The History of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment

By Mark Smith

This book covers the complete history of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, formerly the 6th Regiment of Foot. The book follows the adventures of this regiment from its inception in Holland in the 1670's up until its dissolution in 1968. Covering 283 years of history the book charts the involvement of the regiment in well known conflicts like the First and Second World Wars as well as the more obscure ones scattered right across the globe. Special attention in this book is given to the context in which battles were fought and where possible the individuals that did that fighting.
This is an e-book and so lacks the maps and images of the paperback version.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781291822496

Mark Smith

Hi! I'm Mark. 43, Married and father of three. I'm not an author, but I play one on Smashwords. And yes- Hawk is my real middle name given at birth.

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The History of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment

The History of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment

Copyright 2014. Mark C. Smith All rights reserved. ISBN 978-1-291-82249-6

Apart from any permitted use under UK copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all the servicemen and women of the British Army and in particular those that served and died in the 6th Regiment of Foot and the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the staff of Warwick Library and County Record Office for their help in finding research material. I would also like to thank the curators of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Museum at St John’s Museum in Warwick for their advice and help. I would like to credit Mr Callaghan for inspiring a love of history in me and for Mrs Lee who guided me on my first study of the regiment during my A-levels. Lastly big thanks must go to my supportive family.

Introduction

It is a simple truth that for as long as mankind has existed they have been in conflict with one another. From the early struggles of Neolithic man through the charging knights of the middle-ages to the mud soaked fields of the First World War man as a species has fought. The driving factors of war breakdown to just one root cause, territory. From territory flows resources, power and control. As society and civilisation developed so too did the way in which we waged war. The simplistic one on one struggle for survival became replaced by organised units and the evolution of professional warriors and by extension the first soldiers and armies.

It could be said that it was the development of farming that created the first armies. Prior to farming the majority of a person’s time was spent hunting and gathering food. Wider concerns regarding resources boiled down to who controlled the best areas for these activities and clashes tended to be on the small scale, family versus family or tribe versus tribe. With the discovery of farming it was now possible to produce more food than one family could use. Communities could store extra food for hard times improving health and lifespan considerably. Less time was needed to provide for the family and they could spend this extra time in other pursuits such as arts, crafts, society and of course warfare. Bodies of men could now train exclusively to defend a population and be used to extend control over other resources.

The Evolution of the British Army

For much of Britain’s history the country lacked a single army. Early Britain was a fragmented collection of first tribes and then provincial kingdoms. The Roman invasions of 55 BC and 43 AD showed how effective an organised well trained army could be in seizing and subjugating a population. This model of an efficient army was, however, not replicated in Britain following Romes departure from 419 AD. This period was known as the Dark Ages and in this time Britain was invaded by Saxons, Vikings, Jutes and Angles to name but a few. These invaders inter-mixed with the native Britons and the Romanised locals to create the foundation of our modern country and culture.

For Warwickshire the most prominent government of this era was the Kingdom of Mercia, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that emerged following Roman rule. Covering much of the Midlands and indeed the East the kingdom was led most famously by King Offa. Mercian armies comprised of three classes of warrior, aristocratic Housecarls, the common levy called the Fyrd and lastly the noble leadership of Thegns. Standard warfare for the Anglo-Saxon was the static shield wall. In which two lines of shield bearing spearmen would push, shove and stab against one another.

When Alfred the Great united the kingdoms to form the basis of what would become England Mercia became an Earldom with its Earl marrying Alfred’s daughter Ethelfleda. Mercia had a responsibility to supply ‘spears’, men, to the king in times of need; and times of need there were as the Vikings began their invasions.

In 1066 with the rise of the Norman kings the structure of the armies in England changed. The French and Normans had a feudal approach to land management and her armies. Feudalism gave landholders, mostly aristocratic Knights and most of them French or Norman, the right to muster a household of men at arms and the ability to raise a levy force from the locals to support the crown as required. This was an effective strategy; Henry II could call upon some 5000 knights in times of need and the forces were distributed across the country to be used wherever needed. Feudalism also led to problems, rich nobles could sometimes muster more men and in better equipment than the king and created a situation in which an individual Earl’s personal power could be used to broker power at a national level and influence the decisions of kings themselves.

