The King's County Royal Rifle Militia was an Irish Militia regiment in King's County (now County Offaly)Not to be confused with the Kings County Militia of New Brunswick, Canada. dating back to 1776. It later became a battalion of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians). It saw action during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the Second Boer War, and trained thousands of reinforcements during World War I. It was disbanded in 1922.
Background Although there are scattered references to town guards in 1584, no organised militia existed in Ireland before 1660. After that date, some militia forces were organised in the reign of King Charles II: in 1683 Sir Lawrence Parsons, 1st Baronet of Birr Castle, was appointed to command all the militia in King's County. It was not until 1715 that the Irish Militia came under statutory authority. During the 18th Century there were various Volunteer Associations and unofficial militia units controlled by the landowners, concerned mainly with internal security. 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. The Parliament of Ireland passed a Militia Act, but this failed to create an effective force. However it opened the way for the paramilitary Irish Volunteers to fill the gap. Sir Lawrence Parsons (grandson of the above) commanded the mounted militia Troop in King's County. The county also had the Parsonstown Loyal Independent Volunteer Corps raised at Birr in 1776.Frederick, p. 176.Hay, pp. 146–7.Hay, pp. 423–6.McAnally, pp. 1–13.Whitton, pp. 456–60.
The Volunteers were outside the control of either the parliament or the Dublin Castle administration. When the invasion threat receded they 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.McAnally, pp. 14–31.
King's County Militia The Parsonstown Volunteers were placed on the militia establishment in 1793 as the King's County Royal Rifle Militia under the command of Sir Lawrence Parsons, 5th Baronet, later 2nd Earl of Rosse.Sleigh, p. 135. King's County was given a quota of 420 men to fill, in eight companies.McAnally, Appendix VI. Henry Peisley L'Estrange took over as Colonel of the Regiment from 2 April 1798.War Office, 1805 List.
French Revolutionary War and Irish Rebellion The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars saw the British and Irish militia embodied for a whole generation, becoming regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in Britain or Ireland respectively), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits. They served in coast defences, manned garrisons, guarded prisoners of war, and carried out internal security duties.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255, 411.
The King's County regiment served mainly in the south and west of Ireland in the early part of the war. In August 1794 it was quartered with three companies at Killarney and Ross Castle, two at Tralee, two at Dingle and one at Castleisland.McAnally, Appendix III. The Irish Militia was augmented in 1795, King's County's quota being increased to 612 men.McAnally, pp. 71–2.
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. 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, and the troop concentration was dispersed in early 1797. At the same time the Light companies were detached to join composite battalions drawn from several militia regiments; the King's County company joined the 1st Battalion. 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). At the time of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 the strength of the militia was boosted by further re-enlistments and recruiting for bounty rather than the ballot.McAnally, pp. 96–108, 121–6, Appendix III.Richey, Appendix IV.
The men of the King's County Militia were predominantly Roman Catholic, and at the time of the rebellion were not fully trusted by the authorities. However, part of the regiment was in action at Newtownbarry (now known as the Battle of Bunclody) in King's County, where Col L'Estrange had 230 of his King's County Militia, a troop of Dragoons and about 100 Yeomanry Cavalry under his command. With this force he successfully defended the town from attack on 1 June, after which the King's County Militia was accepted as a reliable regiment. As part of the 1st Light Battalion, the King's County Light Company took part in the Battle of Vinegar Hill in County Wexford on 21 June.McAnally, pp. 129, 148, Appendix VIII.Richey, Appendix IV.
Legislation had been rushed through the British Parliament to permit British militia regiments to volunteer for service in suppressing the Irish rebellion.Western, pp. 225–7. In return a number of Irish militia regiments offered to serve on the mainland afterwards, a proposal supported by the Lord Lieutenant and Commander-in-Chief of Ireland, Marquess Cornwallis. However, these offers were unwelcome to some of the authorities in England, from the King downwards, so as a compromise the King's County and Wexford regiments were permitted to serve in Jersey and Guernsey respectively. The King's County regiment embarked in June 1799 with a strength of 760 privates, 285 women and 259 children, and garrisoned the island for a year while the French invasion threat was still high.McAnally, pp. 145–9.
