The Huntingdonshire Militia, later the Huntingdonshire Rifles, was an auxiliary military force in the county of Huntingdonshire in the East Midlands of England. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1558 the Militia of Huntingdonshire served during times of international tension and Britain's major wars. They provided internal security and home defence, relieving regular troops from routine garrison duties, and acting as a source of trained officers and men for the Regular Army. The regiment later became a battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and trained thousands of reservists and recruits during World War I. It maintained a shadowy existence until final disbandment in 1953.
Early history The English militia was descended from the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd, the military force raised from the freemen of the shires under command of their Sheriff. It continued under the Norman kings, notably at the Battle of the Standard (1138). The force was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by King Edward I's Statute of Winchester of 1285. The main threats were from Scotland, Wales or France: as an inland county Huntingdonshire avoided most of the demands.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Fissel, pp. 178–80.Hay, pp. 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–1.
Huntingdonshire Trained Bands
The legal basis of the militia was updated by two Acts of 1557 covering musters and the maintenance of horses and armour. 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 county militia in England. Several of the southern counties were called upon to send troops to suppress the Rising of the North in 1569. Although the militia obligation was universal, this assembly confirmed that it was impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man. After 1572 the practice was to select a proportion of men for the Trained Bands (TBs). They were trained by professional captains and muster-masters for up to 10 days each year. Full musters were held about every three years when the arms and armour were inspected. In 1584 Huntingdonshire was charged with supplying 200 'shot' (men with firearms), 100 bowmen and 100 'corslets' (body armour signifying pikemen).Beckett, p. 20.Boynton, pp. 13–7, 91–2, Appendix I.Cruickshank, p. 25.Fissel, pp. 183–90.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 125.Hay, p. 88.
The threat of invasion during the Spanish War led to an increase in training. At first the government emphasised the 17 'maritime' counties most vulnerable to attack, and it was not until 1586 that the inland counties were placed under lords-lieutenant (Lord St John of Bletso was appointed to Huntingdonshire in April 1588), ordered to appoint captains and muster-master corporals and to intensify training.Boynton, p. 96. The TBs were placed on alert in April 1588 and brought to an hour's notice in June. When warning of the invasion Armada arrived the TBs were mobilised on 23 July. The 400 Huntingdonshire TB foot joined Lord Hunsdon's army defending the queen and were formed with the Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire TBs into Sir Henry Goodere's Regiment, 2100 strong. The county also provided 19 lancers and 65 light horse. The army gathered at Tilbury was broken up shortly after Queen Elizabeth gave her Tilbury speech on 9 August, the danger having passed.Beckett, pp. 24–5.Holden, p. 4.Hay, pp. 92, 96.
In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions, and between 1585 and 1601 Huntingdonshire supplied 398 levies for service in Ireland, 150 for France and 50 for the Netherlands. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than the Trained Bandsmen – in 1585 the Privy Council had ordered the impressment of able-bodied unemployed men, and the queen ordered 'none of her trayned-bands to be pressed'. Replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy burden on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–9, 62, 113, Appendix 3.
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.Beckett, pp. 33–9.Fissel, pp. 174–8. In 1638 the Huntingdon TBs consisted of a foot regiment of 240 musketeers and 160 corslets, and a Troop of 20 lancers and 30 light horse.Huntingdon TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.
Civil Wars In 1639 and 1640 Charles attempted to employ the TBs for the Bishops' Wars in Scotland. However, many of those sent on this unpopular service were untrained replacements and conscripts, and many officers were corrupt or inefficient. In March 1640 the 400 men of the Huntingdon TB were ordered to be shipped to Newcastle upon Tyne for service against the Scots. They were to be at the general rendezvous by 25 May to march to Great Yarmouth on 5 June, to be ready to sail on 10 June. Once again, it seems that many of the trained bandsmen nationwide escaped service and raw substitutes were sent in their placeFissel, p. 208.
Control of the TBs was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the First English Civil War. However, once open warfare had broken out neither side made much use of the TBs beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops who would serve anywhere in the country, many of whom were former trained bandsmen (probably in the Earl of Manchester's Eastern Association army in the case of men from Huntingdonshire).Beckett, pp. 42–3.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.