By 1415, the time of Henry V’s famous victory at Agincourt, a professional body of soldiery under the command of the crown was starting to supersede the feudal system. This professional body was however small and kings still needed the support of individual Earls. Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, created much upheaval during the Wars of the Roses and place not one but two Kings on the throne. The actions of Richard Neville made Warwick and the growing county a powerful force in Britain and despite his demise it continued to have great influence at court.

The first truly national English army can be attributed to Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army. The Parliamentary forces of the English Civil war were dissatisfied with the disorganised nature of local militias and in 1645 established a professional army that boasted 20,000 well trained and drilled men, mostly cavalry, supported by Foot Artillery. This army proved superior to the Royalists and to the Irish armies Cromwell subsequently set it against.

In 1660 when King Charles II was restored to the English throne he was left with two armies, Parliaments New Model Army and the survivors of Charles’s own Royalist supporters. He disbanded the New Model Army but began to adopt the structure it had created. These disbanded troops he formed into nine Regiments of Foot.

During the Anglo-Dutch Wars between 1695 and 1674 the number of these regiments fluctuated reaching a peak of 41 and numbered 20,000 men in total. The Royal Warwickshire Regiment was born in this period. Regiments at this time were named after their Colonel-in-Chief. This tradition continued until 1747 when the regiment was named the 6th Regiment of Foot, it being the sixth most senior regiment in the army. The Act of Union in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain and made the regiment truly part of the British army. In 1782 as part of army reforms the regiment was assigned a region, this region was Warwickshire. It kept the registration of the 6th Foot until 1881 when the regiment became simply the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

All these changes in name do little to explain the actions of the regiment and the men it contained. This book therefore follows all these changes exploring the path the regiment took from its earliest days to the present explaining the battles they took part in and the context in which they were fought. Inevitably there is a greater wealth of information available for the regiment in the 20th century but where possible details of individual officers will be recounted throughout the regiment’s long history.

Chapter 1 - The Dutch Guards

The Royal Warwickshire Regiment was formed from the 6th Regiment of Foot whose origins dated from Dutch service in 1665. Europe was a very different place in the 17th Century, kingdoms vied endlessly for supremacy and Spain and France were still bitter enemies of England. England herself had established links with Holland during the later Tudor period when the Low Countries were part of Spanish territories. This link resulted in the English Crown loaning armed forces to the Dutch Army in their fight with the French. Constantly under pressure from France, Holland gained independence after what amounted to an 80 year struggle.

The resulting Dutch nation was a stronger more independent country that developed into a republic and became wealthy enough through the establishment of the Dutch East India Company to create a small empire. Such trading strengths inevitably brought it into conflict with England whose own East India Company was a key trading rival. Imposition of navigation acts hurt Dutch interests heavily and resulted in a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars. These wars were essentially a series of intensive but ultimately inconclusive naval wars over trade rights.

When Charles II gained the English throne during the English restoration he took special interest in the Low Countries or the United Provinces as it was often known. He hoped to establish his nephew and ward William II of Orange as Stadtholder (ruler) of Holland. This power brokering was opposed by the Dutch and resulted in a second Anglo-Dutch War. At this time several English regiments were still in Holland in Dutch service. One such regiment was Sir Walter Vane’s Regiment who, when the Second Anglo-Dutch War broke out in 1665, returned to England quickly.

Vane had been in Dutch Service since 1649 and a staunch royalist unlike his father who had switched sides to the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War. Back in England Sir Walter was made a Captain of Foot serving in the regiment that would later become the Grenadier Guards. In 1668 he was made a colonel of one of the regiments that had returned from Holland. This regiment would become the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

In 1672 William III of Orange, son of William II succeeded in becoming Stadtholder of the Netherlands. His appointment however was prevented by strong opposition. To ensure his place on the throne England entered into a brief alliance with France and so started the Third Anglo-Dutch War. William III himself became a Captain-General of one of the armies aged only 22 little knowing he would later become King of England. In 1674 peace negotiations ended Holland’s conflict with England and once more allowed them to recruit from England. Allegiances could be fickle things and sides shifted regularly.

