole and Swords that were rotated monthly. The regiment underwent field days and inspections in the summer of 1796 and on 1–2 November it marched to winter quarters at Kells (HQ), Cootehill, Oldcastle, and Trim.Core, pp. 6–14.McAnally, pp. 71–83.
Bantry Bay Anxiety about a possible French invasion grew during the autumn of 1796 and preparations were made for field operations. A large French expeditionary force appeared in Bantry Bay on 21 December and troops from all over Ireland were marched towards the threatened area. The Royal Tyrone received orders on 26 December to march to Cork forthwith. However, the French fleet was scattered by winter storms, several ships being wrecked, and none of the French troops succeeded in landing; there was no sign of a rising by the United Irishmen. The invasion was called off on 29 December. The Royal Tyrone Militia was halted on its route to Cork, half the regiment at Nenagh and half at Roscrea, where they spent a few days. Then on 2 February 1797 the regiment was diverted to Limerick where it was to be stationed, except the flank (Grenadier and Light) companies, which were proposed to be detached to join composite battalions drawn from several militia regiments. The Light Companies of the Royal Tyrone and Louth Militia left for Kilkenny on 27 February to join the 1st Light Battalion, the Grenadiers remained with the regiment.Core, pp. 14–6.McAnally, pp. 96–102, 107–8.Richey, Appendix IV.
On 19 February 1797 a further augmentation of the Royal Tyrone Militia was announced, bringing its strength up to 1000. Recruiting parties left for Co Tyrone to raise the additional men, who were to be enlisted for the duration of the war and for two months afterwards and were paid a bounty. When the militiamen of 1793 reached the end of their four-year enlistment in 1797, most of the Irish regiments were able to maintain their numbers through re-enlistments (for a bounty). The Marquis of Abercorn encouraged Esprit de corps in the Royal Tyrone Militia by instituting a badge of merit for the best soldiers with over three years' service. In March 1798 the men of the regiment donated 7 days' pay (14 days for officers) to the war effort.Core, pp. 15–8.McAnally, pp. 103–6, 121–2.
Irish Rebellion of 1798
Between June and September 1797 the regiment was distributed from Limerick to towns across County Kerry: Castleisland, Dingle, Killarney and Tralee, with HQ at Tarbert. It was still at these stations in January 1798 when a sentry of the regiment at the Custom House in Tralee was murdered by a man disguised in woman's clothes. Tensions were building in Ireland, and the authorities endeavoured to seize illegal arms caches and billet troops in disaffected areas; in April the regiment was ordered to send out three detachments accompanied by Yeomanry Cavalry. On 18 May the regiment marched to Cork where there was a large concentration of troops.Core, pp. 17–8, 99–102.McAnally, pp. 109–10.
The Light Company of the Royal Tyrone Militia was still detached in County Kildare when the Irish Rebellion broke out. One detachment had been at Ballymore Eustace since 10 May in company with elements of the 9th Light Dragoons, the Antrim and the Armagh Militia. Early on 24 May armed men broke into the room of the detachment commander, but were beaten off. Several houses in which soldiers were quartered were set on fire and in the attack seven dragoons and four militiamen and Lt McFarland of the Royal Tyrones were killed in the Battle of Ballymore-Eustace. The dragoons later drove off the attackers. Meanwhile, Lt Eadie and a party of 23 of the Royal Tyrones who had been stationed for some months at Ballitore had been ordered to join the rest of the company at Calverstown. Having stopped for breakfast at Narraghmore, the party was too late to save a number of loyalists being killed by rebels. However, he placed his men behind a wall and ambushed the rebels with a volley. They retired to Ballitore, where they gained reinforcements and pursued Eadie's party towards Calverstown. By the time a large force of militia and fencibles was assembled Ballintore had been abandoned, but the Tyrone militiamen were able to identify one rebel leader, who was killed by the Suffolk Fencibles. The Light Company of the Royal Tyrone Militia subsequently saw action with 1st Light Battalion at the Battles of Tubberneering (4 June), Arklow (9 June) and Vinegar Hill (21 June).Core, pp. 18–20.McAnally, Appendix VIII.
The Battle of Vinegar Hill broke the back of the rebellion, and the last rebels were defeated in mid-July. A French invasion in August led to a further outbreak and it was not suppressed until the Franco-Irish forces were defeated. The Royal Tyrone Miliitia in Cork were distant from the fighting and not engaged.McAnally, pp. 133–41. The Marquess of Abercorn resigned his commission in November 1798 and was replaced as colonel-commandant by Viscount Corry, who succeeded as 2nd Earl Belmore in 1802. Lieutenant-Col Montgomery-Moore also resigned, on 30 April 1799, and Major the Hon A.C. Hamilton and Captain the Hon Du Pré Alexander were promoted into the consequent vacancies. By 1801 Maj Alexander (by then Viscount Alexander) was a second lt-col in the regiment.Core, pp. 21, 26, 47.