Development of the Rifle Volunteer Movement 1859-1908
(PART ONE)by Robert Bonner MA Captain (Retd),
Link to article
http://www.tameside.gov.uk/museumsgalleries/mom/history/riflevolunteer�The following article appeared in the Autumn 2008 (Vol. 86, No. 347) edition of the �Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research� and is hereby reproduced with kind permission of the Journal and the author, Captain Robert Bonner�.
The military contribution made by six of the Lancashire Rifle Volunteer units raised in Manchester during 1859/60 proved to be significant both locally and nationally. Their expansion in WWI as eighteen battalions of the Manchester Regiment played a significant role in both local social and military history. Later, in WWII, they were to form five infantry battalions, one regiment of Royal Armoured Corps and one of Royal Artillery.
Unfortunately the majority of these Manchester Rifle Volunteer units took little care of their records and as a result their history is sparse. The Souvenir and History of the Battalion produced by the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, previously the 6th Lancashire (1st Manchester) Rifle Volunteer Corps, in April 1904 is comprehensive, particularly regarding the personalities of the unit.
Clement W. Cowell of the same unit wrote a detailed history of its Mounted Infantry Company between 1887 and 1908, but his narrative is restricted to the activities of that relatively short-lived part of the battalion.
Captain H. C. Evans provides the best overall picture of the Rifle Volunteers in Manchester in his March 1900 volume Records of the 4th Volunteer Battalion Manchester Regiment which fully describes the evolution of the original 3rd Manchester Rifle Volunteers from its foundation through to June 1900. Sadly, none of the other four units provided similar primary source material.
It is the intention of this article to redress some of these omissions. Fortunately local newspapers of mid-Victorian Manchester took a great amount of interest in the emerging Volunteer Corps and reported their day-to-day activities in detail. These, together with the descriptions of the development of the movement recorded in the Lancashire and Cheshire Volunteer make an important contribution to our knowledge of the enthusiasm created and maintained by the urban and artisan Volunteers of Victorian Manchester who now had the opportunity of playing their own part in the defence of the nation.
The Volunteer Tradition in Manchester
From the days when it was a provincial town, and during its growth into the Victorian industrial city of the nineteenth century, young men of Manchester responded to the call of voluntary military service at times of national crisis. Threat of invasion has been a recurring theme in British history and although protected by the sea and with the defence of the nation resting mainly in the hands of the Royal Navy, much reliance has been placed on the principle of citizen soldiers. With a regular army engaged mainly overseas, defence on land relied on those elements of the regular army based at home, supported by the Militia and occasionally the part-time Volunteer.
Manchester and its neighbouring townships were no strangers to the raising of volunteer soldiers and their mustering for war. Following the capitulation of �Gentleman Johnny� Burgoyne�s army on 17 October 1777 at Saratoga there were many offers of armed and financial assistance from patriotic citizens. Manchester raised the �Royal Manchester Volunteers� or 72nd Regiment of Foot who were to serve with distinction in the garrison of Gibraltar throughout the siege of 1779 - 1783.
There was much local enthusiasm both to subscribe money and to serve in this Regiment. Within four months the Regiment had been completely manned, officered, equipped and was ready for service. All of this was from local resources.
In 1793 the outbreak of yet another war with France produced a wave of similar enthusiasm, resulting in the formation of a Manchester Military Association and the raising of the Royal Manchester Volunteers or 104th Regiment of Foot.
Continued fear of invasion saw the raising of two battalions of Manchester and Salford Volunteers in February 1797. In 1798 Colonel Ackers raised a second Volunteer Regiment. Enthusiasm continued and in December there was a proposal to raise yet another body of men to be known as The (Town�s Own) Loyal Regiment of Fencible Infantry. However, this came to nothing. The general military situation which had caused so much anxiety was now improving and with the Peace of Amiens in 1802, the Manchester volunteer regiments were disbanded.
This situation was short-lived; war with France recommenced in May 1803. Manchester�s enthusiasm was rekindled and more volunteer regiments were raised with several thousand men joining the Manchester movement. The threat from France eventually disappearing, the Volunteers were no longer required and were disbanded by 1813.
The Emergence of The Rifle Volunteer Movement
Despite the alliance between Britain and France during the Crimean War of 1854-56, a renewed fear of invasion by the French caused much concern with respect to Britain�s defensive capability. This surged dramatically in April 1859 following the outbreak of war between France and Austria-Hungary, with a growing newspaper campaign supporting the establishing of volunteer military corps.
To a large extent, the national press led by The Times created much of this anxiety. Its editorial and correspondence columns intensified the campaign for the creation of Volunteer Corps and its views were widely reproduced in local papers throughout Lancashire.
It argued that the Regular Army could not be increased without a corresponding increase in taxation whereas Volunteer Corps would not only provide support for the Regular Army, but would also instil and indoctrinate the country at large with military knowledge. (1) The Government quickly realised that the creation of a Volunteer Force would not only satisfy the public advocates of the movement and reduce the clamour of the Press, but would also cost the State nothing and possibly prove to be of short-term benefit. On 12 May 1859 the War Office sanctioned the formation of Volunteer Corps.
(1) J. F. W. Beckett, Riflemen Form. A Study of the Rifle Volunteer Movement 1859�1908 (Aldershot, 1982), p. 19.
Recruitment And Motivation in Manchester
Enthusiasts met at the Star Hotel on the 20th May 1859 �to consider the desirability of raising a local rifle corps�. (2) Following this a public meeting �of gentlemen favourable to the Volunteer Movement� was held in the Town Hall when it was decided that a brigade should be formed, consisting of three regiments each of six hundred men. Six thousand pounds was considered sufficient to provide clothing and accordingly a subscription was opened.
Volunteers very quickly came forward for enrolment and sixty men were sworn in on the 7th June and began to drill at the Militia Barracks under Staff Sergeants of the 6th Lancashire Militia. On the 13th August a further meeting was held and confirmation was received from the Earl of Sefton, Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, that the services of a Company of Rifle Volunteers at Manchester had been accepted, to be numbered as sixth in the County of Lancaster. Its establishment was to consist of one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign and 100 men of all ranks.
Although the short war between France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Italy concluded in July 1859, fears of French ambitions continued to act as a stimulus to recruiting. The speed at which the 1st Company had been formed influenced further recruiting and a 2nd Company followed almost immediately. J. P. & E. Westhead & Co. (Cotton and Silk Trimmings Manufacturers) immediately raised a 3rd Company, which they undertook to equip at their own cost, at the same time appointing their own officers. (3)
The Manchester Guardian continued to make favourable comparisons with the backwoodsmen of America, mountaineers of the Tyrol in the Austrian Army, and the free Swiss. However others felt that the young men of the town were still slow in coming forward and the Manchester Guardian (4) commented that it is not in hundreds but in thousands that the contingent from a city of 400,000 must be reckoned. That same day the paper devoted a major patriotic article to the history of volunteering in Manchester. More letters of encouragement for the movement were published offering the support of the commercial and business sector of the town.
2. Grand military Bazaar booklet 2nd VB Manchester Regiment (Manchester, Apr. 1904)
3. Marcus Brown Westhead to be Captain; his cousin Walter Bousefield Westhead to be Lt and Isaac Gleave Ensign. Walter Bousefield Westhead succeeded Marcus Brown Westhead as Capt on his promotion to Major in 1861. Walter was promoted Major in 1863 and Lt-Col in 1869.
4. Manchester Guardian. 15 Nov. 1859.
The Pattern of Recruitment
There was no lack of interest during this period but this did not mean that the formation of the volunteer units went without challenge. Pamphlets were distributed by pacifists and in some areas, such as Oldham, public meetings were held on the basis that volunteering represented an attempt to kill interest in reform. (5) However public mood was against these arguments and the Volunteer movement was given wide support throughout the area.
A 4th Company was raised by the active spirits of the Manchester Cotton Exchange and members of the Athenaeum Gymnastic Club formed the 5th (1st Athenaeum) Company. Their Captain was William Romaine Callender, then Honorary Secretary of the Athenaeum and later Member of Parliament for Manchester. Headquarters of the 1st Manchester Rifle Volunteers opened in Hopwood Avenue, and its members drilled in various warehouses, in Carpenter�s Hall, the Bazaar in Bridge Street, at Salford Dye Works and at the Cavalry Barracks in Hulme.
A 6th Company quickly followed and by November 1859 enthusiasts living in the townships of Hulme, Moss Side, Combrook and Stretford formed a 7th (Old Trafford) Company of the 1st Manchesters and their recruits were sworn in at the White Horse Hotel. They commenced drill parades at the nearby Pomona Gardens and later at the Salford Infantry Barracks under the guidance of Regular Army Staff Sergeants of the 96th Regiment.