With the diminishing threat of invasion after 1799, the strength of the militia could be reduced, and the surplus men were encouraged to volunteer for regiments of the line.McAnally, pp. 149–53. By the end of 1801 peace negotiations with the French were progressing and recruiting and re-enlistment for the Irish Militia was stopped in October. The men received the new clothing they were due on 25 December, but the Treaty of Amiens was signed in March and the warrant for disembodying the regiments was issued in May 1802. The men were paid off, leaving only the permanent staff of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and drummers under the regimental adjutant.McAnally, pp. 164–72.
Napoleonic Wars The Peace of Amiens was short-lived, and preparations to re-embody the Irish Militia began in November 1802. By March 1803 most of the regiments had been ordered to enlist men, a process which was aided by the number of previous militiamen who re-enlisted. Britain declared war on France on 18 May 1803 and the warrant to embody the Irish Militia was issued the next day. The light companies were once again detached to form composite light battalions, but these were discontinued in 1806.McAnally, pp. 172–80.
Over the following years the regiments carried out garrison duties at various towns across Ireland, attended summer training camps, and reacted to various invasion scares, none of which materialised. They also provided volunteers to transfer to the Regular Army. In 1805 the militia establishment was raised to allow for this.McAnally, pp. 180–94.
Birr Barracks was built between 1809 and 1812 at the instigation of the Earl of Rosse, who had argued the need for some barracks within two hours' march of the River Shannon.Offaly Archives Index.
An 'Interchange Act' was passed in July 1811 permitting British and Irish militia units to volunteer for service across the Irish Sea. By the end of July 34 out of 38 Irish militia regiments had volunteered for this service, but only 15 travelled to England, the King's County not being among them.McAnally, pp. 243–9.
Napoleon abdicated in April 1814 and with the end of the war most Irish Militia regiments marched back to their home counties and were disembodied. However, they were called out again during the brief Waterloo campaign and its aftermath. The order to stand down finally arrived early in 1816 and the King's County Militia was accordingly disembodied.McAnally, pp. 256–64.
Long Peace After Waterloo there was a long peace. Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots might still held, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and the permanent staffs of militia regiments were progressively reduced.Hay, p. 154. William Parsons, Lord Oxmantown (3rd Earl of Rosse from 1841) was colonel of the King's County Rifles from 19 June 1834, and his younger brother the Hon Laurence Parsons was lieutenant-colonel from 24 December 1847. Charles Bury, 2nd Earl of Charleville was major from 28 June 1831 until his death in 1851.Hart's.
1852 Reforms 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.Hay, pp. 155–6.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'.
The King's County Royal Rifle Militia was revived, the Earl of Rosse remaining as colonel, but with a large number of new officers. The position of colonel in the militia disappeared after the 1852 Act, the lieutenant-colonel generally being the commanding officer (CO) and the position of honorary colonel was created. The Earl of Rosse died in 1867.Army List, various dates.
Crimean War and after The Crimean War broke out in 1854 and after a large expeditionary force was sent overseas, the militia began to be called out. The Kings County Rifles was embodied on 16 April 1855. It spent the entire term of its embodiment at Birr, and was stood down on 28 July 1856. It was not re-embodied during the Indian Mutiny.Edinburgh Gazette, 1 May 1855.Edinburgh Gazette, 6 May 1856.
The reformed militia settled into a routine of annual training. The regiments now had a large cadre of permanent staff (about 30) and a number of the officers were former Regulars. Around a third of the recruits and many young officers went on to join the Regular Army. The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war. They were called out in 1878 during the international crisis caused by the Russo-Turkish War.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 195–6.
Cardwell & Childers Reforms Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the Cardwell Reforms of 1872, militia regiments were brigaded with their local linked regular regiments. For the King's County Rifles this was in Sub-District No 67 (Counties of Meath, Westmeath and Longford, and King's and Queen's Counties) in Dublin District of Irish Command: