The Officer Corps

Hay, George

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-65539-0_2

George Hay⁵

Part of the book series: War, Culture and Society, 1750-1850 ((WCS))

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Abstract

This chapter adopts a prosopographical approach to build an original and full image of Yeomanry officership. It touches on professional culture and addresses examples of social mobility, the wider connections to county society, the question of expense, the importance and reflection of titles of authority, and the technical ability of leadership. Historiographically, the Yeomanry was portrayed as a stronghold of the aristocracy and squirearchy, and as part of a wider system of patronage and power. This chapter explores the nuances of the Yeomanry’s identity by looking beyond defence of property, social positions and politics, and questions variations within the force that resulted from geographical differences and shifts over time.

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Notes

1.
Excluding adjutants, surgeons etc. BPP: 189, 1821: Yeomanry Cavalry Return, 1820.
2.
Mileham, P.J.R. The Yeomanry Regiments—A Pictorial History (Spellmount, Tunbridge Wells, 1985).
3.
Beckett, I.F.W. The Amateur Military Tradition, 1558–1945 (MUP, 1991), pp. 189–190; and Gilks, A.D. ‘A History of Britain’s Volunteer Cavalry, 1776–1908.’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham. 2005), pp. 137–143.
4.
WSRO, PHA/53. Letter: Duke of Richmond to Earl of Egremont, 17 June 1794.
5.
Oversubscribed regiments provided an extra 59 officers to the total. BPP: C. 1429, 1876: Yeomanry Cavalry Return, 1875.
6.
BPP: C. 7244, 1893–1894; and TNA, WO 32/7237. Memo from Inspector of Auxiliary Cavalry, Colonel C.W. Thesiger, c. 23 February 1882.
7.
Gilks, ‘A History of Britain’s Volunteer Cavalry’, p. 92.
8.
John Trollope, 1st Baron Kesteven, spent this sum on three uniforms before joining the Leicestershire Yeomanry Cavalry in the 1870s. Gilks, ‘A History of Britain’s Volunteer Cavalry’, p. 94.
9.
CKS, EKY/Z1. Letter: Captain Paynter to Captain R. Cobb, 14 June 1806.
10.
CKS, EKY/Z1. Letter: Captain R. Cobb to Captain Paynter, 16 June 1806.
11.
Ibid.
12.
SRO, D1300/2/1. Letter: Captain P.C.G. Webster (Adjutant) to Lieutenant Griffith. 24 September 1869; 15 October 1869; 11 November 1869; and Letter: Captain P.C.G. Webster (Adjutant) to Major-General J. Lindsay. 17 March 1870.
13.
BPP: C. 6675, 1892: Brownlow Committee on the Condition of the Yeomanry, pp. 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 34 and 36.
14.
The Earl was Colonel of the North Somerset Yeomanry. Ibid., p. 36.
15.
‘Q.L.’ The Yeomanry Cavalry of Worcestershire, 1794–1913 (Simpson, Devizes, 1914), p. 50.
16.
BPP: 2817, 1861: Lawrenson Committee on the Present Organization and Establishment of the Yeomanry Force, p. 13.
17.
The Worcestershire Yeomanry and Yorkshire Hussars for example. Ibid., p. 14.
18.
Beach, J. (Ed) The Military Papers of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Cuthbert Headlam, 1910–1942 (The History Press, Stroud, 2012), p. 25.
19.
TNA, WO32/7237. Meeting regarding Yeomanry organisation, 30 December 1881.
20.
Examples of conversations between commanding officers and Lords Lieutenant: ORO, L/M VII/ii/1. Lord Lieutenant correspondence: Yeomanry Commissions.
21.
NAS, GD1/555/1. Letter book No. 3. Letter: James Stuart to Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, 28 July 1810.
22.