With the close of the Third Anglo-Dutch War Vane was charged with raising an Anglo-Dutch Brigade to assist the Dutch against the French who now hoped to take advantage of a weakened Netherlands. The French had invaded the Netherlands in 1672 and had conquered five of the seven provinces in just six weeks.

Vanes new brigade was comprised of three English and three Scottish Regiments and in the summer of 1674 the brigade sailed to the United Provinces. On his arrival Vane was granted the rank of Major-General in the Dutch Army and quickly sent to join the main armies. Each regiment consisted of ten companies of soldiers but whilst being organised Vane was killed at the Battle of Seneffe in which a Dutch-German-Spanish force under William III of Orange attempted an invasion of northern France. Alliances at this time were a fluid and complicated affair. At some points King Charles II of England had regiments fighting both in the French Army and in the Dutch Army.

A series of brigade commanders followed Vane on his death until the brigade was reformed in 1765. One of the English Regiment’s commanded by Luke Lillingston would later form the 6th Foot. There is some confusion as to whether Luke Lillingston himself or his father Henry was in command. The Regimental history describes Luke as the Colonel but Dutch sources indicated that Henry was given command when the regiment passed from Walter Vane’s control and that Luke served as a junior officer in the regiment before taking command himself later.

Lillingston’s Foot took part took part in its first military action at the Siege of Grave in October 1674. When England had signed the peace agreement with the United Provinces they began to aid them once more against the French. At this time only the cities of Grave and Maastricht remained in French hands but William was determined to eject the French from Dutch soil and resolved to liberate both cities swiftly.

The siege of Grave was commanded by Lieutenant-General Karl Rabenhaupt. With 16,000 men, he approached on a narrow front to find the city adequately provisioned and armed against him. Rabenhaupt relied on the siege engineer Baron van Menno Coehoorn, a Swedish born Dutch military engineer who played a key role in the Franco-Dutch War. The Baron invented the Coehoorn Mortar that became a key instrument in many sieges during this campaign. Lillingston’s Regiment were assigned firstly to siege work duty which involved the digging of zigzagging trenches that led up to the city walls. Then led by Captain Savage the regiment was part of an attack on the scarp. This attack was repulsed easily and was not sanctioned by Rabenhaupt. Captain Savage was arrested for disobeying orders. Despite heavy losses the city was eventually liberated on the 28th October.

The Siege of Maastricht

From Grave the next major engagement was at Maastricht.  In 1673 the city had been a key point in King Louis XIV plan of attack in the Netherlands.  He had laid siege to the city using new techniques developed by Sebastien de Vauban, the master of siege works. Sebastien Le Pestre, Marquis de Vauban had an aptitude for military engineering. He had gained experience during the War of Devolution at the sieges of Graudines and Ypres. He came to Louis XIV’s notice when French forces with Vauban took the towns of Douai, Tornai and Lille. As part of the French forces army invasion of the United Provinces Vauban took part in a total of six sieges and took only 13 days to take Maastricht. The town fell on the 24th June to an assault by Captain-lieutenant Charles de Batz de Castlemore, Comte d’Artagnan.  Several attempts were made by Spanish auxiliaries and James Scott, Duke of Monmouth to hold out but despite a brief recapture the Anglo-Dutch forces were forced to surrender the city. Vauban was declared a hero in France with a popular saying stating, City besieged by Vauban, city taken; City defended by Vauban, city untakeable.

So it was in 1676 following the success at Grave a renewed attempt at the liberation of Maastricht was made. The assault force included Lillingston’s Regiment now under the command of Colonel Thomas Ashley.  This new siege was led personally by William III of Orange who granted the regiment its own quarter of the siege and allowed them to take part in the assault that made the first breach.  Unfortunately the arrival of a French relief force led by Marshal de Schomberg forestalled victory and William was forced to retreat leaving Maastricht still in French hands.  Frustrated William petitioned King Charles to stop supplying troops to the French. Charles agreed and withdrew his mercenary forces in the employ of the French crown freeing up more men who could be deployed to support William in his defence of the Netherlands.

The regiment remained in Dutch Service for the next few years with a new colonel, Sir Henry Belayses, taking command in 1678.  French forces continued to press into Dutch territory advancing through Ghent and Ypres to lay siege to Mons, forestalling any counter attack William planned.

