The South Cork Light Infantry was a regiment of the Irish Militia raised in County Cork in 1793. It saw action during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It later became a battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers (RMF) and served in South Africa during the Second Boer War. During World War I it trained reinforcements for the RMF battalions serving overseas. It was disbanded in 1922 following Irish Independence.
Precursors
Although there are scattered references to town guards and local units, no organised militia existed in Ireland before 1660. After the Stuart Restoration more formal militia forces were organised. In August 1666 the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Ormond, made a 'progress' through County Cork and was accompanied by the horse militia of each barony. During the Williamite War in Ireland the Governor of Cork, Sir Richard Cox, increased the militia of the county to three regiments of foot (6000 men) and 26 independent troops of horse in 1691, which played an active part in the fighting. In 1715 the Irish Militia came under statutory authority, but its numbers fell away until the War of American Independence when, with a serious threat of invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, Ireland had no national militia. It was not until the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War In 1793 that the Irish administration passed an effective Militia Act that created an official Irish Militia. The new Act was based on existing English precedents, with the men being conscripted by ballot to fill county quotas (paid substitutes were permitted) and the officers having to meet certain property qualifications.Hay, pp. 146–7.Hay, pp. 197–8.Hay, pp. 390–3.McAnally, pp. 1–31.Richey, pp. 3–6.
South Cork Militia French Revolutionary War In March 1793 County Cork was given a quota of 1464 men to find, to be organised into three regiments each of 488 men in 8 companies:Frederick, p. 167.McAnally, Appendix VI. South Cork Militia at RathcormacFrederick, p. 275.Hay, pp. 427–8. North Cork Militia at FermoyFrederick, p. 243. Royal Cork City Militia at CorkFrederick, pp. 983–5.Litchfield, pp. 56–8.
Hayes St Leger, 2nd Viscount Doneraile, was appointed Colonel of the South Cork Militia on 25 April 1793,War Office, 1805 List. but the new militia was widely unpopular, and Cork was one of the slower counties to fill its quota, despite Lord Doneraile offering bounties to volunteers. The order to embody the three regiments for service was not issued until 30 September 1793 and it was not carried out until 15 October.McAnally, pp. 41, 43, 48. In 1795 the Irish militia was augmented, and each of the County Cork regiments was raised to an establishment of 612 men.
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. In August 1794 the South Cork regiment was widely dispersed in small garrisons across Counties Leitrim and Roscommon, at Carrick-on-Shannon (2 companies), Ballinamore, Cloone and Mohil (2), Boyle (3), Elphin and Strokestown (1).McAnally, Appendix III.
In 1797 the light companies of the militia were detached to join composite battalions drawn from several militia and regular regiments. The light companies of the three Cork regiments joined 1st Light Battalion. The militia regiments were each issued with two light six-pounder 'battalion guns', with the gun detachments trained by the Royal Artillery. 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).McAnally, pp. 102–9, 121–6.Richey, pp. 18–9; Appendices IV & V.
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 South Cork regiment took part in a forced march by units from Limerick to meet this threat. Soon afterwards news arrived that the French fleet had been scattered by the winter storms. Several ships had been 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.McAnally, pp. 96–102; Appendix III.
Irish Rebellion
The expected Irish Rebellion finally broke out in May 1798. In mid-June government troops under Lieutenant-General Gerard Lake concentrated for an advance against the main rebel camp on Vinegar Hill, near Enniscorthy in County Wexford. On 20 June Major-General John Moore's column, including the militia light battalions, cleared Goff's Bridge (the Battle of Foulksmills) and Vinegar Hill was attacked at dawn on 21 June. Lake's columns came under fire from rebel skirmishers among the hedges, but they advanced steadily, converging on the hill and clearing the camp and the town of Enniscorthy. 1st Light Bn suffered a number of casualties in this action.McAnally, Appendix VIII.Maxwell, pp. 139–46.Richey, Appendix IV.Sleigh, pp. xiii, 124. The decisive defeat at the Battle of Vinegar Hill broke the Wexford Rebellion. Over the following weeks the remaining rebel groups in other part of Ireland were largely destroyed before a French force arrived on 22 August, too late to effect the outcome, and after initial success was forced to surrender on 8 September.Maxwell, pp. 223–43.