Heathcote, T.A. ‘The Army of British India’ in Chandler, D. & Beckett, I.F.W. (eds.) The Oxford History of the British Army (OUP, 1996), p. 363.
23.
Calculated from the Army List between 1870 and 1900. Sample: 337 officers from eight regiments (1st Devon, West Kent, Wiltshire, Pembrokeshire, Lower Ward of Lanarkshire, Northumberland, Hampshire, and Buckinghamshire).
24.
Calculated from the Army List between 1900 and 1914. Sample: 370 officers from the same eight regiments.
25.
H.L.C. Brassey (West Kent Yeomanry) went from Captain in 1899 to Major in 1901. His fellow Captain, J.F. Edmeades, waited from 1876.
26.
The sample showed 34 promotions a year between 1900 and 1902 compared to 12 a year between 1903 and 1914.
27.
Letter: Thomas Bernard to Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, 2 April 1862 in Beckett, I.F.W. (ed.), The Safe Duke: Selected County Correspondence of Richard, Third Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, 1861–69 (Bucks Record Society, 2016), p. 90.
28.
Brownlow Committee, 1892, pp. 19 and 89; and Army Regulations Vol. X—Regulations for the Yeomanry Cavalry (HMSO, 1885), pp. 10–11.
29.
DRO, 961 M-0/O/4/3. Letter: Sir John Kennaway to John Bere, 04/06/1823; and Sir John Kennaway to John Bere, 27 March 1824.
30.
WRO, CR1886/Box616/17. Letter (copy): Lord Aylesford to Earl Warwick, 13 January 1848; and London Gazette, 31 March 1848.
31.
WRO, CR1886/Box635. ‘Yeomanry Letters’, un-catalogued. Letter: G.C. Leigh to Earl Warwick, 5 February 1867; and Army List, 1867.
32.
Stanley Committee, 1875, p. 90.
33.
187 men out of 799 in 1876, and 172 men out of 1228 in 1914. Extracted from Army List for 1876 and 1914.
34.
Spiers, E.M. The Late Victorian Army, 1868–1902 (MUP, 1992), p. 104.
35.
NAS, GD164/1373/5. Letter: Rosolyn to Earl Lonsdale, 7 May 1859.
36.
DRO, 961 M-0/O/4/3. Letter: Sir John Kennaway to J. Hunt, 8 June 1825.
37.
DRO, 961 M-0/O/4/3. Letter: Sir John Kennaway to Mark Kennaway, 4 October 1821.
38.
NAS, GD1/555/1. Letter book No. 3. Letter: James Stuart to Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, 28 July 1810.
39.
NAS, GD149/387. Letters concerning commissions in Ayrshire Yeomanry, 6 December 1846–20 December 1848.
40.
Sir Henry Hoare, Bt. is one example. Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 10 June 1869. Vol. 196, Para. 1576.
41.
London Gazette, 6 April 1877; Army List, 1877; York Herald, 20 November 1891; and The Times, 30 June 1886.
42.
NAS, GD26/9/144. Letters concerning Fife Yeomanry, 6 June 1831–1837 June 1831.
43.
Letter: William Wroughton to Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, 2 April 1862 in Beckett, I.F.W. (ed.), The Safe Duke, p. 123.
44.
NAS, GD508/9/39/2. Letter: Duke of Atholl to Colonel George Patterson, 20 April 1820.
45.
NAS, GD16/52/43. Letter: William Maule to Earl of Airlie, 28 March 1831.
46.
DRO, 3898Z/1. Letter John Kennaway to John Bere, 4 June 1823.
47.
DHC, D/DOY/A/7/4. List of the Officers of the Yeomanry Cavalry of Great Britain, 1837.
48.
DHC, D/DOY/A/7/4. List of the Officers of the Yeomanry Cavalry of Great Britain, 1837; and Sleigh, A. The Royal Militia and Yeomanry Cavalry Army List, April 1850. (Reprinted by Naval and Military Press).
49.
Ibid., and Wingfield, Col. Historical Record of the Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry—From its Formation in 1795, up to the Year 1887 (Adnitt & Naunton, Shrewsbury, 1888), pp. 12–13.
50.
Sleigh, The Royal Militia and Yeomanry Cavalry Army List, 1850.
51.
Gilks, ‘A History of Britain’s Volunteer Cavalry, 1776–1908’, p. 101.
52.
