A History of the British Cavalry: Volume 7: 1816-1919 The Curragh Incident and the Western Front, 1914

By Lord Anglesey

In the seventh, and second last, volume in t his historical work, Lord Anglesey shows how superior the Br itish cavalry was compared to those of the French and German s. He concentrates on the first five months of the War. '

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Nov 15, 1994
• ISBN: 9781473815049

Book preview

A HISTORY OF THE

BRITISH CAVALRY

1816 to 1919

VOLUME 7

THE CURRAGH INCIDENT AND

THE WESTERN FRONT, 1914

By the same author

THE CAPEL LETTERS, 1814–1817 (CAPE, 1955)

ONE-LEG (CAPE, 1961)

SERGEANT PEARMAN’S MEMOIRS (CAPE, 1968)

LITTLE HODGE (LEO COOPER, 1971)

A HISTORY OF THE BRITISH CAVALRY, 1816–1919

VOLUME 1: 1816–1850 (LEO COOPER, 1973)

VOLUME 2: 1851–1871 (LEO COOPER, 1975)

VOLUME 3: 1872–1898 (LEO COOPER, 1982)

VOLUME 4: 1899–1913 (LEO COOPER, 1986)

VOLUME 5: EGYPT, PALESTINE AND SYRIA

1914–1918 (LEO COOPER, 1994)

VOLUME 6: MESOPOTAMIA, 1914–1918

(LEO COOPER, 1995)

A HISTORY OF THE

BRITISH CAVALRY

1816 to 1919

by

THE MARQUESS OF ANGLESEY

F.S.A., F.R.HIST.S.

VOLUME 7

THE CURRAGH INCIDENT AND

THE WESTERN FRONT, 1914

LEO COOPER

LONDON

First published in 1996 by Leo Cooper

and reprinted in 2013 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright © The Marquess of Anglesey, 1996, 2013

ISBN 978-0-85052-437-6

The right of The Marquess of Anglesey to be identified as

Author of this work has been

asserted by him in accordance with the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,

recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission

from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in England by

CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation,

Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe Local History,

Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics and Leo Cooper.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

E-mail: [e-mail]

Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE MEN

OF THE REGULAR CAVALRY WHO FOR THE LAST

TIME IN ITS HISTORY USED SWORD AND LANCE WITH

UNEXAMPLED SKILL – AND KNEW HOW TO SHOOT

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Preface

1(i)

1911–1914: Irish Home Rule Bill – Ulster Volunteer Force – fear of civil war – the King’s concern – Unionists consider amending Army Act

1(ii)

1913–1914: The Curragh Incident: Sir Arthur Paget summoned to London, 4 November – Colonel Seely’s conference with GOCs, 16 December – Paget’s Dublin speech, 24 February – Churchill’s Bradford speech, 14 March – Paget in London, 18 and 19March

1(iii)

1914: The Curragh Incident, 20 March: Hubert Gough and 3rd Cavalry Brigade – Paget’s Dublin conference – Gough consults the three cavalry regiments’ officers – most decide to resign rather than coerce Ulster – Major Howell counsels delay

1(iv)

1914: The Curragh Incident, 21 March: Paget addresses cavalry officers – French telephones Roberts – Seely, Roberts and French at Buckingham Palace

1(v)

1914: The Curragh Incident, 22–27 March – Gough and cavalry colonels in London – they demand a written guarantee which is given – the ‘peccant paragraphs’ added by Seely – Asquith repudiates them – French and Seely resign – other ranks’ thoughts

2

The Schlieffen and XVII Plans – mobilization – reservists – horse supply – troopers’ marching order – the rifle – embarkation and arrival in France – the mounted element of the BEF – the 13-pounder gun – interpreters

3

French – his staff – Allenby – his staff – the cavalry brigade commanders

4

The French cavalry – the German cavalry – Joffre – von Moltke – von Falkenhayn – von Hindenburg – von Kluck – von Bülow – von Hausen – von Richthofen

5

Types of other ranks and officers – transfers of officers from cavalry to infantry – transfers of troopers to noncommissioned and commissioned ranks

6

Kitchener’s instructions to French – Lanrezac’s 5th Army – Barrow telephones for intelligence – Casteau, 22 August

7

French 5th Army retires – BEF’s advance cancelled – Mons – BEF’s retreat starts – Audregnies, 24 August

8

Joffre creates Sixth Army – von Moltke weakens his right – map shortage – daily routine and rearguards’ methods in retreat – I and II Corps separate – Le Cateau – Gough’s divergence – Cerizy (Moy) – Benay – part played by German cavalry in August

9

Kitchener visits and steadies Sir John French – Guise – Néry

10

Retreat ends – battle of the Marne – advance to the Aisne – 2nd Cavalry Division formed – Sablonnières – La Trétoire – Moncel – Gandelu – Chezy

11

Battle of the Aisne – ‘Race to the Sea’ – BEF’s flank march to Flanders – 3rd Cavalry Division arrives – Gheluwe – 1st Ypres – Zandvoorde – cavalry enters trenches – Indian Cavalry Corps formed

Abbreviations used in the footnotes and source notes

Source notes

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

1.

Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Paget arriving at the War Office during the Curragh Incident crisis on 23 March, 1914

Ferguson of Kilkerran, Sir J. The Curragh Incident, 1964, 145

2.

General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough

Livesey, A. Great Battles of World War I, 1989, 131

3.

Field Marshal Sir John French, 1st Earl of Ypres

Livesey, A. Great Battles of World War I, 1989, 53

4.

Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson

By John Singer Sargent (National Portrait Gallery)

5.

Marshal of France Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre

Livesey, A. Great Battles of World War I, 1989, 24

6.

Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke

Livesey, A. Great Battles of World War I, 1989, 24

7

General Alexander von Kluck

Livesey, A. Great Battles of World War I, 1989, 24

8.

General Georg von der Marwitz

Livesey, A. Great Battles of World War I, 1989, 24

9.

A horse of the 4th Hussars being embarked at Dublin, 15 August, 1914 Evans, Capt. H.H.D. & Laing, Maj. N. O. The 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars in the Great War, 1920, 17

10.

Two cavalrymen passing through Termonde, south-west of Antwerp, August, 1914

Haythornthwaite, P.J. World War One: 1914, 1989, 15

11.

Field Marshal Sir Philip (later Lord) Chetwode, Bart, pre-1914

The Illustrated War News, 2 September, 1914, 8

12.

General Sir Beauvoir de Lisle

Hammerton, Sir J. The Great War, I Was There, IV, 163

13.

Field Marshal Sir Edmund (later Viscount) Allenby

Hathornthwaite, P.J. The World War One Source Book, 1992, 319

14.

The German lancer who is said to have ‘got nearest to England’, whilst on patrol near Ostend, August, 1914

The Illustrated War News, 14 October, 1914

15.

A Belgian woman gives bread to a French cuirassier, 1914

The Illustrated War News, 26 August, 1914, 37

16.

German cavalry on manoeuvres, pre-1914

The Illustrated War News, 12 August, 1914, 23

17.

Trooper Case, Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, in full marching order, showing the weight of equipment carried by mounted troops, c. 1914

(Imperial War Museum)

18.

A typical cavalry officer of a regular regiment, 1914 (Imperial War Museum)

19.

Cavalry watering horses by a French river, August, 1914

Haythornthwaite, P.J. World War One: 1914, 1989, 18

20.

‘A’ Squadron, 4th Hussars, at Elouges, 23 August, 1914

Evans, Captain H.H.D. & Laing, Maj. N.O. The 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars in the Great War, 1920, 87

21.

‘A’ Squadron, 4th Hussars, near Wargnies-le-Grand, 29 August, 1914

Evans, Captain H.H.D. & Laing, Maj. N.O. The 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars in the Great War, 1920, 87

22.

Bengal lancers march through Marseilles, autumn, 1914

Hammerton, Sir J. The Great War, I Was There, V, 193

23.

Bengal lancers in France, October, 1914

The Illustrated War News, 21 October, 1914, 34

24.

Captain F.O. Grenfell, 9th Lancers, retaking guns captured by the Germans

By R. Caton Woodville from sketch by Frederic Villiers. The Illustrated War News, 16 September, 1914, 43

25.

‘The Stirrup Charge’ by the Scots Greys Sc Black Watch at St Quentin (Cerisy/Moy), 28 August, 1914, that never took place

(National Army Museum)

26.

The 16th Lancers passing French cavalrymen during the retreat from Mons. Photograph by General Gough

(Imperial War Museum)

27.

Men of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade on the retreat from Mons

(Imperial War Museum)

28.

Men of the Bays with prisoners of the Death’s Head Hussars, after Néry, 1 September, 1914 (Imperial War Museum)

29.

Driver Drane, who was present at Néry, places a wreath on a gun of ‘L’ Battery, RHA

(Imperial War Museum)

30.

An officer with an Ulan horse captured at Néry, 1 September 1914

(Imperial War Museum)

31.

‘L’ Battery, RHA at Néry, 1 September, 1914

(Sphere, 14 November, 1914: The Illustrated London News, Picture Library)

32.

16th Lancers on the march, September, 1914. Photograph by General Gough, whose car is parked by the roadside

(Imperial War Museum)

33.

A wounded trumpeter of the Berlin Dragoner Garde after the charge of the 9th Lancers at Moncel

Coleman, Frederic From Mons to Ypres with French: A Personal Narrative, 1916, 32

34.

Lancers: battle of the Marne

Isselin, Henri The Battle of the Marne, 1965, 16. (Photograph in L’lllustration, Paris)

35.

The headquarters of the 2nd Cavalry Division, battle of the Marne, September, 1914. Note the French cuirassier with his bicycle on the left. Photograph by Paul Maze.

(Imperial War Museum)

36.

Captain Guy Bonham-Carter, 19th Hussars, Adjutant, Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars, December, 1914

Keith-Falconer, A. The Oxfordshire Hussars in the Great War, 1927, 115

37.

Men of the 2nd Cavalry Division on the march, battle of the Marne, September 1914. Photograph by Paul Maze

(Imperial War Museum)

38.

The Royal Dragoons (3rd Cavalry Division) entering Ypres, 13 October, 1914

Ascoli, D., The Morts Star, 183

39.

The 11th Hussars on the march, 9 October, 1914. Photograph by Lt-Col T.T. Pitman

Lumley, Captain L.R., MP History of the Eleventh Hussars…, 1908–1934, 1936, 124

40.

The 5th Lancers on the march, 1914

(Imperial War Museum)

41.

The 16th Lancers entering Hollebeke Château, 30 October, 1914. Photograph by General Gough

(Imperial War Museum)

42.

A cyclist, 1914

(Imperial War Museum)

43.

A trooper resting in a Belgian field, 13 October, 1914

(Imperial War Museum)

44.

The 6th Cavalry Brigade entering Ypres

Hammerton, Sir J. The Great War, I Was There, V, 197

45.

Cavalry horses watering, 1914. Photograph by Paul Maze

(Imperial War Museum)

46.

Led horses concealed in the Valley of the Aisne, September, 1914

Cavalry Journal, January, 1930, 132

47.

British cavalry trekking north from the Aisne, October, 1914. Photograph by Paul Maze

Maze, P. A Frenchman in Khaki, 1934, 72

48.

First battle of Ypres. First line transport, 2nd Cavalry Division behind Hollebeke Château, 2 October, 1914

(Imperial War Museum)

TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS

‘Come on behind here and travel with us, Jim!’

Punch, 26 August, 1914

‘Blankey-blank that Bloomin’ Kaiser!’

Punch, 4 November, 1914

‘Forward to Victory: Enlist Now.’ Recruiting poster, early 1915. By Lucy Kemp-Welch

(National Army Museum)

‘From where did you receive instructions to dismount, Sir?’

Punch, 2 December, 1914

‘Glad to see you walking, my lad’

Punch, 23 December, 1914

‘The Cavalry, look you!’ By Corporal C.J. Harrison

Ponsonby, C. West Kent Yeomanry, 1914–1919, 1920

‘Does your horse jump at all?’

Punch, 14 October, 1914

‘What in thunder have you been doing all the morning?’

Punch, 14 August, 1914

August, 1914

Carnock, Lord, The History of the 15th The King’s Own Hussars, 1914–1922, 1932, 20

‘That’s a nice pair of Oolan boots you got there, Bill’

Punch, 28 October, 1914

Led horses, August, 1914. By C.H. Shaw

Carnock, Lord The History of the 15th The King’s Own Hussars, 1914–1922, 1932, 8

The Retreat, 1914. By C. H. Shaw

Carnock, Lord The History of the 15th The King’s Own Hussars, 1914–1922, 1932, 38

The Mail. By C.H. Shaw

Carnock, Lord The History of the 15th The King’s Own Hussars, 1914–1922, 1932, 66

MAPS

1.

Ireland, 1914

2.

The Eve of Mons, 21–22 August, 1914

3.

Audregnies, 24 August, 1914

4.

The Retreat from Mons

5.

Von Kluck’s Change of Direction, 30 August, 1914

6.

Route taken by German 4 Cav. Div., 31 August–1 September, 1914

7.

Néry, 1 September, 1914

8.

Battle of the Marne

9.

Advance to the Aisne, 7–13 September, 1914

10.

Moncel and Vieux Villers, 7 September, 1914

11.

First Battle of Ypres, October–November, 1914

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Among the many people who have given me both solicited and unsolicited assistance in writing this volume the following have been especially helpful: Dr S.D. Badsey, Professor Brian Bond, Mrs Denise Boyes, Mr J.M. Brereton, Mr Michael Burn, MC, the late Sir Roger Chance, Bt, Mr Peter Chapman, Mr B.J. Crichton, Mr G. J. Crump, Lt-Col C.R.D. Gray, Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, OM, PC, Mr H. Keown-Boyd, Mr Peter Kirby, MC, Mr I.D. Leask, Mr S.E.H. Robinson, Mr T.J. Schadler, DVM (of Columbus, Ohio), Mr M.G. Sims (Librarian, Staff College, Sandhurst), my son the Earl of Uxbridge, Mrs Theresa Whistler and the curators of the cavalry and yeomanry regimental museums, particularly that of the XV/XIX Royal Hussars.

Of the personnel of the numerous organizations which have given me their expert advice and unrestricted access to papers and books, the successive Chief Librarians and their devoted staffs of the Ministry of Defence Whitehall Library stand out conspicuously. So do those of the Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum. David Fletcher, Librarian of the Tank Museum, Bovington, has been especially helpful. My warm thanks to him for never failing to come up with complete answers to all my ignorant questions. It would be literally out of the question for anyone to attempt to write seriously about the First World War without being able to enlist their aid. That they always give it lavishly and benevolently is cause for the intensest gratitude of the recipients - none more than the present author. My thanks go, too, to the London Library, not only for books but for information as well, and to the India Office Library and indirectly to the Liddell Hart Centre.

As in all six previous volumes, so too in this one, I have unashamedly borrowed (always, I hope, with due acknowledgement) from the published works of large numbers of other historians. To the memory of those no longer alive and to those still with us, I here record my deep obligation. They have as often as not allowed me the luxury of not having to consult primary sources!

Tom Hartman has acted as my editor throughout the quarter of a century during which I have pursued my amateur hobby. For even longer I have been completely dependent upon the typing skills and percipient observations of Mrs Pat Brayne. Tom is surely unsurpassed in the exercise of his profession, not only because of his unsleeping attention to technical detail, but even more on account of his good counsel. To Pat I find it impossible to convey adequately the force of my feelings of affectionate appreciation and esteem, especially as for much of the time she gave of her accurate and speedy services after formally retiring at the head of her profession.

Neil Hyslop has once again contrived to understand and to convert into excellent maps my often chaotic instructions and rough drafts, thus earning my admiring thanks.

As always, I bear witness to my pleasure at being published by Leo Cooper, the publisher of military history. That he has never taken seriously any deadlines which he set is only one of the many reasons why I am grateful to him.

My wife, amidst her own career, has always been wonderfully sympathetic and helpful. To her I offer my profound thankfulness.

‘If the war which has hung over our heads like the sword of Damocles for more than ten years past ever breaks out, its duration and end cannot be foreseen. The greatest powers of Europe, armed as they never have been armed before, will then stand face to face. No one can be shattered in one or two campaigns so completely as to confess himself beaten, and conclude peace on hard terms. It may be a Seven Years’ War, it may be a Thirty Years’ War – woe to him who first sets fire to Europe, and is the first to apply the touch to the magazine.’

– FIELD MARSHAL COUNT HELMUTH VON

MOLTKE, 1890

‘Is it professional to throw a regiment of cavalry on a battery of machine guns, with the dead certainty that if the guns go off not a horse or man will ever get within fifty yards of the fire?’

– GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Arms and the Man,

1894, Act 1

‘August 1914 … There was still a use for cavalry, if properly trained and handled. Ironically, it was only the British cavalry, under some of the generals who came in for so much scorn later, that was so trained.’

– JOHN TERRAINE, Mons

‘The British cavalry of 1914 had exactly the cavalry spirit which French had so often described. Tom Bridges, who went to war as a squadron leader in the 4th Dragoon Guards, described the cavalry motto as We’ll do it: what is it? The battlefield performance of British cavalry was not always perfect, but it was head and shoulders above that of its German opponents or its French allies. Horses were kept fresh because British troopers walked as often as they rode, and the skilful combination of shock action and dismounted fire quickly established the moral superiority of British horsemen.’

– RICHARD HOLMES in his life of French

‘I suppose a cavalry charge must be the nearest thing to heaven on this earth. When I was little I was so jealous of my great uncle for being killed in one.’

– NANCY MITFORD to Raymond Mortimer, 17

Dec., 1969

‘Concerning the war I say nothing – the only thing that wrings my heart and soul is the thought of the horses – oh! my beloved animals – the men – and women can go to hell – but my horses: – I walk round and round this room cursing God for allowing dumb brutes to be tortured – let Him kill his human beings but – how CAN HE? Oh; my horses.’

– ELGAR to Frank Schuster, 25 August, 1914

‘A specialized history of the tactical and strategic possibilities, de facto employment and achievements of the cavalry arm during the Great War, embracing all the noteworthy deeds and experiences of friend and foe alike, has yet to be written.’

– LT-COLA. G. MARTIN, 6th Dragoons, German

Army, 1933–4

PREFACE

When way back in 1986 Volume 4 of this work was published I was under the illusion that it would be the penultimate volume and that the whole of the First World War could be packed into a single volume. As work progressed I came to realize that if the British cavalry was to have justice done to it during its last active years (and if each volume was not to be far too long), the two Middle Eastern campaigns would require separate volumes and that the part played by the mounted arm on the Western Front would need two more.

My remarkably uncomplaining publisher fell in with this idea without a quibble. Hence after Volume 5 (Egypt, Palestine and Syria) and Volume 6 (Mesopotamia), there now follows this seventh volume, dealing chiefly with France and Flanders up to 1915. In due course, it will be succeeded by Volume 8 which will be chiefly concerned with the Western Front from 1915 to 1918. This will, incontestably, be the final one!

Modesty ought to, but doesn’t, prevent me from remarking that Fortescue’s great History of the British Army also expanded far beyond what its author expected. That my comparatively modest work deals with only one arm and covers only one century, compared with Fortescue’s which covered two centuries and dealt with the whole army, may seem to make any comparison arrogant if not odious. Yet the two are of very different kinds. His is a very considerable work of literary history based on a comparatively limited collection of sources, while mine is an extremely detailed chronicle based on an ever increasing number of primary and secondary sources. His ends in 1870, mine half a century later, by which time the scale of operations, no less than the standards of scholarship thought to be essential for serious historical works, had grown enormously since Fortescue put pen to paper.*

*            *            *

The First World War saw only two campaigns in which the British Army’s mounted arm was able to perform on a considerable scale those rôles for which from time immemorial cavalry had existed. Both in Allenby’s great Middle Eastern campaign and during the last five months of 1914 in France and Flanders, when he commanded the Cavalry Division, mounted action was a significant factor in the successes achieved.

Volume 5 of this work dealt with the part played by mounted troops – none of them from regular cavalry regiments – in the Palestine campaign. The present volume sets out to show how the regular cavalry regiments of the BEF performed during the advance to and retreat from Mons, in the ‘Race to the Sea’ and in the first battle of Ypres.

These highly trained regiments were here given the only real chance that they ever had in fire dominated modern warfare of practising what, partly as a result of experience gained in South Africa between 1899 and 1902, they had learned during the last twelve years. Though shock action – the use of the ‘arme blanche’ – was still inculcated as the supreme purpose for which mounted troops were maintained, much training had also been devoted to developing skill in dismounted fire action. (See Vol. 4, 424–6).

This was one of the chief elements which, right from the start of the campaign, pointed up how superior were the British horsemen to those of both France and Germany. The British indeed were the only ones who actually knew how to use their rifles both with accuracy and, above all, speed.

Another ingredient was the accomplished manner in which the regiments exploited their efficiency in moving rapidly from one threatened part of the front to another. Concomitant with this capacity was their excellence in horsemastership which compared favourably with that of any cavalry in the world. Notorious for their lack of proficiency in this art during the Boer War, they now demonstrated how their instruction between the wars had been well worth the effort. While German and French horses tended to become exhausted after long periods of work, the British managed to keep going for much longer. This was in part due to the high discipline which required men to march dismounted, and when stationary, to unsaddle whenever possible.

*            *            *

The first section of this volume is devoted to the Curragh Incident which threatened to disrupt the army just before war broke out. The actions of the cavalry commanders in Ireland and of the generals in Whitehall and at Aldershot during that crisis are particularly revealing in view of the vital roles which they were to play later on.

*            *            *

The actions of the infantry and the other arms are described, as in previous volumes, only briefly, except where a more detailed account is necessary for a proper understanding of the cavalry’s actions.

*            *            *

Increasingly strict censorship of letters home from all ranks is a curse for historians of war from 1914 onwards. A great deal of first-hand evidence such as was available in earlier conflicts has been lost for ever. It is especially sad to contemplate how many anecdotes – intrinsically interesting and revealing, yet of no use to the enemy – must have fallen to the scissors of the censor.

---

* How these have grown for my limited period is illustrated by the fact that Volume 1 covered thirty-four years, Volume 2 twenty (the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny), Volume 3 twenty-six and Volume 4 fourteen years, while the last four volumes cover only six years.

1

‘I can imagine no length of resistance to which Ulster can go in which I should not be prepared to support them.’

– BONAR LAW, Leader of the Opposition, 14 July,

1912

‘I cannot bring myself to believe that Asquith will be so mad as to employ force. It will split the army and the colonies, as well as the country and the Empire.’

*            *            *

‘This questioning of orders is something quite new, and yet very natural in the circumstances in our army, and is a real and pressing danger.’

– MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HENRY WILSON in his

diary, 4 November, 1913 and 2 December,

1913¹

(i)

1911–1914: Irish Home Rule Bill-Ulster Volunteer Force – fear of civil war – the King’s concern – Unionists consider amending Army Act

The second of the two general elections of 1910 found Mr Asquith’s Liberal government dependent upon eighty-four Irish Nationalist and forty-two Labour members of the House of Commons. Without these members’ votes his administration could be toppled at any moment. The Irish Nationalists, led by Mr John Redmond (a very moderate man by Irish standards), insisted that a Bill giving Ireland the beginning of Home Rule must be passed as the price of their support, while the Socialists wished the Irish question out of the way so that their own demands could be dealt with.

