1st Royal Surrey Militia

Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 re-established county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. An adjutant and drill sergeants were provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements were supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits. Surrey was given a quota of 800 men to raise under the command of the Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey, Richard Onslow, 3rd Baron Onslow.[3][8][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]

Arms for the Surrey Militia were authorised on 23 February 1759 and the regiment was formed at Richmond-upon-Thames on 18 April 1759. By now Lord Onslow had resigned the colonelcy (he remained lord lieutenant) and had been replaced by Sir Nicholas Hacket Carew, 2nd Baronet, of Beddington, with the lord lieutenant's kinsman George Onslow as lieutenant-colonel. The 10 companies were distributed as follows:[8][19][15][21][22][23]

The regiment was embodied for full-time service from 6 July 1759 and marched to Kent, where the companies were distributed. In August they were concentrated again at Frindsbury. On 3 November the regiment was split into two battalions of five companies each, the 1st or Eastern commanded by Carew and the 2nd or Western by Onslow with the writer Francis Grose as his adjutant. They then went into winter quarters in Surrey, the 1st Bn at Kingston, the 2nd at Putney, Fulham and Wandsworth. Thereafter the regiments were frequently moved about the country, one of their duties being to guard French prisoners of war, beginning in May 1760 when the two battalions alternated this duty at Maidstone in Kent. In November the 1st Bn was at Salisbury in Wiltshire and the 2nd had just marched through Essex to Northampton. The Peace of Fontainebleau was signed on 3 November 1762, ending the war, and the regiment was quartered at Lewes in Sussex when on 3 December it was ordered to march back to Surrey to be disembodied. The following year the two battalions were merged into a single regiment again; Sir Nicholas Carew had died in August 1762, so George Onslow was appointed colonel of the amalgamated regiment.[8][19][21][22][23][24][13][25]

Troops firing on the Gordon Rioters, painted by John Seymour Lucas.

The Militia was called out after the outbreak of the War of American Independence when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain. The Surrey regiment was embodied on 26 March 1778,[8][21][23][24][26] and that summer was at Coxheath Camp near Maidstone, which was the army's largest training camp, where the Militia were exercised as part of a division alongside Regular troops while providing a reserve in case of French invasion of South East England. The Surreys under Colonel Jeremiah Hodge formed part of the Right Wing under Major-General William Amherst. Each battalion had two small field-pieces or 'battalion guns' attached to it, manned by men of the regiment instructed by a Royal Artillery sergeant and two gunners.[27][28] In 1779 the regiment was at Gosport guarding 1500 Prisoners of War in a former seamen's hospital when the militiamen foiled an attempt to tunnel out and a plot to overcome the guards, who were increased.[29] In 1780 some of the Surrey companies were stationed at Ringwood in Hampshire, where they were called upon to assist the Revenue officers against smuggling. In June that year the regiment was deployed on the streets of London against the Gordon Riots, clearing the streets and bridges with the bayonet when parties of rioters refused to disperse.[8][27] From 1 July 1782 the regiment was in summer camp at Chatham, Kent, once again brigaded with regulars and other militia. It was disembodied on 28 February 1783 after the signing of the Peace of Paris.[8][21][23][27]

In September 1759 it had been ordered that militia regiments on service were to take precedence from the date of their arrival in camp. In 1760 this was altered to a system of drawing lots where regiments did duty together. During the War of American Independence the counties were given an order of precedence determined by ballot each year, beginning in 1778. For the Surrey Militia the positions were:[13][19][23][27][30]

• 16th on 1 June 1778
• 5th on 12 May 1779
• 21st on 6 May 1780
• 16th on 28 April 1781
• 35th on 7 May 1782

From 1784 to 1792 the militia were assembled for their 28 days' annual peacetime training, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually mustered each year.[31][32]

In view of the worsening international situation in late 1792 the militia was called out, even though Revolutionary France did not declare war on Britain until 1 February 1793. The Surrey Militia was embodied on 1 December 1792.[8][21][23][31] The French Revolutionary Wars saw a new phase for the English militia: they were embodied for a whole generation, and became regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service within the British Isles), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits. They served in coast defences, manning garrisons, guarding prisoners of war, and for internal security, while their traditional local defence duties were taken over by the Volunteers.[18][33] The militia order of precedence balloted for in 1793 (Surrey was 18th) remained in force throughout the French Revolutionary War.[22][23][30][31]

In 1797, to release regulars for overseas service, the strength of the Militia was increased by the creation of the Supplementary Militia, also raised by means of the ballot.[34][35][36][37] A third of Surrey's Supplementary Militia quota (820 men) was assigned as reinforcements to the 'Old Surrey Militia', as the original regiment became known.[34] The remainder were to form two supplementary regiments. Surrey has been described as one of the 'black spots' in recruitment for the Supplementary Militia (especially compared to the Volunteers), so although the 1st Surrey Supplementary Militia was successfully raised (and became the permanent 2nd Surrey Militia the following year) the 2nd regiment (intended to be the 3rd Surrey Militia) never reached establishment and was disbanded.[21][22][18][34][38][39][40]