DHC, D/DOY/A/7/4. List of the Officers of the Yeomanry Cavalry of Great Britain, 1837; Sleigh, The Royal Militia and Yeomanry Cavalry Army List, 1850; and List of the Officers of the…Corps and Troops of Gentlemen and Yeomanry (War Office, 15 May 1795).
53.
Gilks, ‘A History of Britain’s Volunteer Cavalry, 1776–1908’, p. 105.
54.
Ibid., p. 109.
55.
Ibid., p. 110.
56.
Calculated from the Army List.
57.
Though he actually remained as an honorary colonel. ‘Q.L.’ The Yeomanry Cavalry of Worcestershire, p. 75.
58.
CKS, EKY/Z1. Letter: Captain Denne to Major Deedes, 16 July 1836.
59.
CKS, EKY/Z1. Poster: ‘To the Gentlemen of East Kent’.
60.
Ibid.
61.
Sleigh, The Royal Militia and Yeomanry Cavalry Army List, 1850.
62.
NAS, GD150/2366/37. Letter (draft): Earl Morton to Thomas Gloag, 23 September 1801.
63.
Brownlow Committee, 1892, p. 19.
64.
TNA, WO 32/7237, p. 10; BPP: C. 3499, 1883; and BPP: C. 6860, 1893–1894.
65.
Fellows, G. History of the South Notts. Yeomanry Cavalry, 1794–1894, (Forman, Nottingham, 1895), p. 84.
66.
Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 3 June 1907. Vol. 175, Para. 295.
67.
Beach, J. The Military Papers of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Cuthbert Headlam, p. 25.
68.
Extracted from London Gazette.
69.
Spiers, E.M. ‘The Regular Army’ in Beckett, I.F.W. and Simpson, K. (eds.) Nation in Arms (MUP, 1985), p. 42.
70.
Oxford University Handbook (Clarendon, Oxford, 1912), p. 232.
71.
Hales, M.R. ‘Civilian Soldiers in Staffordshire, 1793–1823.’ (Ph.D. thesis, Sheffield Hallam University. 1995), p. 204.
72.
Ibid., p. 206.
73.
The Times, 28 December 1900 and 17 October 1941; and The North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 27 December 1900.
74.
The Times, 18 March 1936.
75.
Baines, T. Yorkshire Past and Present, Vol. II. (William Mackenzie, London, 1870), pp. 194–195; and Army List, 1876.
76.
Cripps, F.H. Life’s a Gamble (Odhams Press, London, 1957), p. 64.
77.
Beckett The Amateur Military Tradition, p. 189; and Endelman, T.M. The Jews of Britain, 1656–2000 (UCP, 2002), pp. 155–156.
78.
Rubinstein, W.D. ‘New Men of Wealth and the Purchase of Land in Nineteenth-Century Britain’ Past & Present, No. 92, 1981, p. 91.
79.
For an overview of this historiography see: Nicholas, T. ‘Businessmen and Land Ownership in the Late Nineteenth Century Revisited’ The Economic History Review, Vol. 53, No. 4, 2000, pp. 777–782.
80.
Pumphrey, R.E. ‘The Introduction of Industrialists into the British Peerage: A Study in Adaptation of a Social Institution.’ American Historical Review, Vol. LXV, No. 1, 1959, p. 8.
81.
Nicholas, ‘Businessmen and Land ownership’, p. 782.
82.
Habakkuk, H.J. Marriage, Debt, and the Estates System: English Landownership 1650–1950 (Clarendon, Oxford, 1994), pp. 403 and 613.
83.
Pumphrey, R.E. ‘The Introduction of Industrialists into the British Peerage’, p. 9.
84.
The Times, 18 March 1909; and The Army List.
85.
Spiers, The Late Victorian Army, pp. 94–96 and 163.
86.
Dated 3 September 1852. London Gazette, 28 September 1852.
87.
ORO, L/M VII/ii/1. Letter: Baron Saye and Sele to Duke of Marlborough, 29 May 1852.
88.
Clark, G. ‘Land Hunger: Land as a Commodity and as a Status Good, England, 1500–1910’. Explorations in Economic History, No. 35, 1998, p. 61.
89.
The Times, 18 February 1930; 22 December 1930; and 18 March 1958.
90.
The Times, 29 December 1953; and The Army List 1896–1906.
91.
Extracted from Army List, August 1914.
92.
The Times, 4 January 1915; 10 November 1938; 25 March 1939; 13 April 1939; 23 August 1946; 24 May 1947; and 13 May 1954.