The Prince of Orange, William, rallied his forces and attacked the French at Mons on the 14th of August 1678.  The English and Scottish regiments in the army were under the command of the Earl of Ossory and held the right flank the remaining Dutch Army was led by Count Waldeck.  They attacked the French with heavy losses at the Abbey of Saint Denis.  Six officers in, Lillingston’s Regiment now called Belasyse’s Regiment, were killed and Major Philip Babington of the grenadier company was injured and taken prisoner.  The battle was inconclusive and pointless as three days before; the Treaty of Nimeguen was signed ending the war between the United Provinces and France. 

Despite the new peace the English and Scottish regiments remained in Dutch service for several years with the English troops getting special praise for their work. The fact that the regiment had fought almost exclusively in the protestant United Provinces and recruited from there would prove to be a key factor in the future role of the regiment.

In 1685 King Charles II of England died and his brother James was crowned.  James however was an unpopular choice as he was a Roman Catholic. Four years earlier James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of Charles attempted to have James excluded from the succession, his failure led to his self exile to Holland where he served with some distinction. When James II was crowned Monmouth decided to seize the throne by force. He landed in south west England and began to raise an army. Concerned about wider rebellion King James II recalled all English and Scottish forces from Holland to protect his crown from the Duke of Monmouth, however, by the time they arrived Monmouth had been defeated by the Earl of Feversham at the Battle of Sedgemoor. James Scott was executed on Tower Hill in July.

King James in the wake of the rebellion reorganised the army and formalised them under his rule. No longer would regiments change names with each commanding colonel now regiments would be numbered. Sir Henry Belayse’s Regiment of Foot became the 6th Regiment of Foot with Sir Henry as its Colonel in Chief. The regiment was returned to service in Holland in 1685 where it was to play a key role in the growing disquiet of the protestant community in England.

King James II’s victory over Monmouth emboldened him and he began a series of sweeping measures to consolidate his power moving catholic supporters into key posts throughout the kingdom and increasing the size of the standing army. When the Archbishop of Canterbury asked him to reconsider his religious position, in effect become a protestant he had the Archbishop and his other bishops imprisoned for sedition and libel.

In 1688 his wife, Mary gave birth to a son creating a catholic line of succession. This was too much for many of the protestant gentry to bear. Initially unwilling to support Monmouth during his rebellion these lords and members of parliament conspired to undo the King and replace him with someone they viewed as more suitable. The conspirators knew that for any kind of legitimacy they needed to find someone with a direct line to the throne and someone who shared their religious views. King James’s niece, King Charles II’s daughter, Mary, had married William III of Orange. William was a protestant and had proved himself a competent commander in the wars on the continent and looked to be a good choice.

By June 1688 a group of seven protestant nobles had made the decision to remove King James and invited William to come to England to assume the throne. Many of the English officers in Dutch service were protestant including Philip Babington now Colonel of the 6th regiment after Belasyse was promoted to overall command of the Anglo-Dutch brigade. In November William of Orange sailed from Holland. He arrived in Torbay on the 5th November having lost only one ship. This lost ship was captured by HMS Swallow and included four companies of Babington’s soldiers. Despite this small set back William still had 4000 men under the command of Major-General Hugh MacKay.

William’s arrival heralded a swift change in fortunes for King James. Many once loyal nobles such as John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, allied themselves with William and James II was quickly both outnumbered and out maneuvered especially when much of his army refused to fight. Unable to defend his throne James was allowed to flee to France. When Parliament met they declared that James’ desertion of the country was equivalent to abdication and assented to William’s coronation to England’s throne with his wife Mary. The pair ruled jointly establishing a new line of protestant succession. The four companies captured by James were released and Babington’s regiment who were in fact mostly Dutch themselves became known as the ‘Dutch Guards’ and were a favourite of Williams, no doubt a reminder of his homeland of the United Provinces and his time along-side the Anglo-Dutch Brigade at Grave and Maastricht.

The Battle of the Boyne

In 1689 James II made a bid to reclaim his throne. He landed in Kinsale, Ireland with the support of a French army and sought to ally with the catholic Jacobites. Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell appointed as Lord Deputy of Ireland by James in his reign had already made preparations to support him and had begun to fortify Ireland and raise a Jacobite army. James began by marching on the only remaining protestant