The Old Surrey Militia, which officially became the 1st Surrey Militia on 17 August 1798, now consisted of 12 companies. At the end of 1797 it was stationed at Sunderland in the North East and York District, brigaded with other militia regiments.[34]

A peace treaty having been agreed (the Treaty of Amiens), most of the militia were disembodied in 1802, but the Peace of Amiens broke down in 1803 before the 1st Surreys could be disembodied and the regiment remained in service. On 23 April 1804 both the Surrey militia regiments were granted the title 'Royal', the 1st becoming the 1st Royal Surrey Militia (1st RSM).[8][21][23][22][13][25][38][39][41] Another ballot for precedence took place at the start of the Napoleonic War: Surrey was 41st.[22][23][30] These 'regular', 'ordinary' or 'permanent' regiments of embodied militia should not be confused with the Local Militia, part-time units formed in 1809 to replace the various Volunteer units in the county; eventually there were five Local Militia regiments in Surrey.[25][37][41][42][43]

Militia duties during the Napoleonic War were much as before: home defence and garrisons, prisoners of war, and increasingly internal security in the industrial areas where there was unrest.[41][44][45] From 1813 the militia were invited to volunteer for limited overseas service, primarily for garrison duties in Europe. The 1st RSM supplied a detachment of one officer and 30 men for the 1st Provisional Battalion in the Militia Brigade. This embarked on 10–11 March 1814 and joined the Earl of Dalhousie's division that had occupied Bordeaux just as the war was ending. The brigade did not form part of the Army of Occupation after the abdication of Napoleon and returned to England in June.[8][46][47][48]

After Napoleon's exile to Elba the 1st RSM was disembodied on 24 June 1814, but it was called out again on 29 June 1815 during the Waterloo campaign.[8][21][47] At the beginning of the campaign several regular regiments including the Scots Guards were hurriedly brought up to strength with militia volunteers before embarking for Belgium. There is a story that many of the Guardsmen at Waterloo were still clad in Surrey Militia uniforms.[47][49] The 1st RSM was finally disembodied on 30 April 1816.[8][21]

Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots were still held during the long peace after the Battle of Waterloo, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and the permanent staffs of sergeants and drummers were progressively reduced.[47]

The militia order of precedence balloted for in the Napoleonic War remained in force until 1833. In that year the King drew the lots for individual regiments and the resulting list remained in force with minor amendments until the end of the militia. The regiments raised before the peace of 1763 took the first 47 places: both Surrey regiments were deemed to predate 1763 (even though the 2nd had disappeared until 1797), and the 2nd RSM was allotted 11th place, the 1st RSM only 20th. Formally, the regiment became the 20th, or 1st Royal Surrey Militia: most regiments paid little notice, but the 1st RSM did include the numeral in its badge (see below).[22][23][30][50]

War having broken out with Russia in 1854 and an expeditionary force sent to the Crimea, the Militia were called out for home defence. The 1st RSM was embodied for service from 28 December 1854 to 10 June 1856, and was called out again from 5 November 1857 to 22 January 1858 during the absence of many of the Regular units fighting the Indian Mutiny.[8][21][22][23][54]

Thereafter the regiment was called out for its annual training. As an experiment in 1867 this was held in May at Aldershot in conjunction with the regular division stationed there. The camp ended with a divisional field day and was considered a success, being repeated in subsequent years. The 1st RSM attended in 1868 and again in 1871, when extensive Autumn Manoeuvres were conducted.[55]

After the disasters of Black Week at the start of the Second Boer War in December 1899, most of the Regular Army was sent to South Africa, and many militia units were embodied to replace them for home defence and to garrison certain overseas stations. The 3rd East Surreys were embodied on 12 May 1900 and disembodied on 19 October. They were embodied again on 6 May 1901 and volunteered for overseas service.[8][21][23][56][67]

The battalion disembarked at Port Elizabeth in South Africa on 1 July with a strength of 23 officers and 617 other ranks (ORs) under its commanding officer, Lt-Col Sir George Douglas Clerk, 8th Baronet of Penicuik. It occupied various posts along the line of communications from Port Elizabeth to the Orange River bridge at Norvalspont, with battalion headquarters established at Colesberg. It was involved in an action at Kalkfontein on 28 November. On 29 December the battalion moved via Naauwpoort to De Aar and took over the blockhouse line from Victoria West to Beaufort West. In February 1902, C and D Companies trekked to Clanwilliam and Williston to help build and man a new blockhouse line, H Company joining them later. In March, seven companies moved to Simon's Town where they mounted guard over 1700 Boer prisoners. The Treaty of Vereeniging was signed on 31 May 1902, and in June the 3rd East Surreys concentrated at Green Point to embark for home.[8]