The directors of J. & N. Phillips had been amongst the first to promote the Volunteers and amongst the first to offer financial backing. Now they offered to provide an 8th Company and on the 22nd November formed a committee to make suitable arrangements. (6) On the 3rd December they made �500 available for uniforms and equipment. Two weeks later eighty volunteers were sworn in with two officers and an Ensign being elected by ballot. Enthusiasm continued and the Volunteers of this company drilled four nights a week in the firm�s warehouse and, on Saturday afternoons, in Chetham�s College Yard.
Meanwhile traders and commercial organisations were rapidly taking advantage of the opportunities presented by this wave of enthusiasm. The Albert Life Assurance & Guarantee Company of 65 King Street advertised that �Assurors in this Company who may become members of Rifle Corps will not be charged an extra premium�. Local newspapers advertised uniforms and military boots at various shops.
Recruiting for the 2nd and 3rd Regiments of the proposed Brigade proceeded satisfactorily and the 3rd rapidly formed five companies: Henry�s, Cheetham Hill, Knott Mill, Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company and Newton Heath. (7) Henry�s Company was formed by employees of A. & S. Henry with Major John Snowden Henry the first commanding officer.
On the 3rd December a meeting was held by men connected with the Manchester newspaper and publishing companies with a view to forming a Manchester Press Company. (8 ) Two hundred men enlisted and paraded for the first time on the 26th February 1860, another Rifle Company was formed in Prestwich. (9) In April the 3rd Manchesters paraded at Chetham�s College Yard and Major Henry announced that �Defence not Defiance� was to be their motto. (10) By the end of May 1860 the 1st Manchester Rifle Volunteers, had enrolled over 900 men with a full complement of officers including a Surgeon and Assistant Surgeon.
Table 1 shows the comparative strengths of the Manchester Corps 1860-1862. The Second Manchester Rifle Volunteers and a number of smaller units were later absorbed into other more successful battalions as shown in Table 2
5. I. F. W. Beckett (ed.), The Amateur Military Tradition (Manchester, 1991), p. 169.
6. The committee consisted of Peter Bleakley, W. B. Harrison Junior, E. Sinclair, P. Marshall and J. Taylor.
On Saturday, the 9th June 1860, R. N. Phillips invited the members and friends of No 8 (Phillips) Company to a Volunteer Fete at his home, Prestwich Park. After displays of Company and Light Infantry drill the 580 members and friends attending were entertained to refreshments.
7. Edward Ross, the company secretary of the Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company was appointed Captain, Edward Lister Glover Captain of the Cheetham Hill Company and Thomas Brooks as Captain of the Knott Mill Company.
8. Manchester Faces & Places Volume 3 (Manchester 1892), p. 139.
9. Ibid., p. 142.
10. This has been the suggestion of Private (later Sergeant) J. B. Marsh of the Press Company. He became a reporter in the House of Commons and the whole Volunteer Force eventually adopted the motto.
Table 1: Manchester Rifle Volunteers (Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps) (11)
Total enrolled strengths: 1860 � 2,984. 1861 � 3,189. 1862 � 2,786.
Battalion Year Establishment Enrolled and Serving Exempt from Militia Not Exempt Date of Inspection
6th LRVC
1st Mcr 1860 1242 969 969 26-May
1861 1301 882 882 06-Jul
1862 1301 703 703 19-Jul
21st LRVC
(Wigan)
1860 206 132 96 36 R & W (12)
1861 201 135 59 76 R & W
1862 200 133 23 110 06-Sep
23rd LRVC
(Ashton)
1860 309 219 185 34 No Info
1861 400 289 256 33 R & W
1862 400 271 248 23 26-Apr
28th LRVC
2nd Mcr
1860 932 631 631 Aug-60
1861 900 678 567 111 20-Jul
1862 900 691 414 277 R & W
31st LRVC
(Oldham)
1860 100 92 67 25 R & W
1861 300 196 180 16 R & W
1862 234 226 188 38 03-May
33rd LRVC
(Ardwick)
1860 400 317 317 R & W
1861 500 390 349 41 06-Jul
1862 1100 723 573 150 R & W
40th LRVC
3rd Mcr
1860 1000 719 719 R & W
1861 1000 785 669 116 29-Jun
1862 1000 698 637 61 28-Jun
Timberman