As Parliament tightened its grip on the country after the Second English Civil War, it passed new Militia Acts in 1648 and 1650 that replaced lords lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State. From now on, 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.Holmes, pp. 94–100. During the campaign of 1651, the Huntingdonshire Militia were ordered to rendezvous at Northampton, but took no part in the Battle of Worcester, probably remaining in reserve at Coventry.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.
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 Oliver Cromwell's military dictatorship, and almost the whole burden of home defence and internal security was entrusted to the militia.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Hay, pp. 104–6.Western, pp. 3–16, 33–4, 72.
There was a general muster of the militia in 1685 after the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis on 11 June, launching the Monmouth Rebellion against King James II. The West Country militia were engaged, including at the Battle of Sedgemoor, but James deliberately belittled their performance to bolster plans for a large army under his own control. After the suppression of the rebellion he suspended militia musters and planned to use the counties' weapons and militia taxes to equip and pay his expanding Regular Army, which he felt he could rely upon, unlike the locally commanded militia. When William of Orange landed in the West Country in 1688 and marched against James, the militia did not stir against him in the 'Glorious Revolution'.
The militia continued their defence role under William. In 1697 the counties were required to submit detailed lists of their militia. Under the 4th Earl of Manchester as lord-lieutenant, Huntingdonshire mustered a regiment of 390 foot in five companies commanded by Colonel Robert Apreece, and a 72-strong troop of horse under Capt Heneage Montagu, the earl's younger brother.Hay, p. 119.Hay, pp. 387–8. The militia continued mustering for annual training until the Treaty of Utrecht and the accession of King George I, but after the Jacobite Rising of 1715 they passed into virtual abeyance.Fortescue, Vol II, p. 133.Western, p. 73.
1757 Reforms
Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 reorganised the county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. In peacetime they assembled for 28 days' annual training. 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.Western, pp. 124–57, 251.
The legislation was unpopular, and there were anti-militia riots in Huntingdonshire in 1757, 1759 and again in 1761.Western, pp. 294, 298. The county was given a quota of 320 men to be raised, and as a small county, the property qualification for militia officers in Huntingdonshire was lowered in order to find enough of them. The issue of its weapons was authorised on 23 August 1759, and it was embodied for permanent service on 22 October the same year. Although the regiment had fewer than eight companies it was allowed the full establishment of field officers (colonel, lieutenant-colonel and major) because the Lord Lieutenant (the 3rd Duke of Manchester) served as colonel himself.Frederick, pp. 242–5.Western, Appendices A & B.Western, pp. 280, 306.
The militia were disembodied in 1762 as the war was coming to an end, and continued with their annual training thereafter.Western, pp. 189–93.
American War of Independence The militia was embodied in March 1778 during the War of American Independence when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain. Huntingdonshire was commended for the rapidity with which its new men were trained. That year the regiment was stationed at Portsmouth, where together with the Buckinghamshires they were put to constructing fortifications. The officers of the two regiments complained that this work was demeaning for a citizen force intended for use only in emergencies. However, militiamen engaged in skilled work were paid extra, and the real objection seems to have been the additional work for the officers.Western, pp. 400, 408.
In the summer of 1779 the Huntingdons were on coast defence in Northumberland. It is reported that in August a detachment at Alnwick heard the sound of guns and were told that there were French frigates off the coast at nearby Alnmouth. The detachment reached the threatened spot just over two hours after the first alarm, having sent word to their commanding officer (Capt Thomas Apreece) who soon had the whole regiment on the march. It turned out that two frigates had attacked a British whaler off the coast, but had sailed away when others came up. The local commander, Lord Adam Gordon thought the whole affair a silly alarm.Western, p. 434.
In the summer of 1780 the Huntingdons were in camp at Tiptree Heath in Essex, with two regular and six other militia regiments.Harvey, p. 58. In September Capt Apreece in temporary command of the regiment absented himself from the camp because of his wife's illness, then prolonged his absence with spurious excuses. Lieutenant-General George Lane Parker, in command, considered that Apreece deserved to be court-martialed, but he was simply kept in arrest for some time and his behaviour reported to the Commander-in-Chief.Western, p. 423.