After returning to England the 3rd Battalion was disembodied on 10 October 1902.[8][21][23][56] During the campaign the battalion had lost two officers and 9 ORs killed or died of wounds or sickness. The battalion was awarded the Battle honour South Africa 1901–02 and the participants were awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with clasps for 'Cape Colony', 'Orange Free State', 'South Africa 1901' and 'South Africa 1902'.[8][23][56]

On the outbreak of World War I the 3rd East Surreys were embodied on 4 August 1914 at Kingston under Lt-Col C.O. Shipley. Made up of Special Reservists and the Regular Reservists at the depot, the battalion left by train the same night for its war station at Dover where it remained for the whole war.[21][56][72][73][74]

The battalion was accommodated in the Grand Shaft Barracks and established outposts along the cliffs and guards at vital points such as South Breakwater, Turret Battery, Abbott's Cliff and the 'Valiant Sailor'. As well as forming part of the Dover Garrison, the battalion's role was to train and form drafts of reservists, special reservists, recruits and returning wounded for the regular battalions. The 1st East Surreys served on the Western Front , with a short spell on the Italian Front, while the 2nd Bn returned from India and after a few months on the Western Front spent the rest of the war on the Macedonian front. The 3rd Bn sent its first draft for the 1st Bn (one officer and 93 ORs) on 30 August 1914, followed by others at roughly two-weekly intervals.[72][73][74]

The 3rd Bn also assisted in forming some of the Service battalions of 'Kitchener's Army' volunteers. The first of these, the 7th Bn East Surreys, for 'Kitchener's First Army' (K1), was formed at Kingston, and a draft of 32 men was sent from the 3rd Bn at Dover as a cadre to help organise and train them. At the beginning of September the eight companies (A to H) were amalgamated to conform with the standard four-company (A to D) establishment of the regular army. However, the 3rd Bn immediately began forming new companies E to H; A to D were regarded as service companies composed of trained men, E to H were to be recruit companies. The additional companies were accommodated in tents on the Glacis of the Dover fortifications. Later a 200-strong special training company (I) was also established. On 16 October the formation of the 10th (Service) Battalion East Surreys for 95th Brigade in 32nd Division of K4 was ordered for 1 November. G, H and I Companies of 3rd Bn formed A, B and C Companies of the new battalion. At the end of January 1915 the 3rd Bn was back to a strength of seven companies, which were now numbered instead of lettered. Number 8 Company was formed in late March 1915 from a nucleus of the battalion machine gun and signal sections.[21][72][73][74]

In April 1915 the K4 battalions were converted into reserve units for the K1–K3 service battalions and 95th Bde became 7th Reserve Bde. The 10th East Surreys (which returned to Dover in May 1915) therefore became 10th (Reserve) Bn carrying out for the 7th 8th and 9th (Service) Bns the same role that the 3rd Bn fulfilled for the regular 1st and 2nd Bns. 10th (Reserve) Bn moved to Purfleet in May 1915, then to Shoreham-by-Sea in September, but returned to Dover in My 1916. On 1 September it became 30th Training Reserve Bn in 7th Reserve Bde, and was disbanded on 14 December 1917 at Clipstone Camp.[21][73][74]

On 10 November 1915 3rd Bn was ordered to send a draft of 109 men to the new Machine Gun Training Centre at Grantham where they were to form the basis of a machine-gun company of the new Machine Gun Corps for one of the brigades serving overseas. In addition, 10 men at a time were to undergo training at Grantham as battalion machine gunners. The order stated that 'Great care should be taken in the selection of men for training as machine gunners as only well educated and intelligent men are suitable for this work'.[75]

Thousands of men for the regular battalions would have passed through the ranks of the 3rd East Surrreys during the war. On 19 November 1918, just after the Armistice, the 3rd Bn moved from Dover to Bridge of Allan in Scotland, and then in February 1919 to Glasgow.[74] The 3rd Bn was disembodied on 15 August 1919, when its remaining personnel were drafted to the 2nd Bn.[21]

The SR resumed its old title of Militia in 1921 but like most militia battalions the 3rd East Surreys remained in abeyance after World War I. By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, only two officers (both commissioned in 1915) remained listed for the battalion. The Militia was formally disbanded in April 1953.[21][23][56]

• Francis Grose, antiquary and author, was appointed lieutenant and adjutant of the 2nd or Western Regiment on its formation on 3 November 1759. He later served in the same role in the merged regiment on 2 March 1763 after the conclusion of peace, being promoted to captain-lieutenant on 21 October 1765 and full captain on 1 January 1766. He was author of Advice to the Officers of the British Army.[24][80][81]