93.
Keith-Falconer, A. The Oxfordshire Hussars in the Great War (John Murray, London, 1922), p. 25; The Times, 2 October 1951; and 19 September 1952.
94.
Brownlow Committee, 1892, p. 41.
95.
Parliamentary Debates, Lords, 21 January 1886. Vol. 302, Para. 45; The Times, 4 February 1859, 7 February 1911 and 11 February 1920; and Beckett, I.F.W. Riflemen Form: A Study of the Rifle Volunteer Movement 1859–1908 (Pen & Sword, 2007), p. 96.
96.
DRO, 2065 M/C1/19. Letter: Lieutenant-Colonel J.W. Buller to ‘G’, 16 May 1862.
97.
John Bull, 28 May 1821.
98.
The Dart, 30 January 1891.
99.
CCA, CC-W/13/3. Diary: F.S. Maxted, 1902–1920.
100.
The Warwickshire Yeomanry asked the Earl of Warwick to ‘patronise’ their ball in the 1890s. WRO, CR1886/Box835/113. Letter: Lewis Goold to Earl Warwick. 21 November 1890.
101.
CKS, U269/O299/8. West Kent Yeomanry Officers Mess Accounts, Arundel, West Sussex. 1911 and 1912.
102.
Ibid., and ‘Q.L.’ The Yeomanry Cavalry of Worcestershire, p. 70.
103.
D’Este, C. Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874–1945 (Harper Collins, New York, 2008), p. 55.
104.
Holderness, B.A. ‘The Victorian Farmer’ in Mingay, G.F. (ed.) The Victorian Countryside Vol. II (Routledge, London, 1981), p. 21; and Gee, A The British Volunteer Movement, 1794–1814 (OUP, 2003), pp. 160–161.
105.
Re-raised in 1902, ‘A’ Squadron (Colchester—Essex and Suffolk Hunt); ‘B’ (Braintree—East Essex Hunt); ‘C’ (Epping—Essex Hunt); and ‘D’ (Southend–Essex Union Hunt). Robertson, A.F.F.H. ‘The army in Colchester and its influence on the social, economic, and political development of the town, 1854–1914.’ (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Essex, 1991), p. 261; and Itzkowitz, D. Peculiar Privilege: a Social History of English Foxhunting, 1753–1885 (Harvester, 1977), p. 105; and The Standard, 20 January 1892.
106.
Bell'’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 18 November 1860 and 3 October 1863; Yerburgh, H. Beauchamp. Leaves from a Hunting Diary in Essex- Vol. I (Vinton, London, 1900), pp. 272 and 287–290; Packenham, T. The Boer War (Abacus, London, 1979), p. 436; and Sassoon, S. Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man (Faber & Faber, London, 1929), pp. 105–106, 179, 215 and 232.
107.
Howkins, A. Reshaping Rural England—A Social History, 1850–1926 (Harper Collins, London, 1991), p. 242; and Mingay, G.E. The gentry: the rise and fall of a ruling class (Longman, London, 1976), p. 181.
108.
Surtees, R.S. Mr. Facey Romford’s Hounds (Bradbury, London, 1865), p. 81.
109.
For example, one officer was said to reside in Ireland, yet belonged to an English regiment. Stanley Committee, 1875, p. 90.
110.
Long held the colonelcy between 1898 and 1906. He was MP for Bristol South between 1900 and 1906 as well as President of the Board of Local Government between 1900 and 1905 and Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1905.
111.
See Army List; CAC, CHAR 1/83/9. Letter: Lord Wyfold to Winston Churchill, 5 November 1908; and Jenkins, R. Churchill (Pan Macmillan, London, 2002) p. 203.
112.
Stanley Committee, 1875, p. 93.
113.
Ibid., p. 90.
114.
Beach, The Military Papers of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Cuthbert Headlam, p. 22.
115.
TNA, HO 44/47. Observations for the Improvement of the Yeomanry Cavalry, Together with the Remarks That Have Given Rise to Them.
116.
DRO, 961 M-0/O/4/3. Letter: Colonel Sir John Kennaway to Browne, 8 October 1821.
117.