The Conservative Opposition, led since 1911 by Bonar Law (nicknamed ‘Bonar Lisa’ by Asquith²), anxious to regain office after six years in the wilderness, supported the Ulster Unionists, representing the staunchly loyal Protestant minority, in their determination to resist Home Rule. The Unionists, led by the brilliant lawyer Sir Edward Carson, * even before the Government of Ireland Bill was introduced in 1912, made no secret of the fact that, if necessary, they would use force rather than be coerced into acceptance of any form of rule by a Dublin parliament. Carson, as early as September, 1911, speaking of ‘the most nefarious conspiracy that has ever been hatched against a free people’, declared to a crowd of 50,000 supporters that they ‘must be prepared … the morning Home Rule passes … to become responsible for the government of the Protestant Province of Ulster.’³ Bonar Law and most of his Tory colleagues had no hesitation in supporting such extra-parliamentary and unconstitutional behaviour. What they chiefly deplored was the fact that so immense a constitutional change as Irish Home Rule should be introduced without another general election, especially as the question had figured only marginally at the last one.†

*            *            *

As early as December, 1910, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland was taking steps ‘to enrol men to meet any emergency’. The first muster of Unionist forces on a big scale took place in September, 1911.⁴ By the beginning of 1912 the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) had come into being. Ironically, due to the repeal of certain laws by the Liberal government, the formation of what soon grew into a formidable army was perfectly legal. The UVF drilled under a licence granted by Belfast magistrates. By early 1914 it numbered little less than 100,000. It was almost a model of good discipline. By June, 1913, it possessed some 50,000 converted Lee-Metfords which would take army ammunition. More rifles were trickling in all the time. The depôts to which they were consigned were well hidden.⁵

The UVF possessed nearly all of the auxiliary services of an up-to-date army and at least two mounted units were raised: the Enniskillen Horse of three squadrons and the Ballymena Horse.⁶ This last was raised and commanded by Captain the Hon. Arthur Edward Bruce O’Neill, MP for Mid Antrim, who had served in the 2nd Life Guards in the Boer War and was to be the first MP killed in the First World War.*

There was also a Motor Car Corps which, by January, 1914, consisted of about 350 vehicles. At this date in the British army, cars were only employed by generals and staff officers (see Vol. 4, 442–4), but the UVF corps planned to use them for carrying troops and refugees in considerable numbers, ⁷ probably the first force in history to do so.

From mid-1913 command of the UVF was taken over by a retired officer of the Indian Army. He had been recommended by the most senior officer of the British army, Field-Marshal Earl Roberts of Kandahar, who, in his eighty-second year, made no secret of his passionate sympathy for the cause of Ulster. The man he recommended was Lieutenant-General Sir George Richardson, aged sixty-six, a distinguished cavalryman of the Indian Army, ‘active and in good health. He is not an Irishman,’ wrote Roberts, ‘but has settled in Ireland.’⁸† A man of tact with a good sense of humour, he did an excellent job with his large force of men who were virtually without military experience. Formal discipline there was none, but ‘so strong was the esprit de corps that the threat of dismissal was the severest possible punishment.’⁹

Richardson was a retired officer, but Captain (Sir) Wilfred Bliss Spender of the Royal Artillery was a serving one. In 1911, at the age of thirty-five, Spender was the youngest officer on the General Staff, with a glittering future before him. Worried about the danger of an Ireland separated from Britain in a continental war, he threw up his career, having signed the famous Solemn League and Covenant against Home Rule, ‡ and became (at Carson’s invitation) the effectual quartermaster-general of the UVF.*

Amongst the Ulster Unionist Council papers there exists an anonymous memorandum dated July, 1913, which with some degree of perspicacity mapped out what the government’s likely reactions to this formidable military body might be: ‘They,