After the rebellion the Irish Militia settled down to garrison duty once more. 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. 148–53. The light battalions were reformed in 1800, with the Cork companies once more in 1st Light Bn.Richey, Appendix X. William Tonson, 2nd Lord Riversdale of Rathcormac became Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment on 30 May 1801.
By the end of 1801 peace negotiations with the French were progressing, so 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 1802 after which the militia regiments were disembodied leaving only the permanent staff of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and drummers under the regimental adjutant.McAnally, pp. 164–72.
Napoleonic Wars However, the Peace of Amiens was short-lived and preparations to re-embody the militia begun in November 1802. Early in 1803 the regiments were ordered to begin re-enrolling former militiamen and new volunteers as well as using the ballot. The proclamation to embody the militia was issued on 15 March and carried out on 25 March.McAnally, pp. 172–8.
Anti-invasion preparations were now put in hand and the reconstituted militia regiments underwent training, although most were not considered well enough trained to go into camp during the summer of 1804. The light battalions were reformed in September 1803 but were discontinued in 1806. Over the following years the regiments carried out garrison duties at various towns across Ireland and attended summer training camps. As the war progressed, the Regular Army increasingly relied on volunteers from the militia for trained recruits. In 1805 the militia establishment was raised to allow for this.McAnally, pp. 179–94, 198–9, 216.Hay, pp. 150–3.
The Interchange Act 1811 passed in July allowed Irish militia regiments to serve in England and vice versa for up to two years. The South Cork was one of the regiments that volunteered and was selected. It served in England from June 1812 to October 1814.Hay, pp. 148–53.
The Napoleonic Wars were brought to an end by the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and the regiment was finally disembodied in 1816.
South Cork Light Infantry After Waterloo there was a long peace. Although ballots were still held until they were suspended by the Militia Act 1829, the regiments were rarely assembled for training. The permanent staffs of sergeants and drummers (who were occasionally used to maintain public order) were progressively reduced, though the statutory establishment of the disembodied regiment was still eight companies. Officers continued to be commissioned sporadically. The regiment was redesignated the South Cork Militia (Light Infantry) (LI) at some time before 1840 when the colonel was Lord Riversdale. In 1845–46 there was an effort to replace elderly members of the permanent staff and to appoint a few younger officers from the county gentry, though they had no duties to perform. Lord Riversdale died in 1848 and was succeeded as colonel by Hayes St Leger, 3rd Viscount Doneraile, son of the regiment's first colonel. William St Leger Alcock Stawell of Kilbrittain Castle, formerly a Captain in the 23rd Foot was appointed Lt-Col on the same day.Hart's, various dates.Sleigh, pp. xv–xvii.'Stawell', Burke's Landed Gentry, Vol II.
The Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act 1852, enacted during a 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 'in case of national danger or pressing necessity'.Dunlop, pp. 42–5.Grierson, pp. 27–8.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 91–2.
The South Cork LI was revived in 1852. Viscount Doneraile died on 27 March 1854 and was succeeded as colonel by the Hon Henry Boyle Bernard of Coolmain Castle, younger son of the 2nd Earl of Bandon and later Member of Parliament (MP) for Bandon.'Bandon', Burke's Peerage. Lieutenant-Col Stawell transferred to the North Cork Rifles on 8 November 1854, and Henry Wallis of Drisbane Castle was promoted in his place.'Wallis', Burke's Landed Gentry, Vol II.
Crimean War The Crimean War having broken out and a large expeditionary force sent overseas, the militia were called out for home defence. The South Cork LI were embodied for service and by March 1855 were stationed at Bandon. They moved to Kinsale during April, to Cork City by August and by the beginning of December the regiment was at Dublin, where it remained until it was disembodied at the end of the war in 1856.Edinburgh Gazette, 6 March 1855.Edinburgh Gazette, 1 May 1855.Edinburgh Gazette, 7 August 1855.Edinburgh Gazette, 11 December 1855.Edinburgh Gazette, 6 May 1856.
The South Cork LI was not among the militia regiments embodied for home defence when an expeditionary force was sent to suppress the Indian Mutiny. In the late 1850s Regimental HQ moved to Bandon. Lieutenant-ColWallis died on 6 January 1862 and was replaced by Edmond Roche, an unattached colonel, and then Sir Augustus Warren, 5th Baronet, a former Major in the 20th Foot who had served in the Crimea and Indian Mutiny, was appointed Lt-Col on 6 July 1865.'Warren', Burke's Peerage.