SRO, D1300/2/1. Letter: P.C.G.W. (Adjutant). to Lieutenant Spry, 13 January 1866; and Letter: Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Bagot to SSW, 24 June 1872.
118.
Stanley Committee, 1875, p. 190.
119.
From 1874 the School of Auxiliary Cavalry at Aldershot catered for Yeomanry officers and permanent staff to learn the rudiments of their drill and duties in an examined four week course. Although it was closed in 1897 (Army Order 196), it reopened in 1901 as the School for Imperial Yeomanry, the duties later taken over from 1910 by the cavalry depots. Stanley Committee, 1875, p. 218; Harris Committee, 1901, p. 10; Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 8 March 1910. Vol. 14, Para. 1412; and Army List 1914.
120.
BPP: C. 1790, 1904: Elgin Commission, Minutes of Evidence, Vol. I, pp. 290–291.
121.
Ibid., p. 295.
122.
Cassar, George H. The Tragedy of Sir John French (Associated University Presses, London, 1985), pp. 21–22 and 24.
123.
Holmes, R. The Little Field Marshal—A Life of Sir John French, (Cape, London, 1981), p. 29.
124.
Pease, H. The History of the Northumberland (Hussars) Yeomanry, 1819–1919 (Constable, London, 1924), p. 19.
125.
Carton De Wiart, Sir A. Happy Odyssey (Pen & Sword, 2007), p. 17.
126.
Ibid., p. 43.
127.
Carton De Wiart, Happy Odyssey, p. 43; and Stanley Committee, 1875, p. 71.
128.
Carton De Wiart, Happy Odyssey, pp. 43–44; BPP: C. 1352, 1875: Stanley Committee on Certain Questions that have Arisen with Respect to the Yeomanry Cavalry, 1875, p. 34.
129.
LMA, ACC 1360/781/1-39. Stracey-Clitherow Papers.
130.
Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 13 June 1878. Vol. 240, Para. 1447–1448.
131.
A sergeant-major of the regulars, embodied militia, fencibles or East India Company could take an adjutancy so long as they had at least four years service. DHC, D/DOY/A/7/4. Regulations and Allowances, 1833.
132.
Freeman, B. Historical Records of the Hampshire Carabiniers Yeomanry (MS. Hampshire Regiment Museum, Winchester), p. 44; and Webster, The Records of the Queen’s Own Royal Regiment of Staffordshire Yeomanry (Longmans, London, 1870), pp. 13, 99, 166, 172 and 180.
133.
Fellows, History of the South Notts. Yeomanry Cavalry, p. 153.
134.
Stanley Committee, 1875, pp. 114 and 180.
135.
Spiers, The Late Victorian Army, p. 104.
136.
Stanley Committee, 1875, p. 103.
137.
Heathcote, ‘The Army of British India’, pp. 362–363.
138.
Stanley Committee, 1875, pp. 61, 67, 69, 71 and 186.
139.
Army Regulations Vol. X — Regulations for the Yeomanry Cavalry, p. 20; and NAS, GD497/7/4/2-15. Letters: (April 1907–December 1908) regarding Captain M. Sprot’s adjutancy in the Lothians and Border Horse.
140.
Punch, 24 March 1883.
141.
Parliamentary Debates, Commons 13 June 1878. Vol. 240, Para. 1447–1448.
142.
Parliamentary Debates, Commons 16 June 1879. Vol. 246, Para. 2001.
143.
Two officers, one on full the other on half pay, declined the appointment. The Times, 12 July 1872; and Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 11 July 1872. Vol. 212, Para. 949–950.
144.
Stanley Committee, 1875, pp. 184, 186 and 187.
145.
Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 15 June 1871. Vol. 207, Para. 78.
146.
Punch, 14 July 1877.

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Hay, G. (2017). The Officer Corps. In: The Yeomanry Cavalry and Military Identities in Rural Britain, 1815–1914. War, Culture and Society, 1750-1850. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65539-0_2

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