01-30-45 VER. Edwards 1-24-45 TH HE story of the Royal Marine Corps which Colonel Field unfolds in the following pages, though it does not cover the period of the Great War, gives over a period of 250 years a picture of loyalty and courage that it would be difficult to equal, and impossible to surpass. It is clear that that great Admiral, Lord St. Vincent, when he spoke of the Royal Marines as the Country's sheet anchor, was not employing a meaningless metaphor. Originally introduced afloat to help the prime seamen-all too few in number to fight the ships, they have played an important part in all the notable deeds of the Royal Navy. With Rooke at Gibraltar, Hawke at Quiberon, Rodney at Dominica, Howe on the First of June, Jervis at St. Vincent, Nelson at the Nile and Trafalgar, and in countless other actions, great and small, the Marine has fought shoulder to shoulder with the seamen, sharing his victories as a faithful and valiant comrade. Their service in the late War was in accordance with their great traditions. They fought on many fronts as well as at sea. The heroic conduct of Major F. J. W. Harvey in my Flagship" Lion during the Battle of Jutland, was the embodiment of the spirit of the Marines. Though mortally wounded he gave orders for the flooding of the magazine of his Turret, which had been wrecked by German gunfire, thereby saving the ship from destruction. For his heroism and devotion His Majesty posthumously awarded him the V.C. There has long been a great need for a work of the nature that Colonel Field now sets before his readers, and I wish it every success. AUTHOR'S PREFACE "And we should also recollect," said the late Earl of Beaconsfield, on the 18th September, 1879, "that connected with the Navy, there is the finest body of troops in the World, and that is those gallant Marines who are ever ready to devote themselves to the interests of their country." One cannot recollect what one has never known, and I regret to say that outside the Fighting Services, my experience is that little or nothing is known of a Corps which has earned such an eulogium from such a statesman. Scores of volumes of all sorts and sizes have recorded the exploits of our Sailors, but as to the deeds of their comrades and shipmates, the "Sea-Soldiers," who, as indicated by their proud motto "Per Mare, Per Terram," have fought in every Continent and in all the Seven Seas, three small histories, probably quite unknown to the general public, have alone seen the light. These are the "Historical Review of the Royal Marine Corps " to 1803 by Lieut. Alexander Gillespie, the Historical Record of the Royal Marine Forces" to 1842, and "The Historical Records of the Royal Marines," by Major L. Edye, the latter a monument of careful research, which, however, only covers the period from 1664 to 1702. To all these works I am indebted for information, but the ground they cover is very circumscribed in more ways than one. In the present attempt to produce a more general and comprehensive history of the Corps in which I had for so many years the honour of serving, and which I may mention in passing, was completed before the outbreak of the Great War, except for considerable revision and some additions in the course of publication-my aim has been to produce a series of tableaux shewing how the Royal Marines and their ancestors have acquitted themselves in the many and varied operations of warfare by sea and land which have fallen to their lot. Lord Beaconsfield, as quoted above, has referred to the Marines as "connected with the Navy," but as a matter of fact they are part and parcel of the Navy, and though the smallest branch in point of numbers may claim to be the oldest branch. Soldiers fought at sea before the advent of sail-power and of sailors. Soldiers commanded our fighting ships and fleets up to the days of Queen Elizabeth, and at times, till that of James II.—and Soldiers formed the militant part of their complements. Even to-day the Naval Executive Officers are known as the "Military Branch," while by a curious paradox, those of the Royal Marines, actually trained soldiers, are not ! Moreover, up to the time of the Crimean War the Marines were the only part of the Naval personnel-except its Officers-that had a permanent and organised establishment. Our gallant Blue-jackets were recruited merely for a ship's commission, though the prime seamen among them often made the Navy a regular profession by joining one ship after another. Nevertheless, the " proverbial man in the street" has but the vaguest notion of what a Marine is, or of the duties and deeds of the Royal Marine Corps. Beyond the dearth of written history he has yet other excuses for his unflattering ignorance. When a Naval action is fought the Official Reports must, of necessity, deal more with the manoeuvres of ships and fleets than with the doings of the seamen, Marines and stokers who man them. Thus the General Public has got into the way of thinking of the personnel of the Navy in terms of "sailors" only, and even when a Naval Brigade, composed of seamen and Marines, is landed for service on shore few people realise the share the latter have in the operations. In the recent Great War-in which, by the way, the heroic deeds of the Royal Marines eclipsed anything I have been able to record in this work--whole battalions of them were somewhat lost to sight by being embodied in a so-called "Naval Brigade,” the other battalions of which, far from being composed of seamen belonging to the Navy proper, were made up of men who, for the most part, excellent soldiers as they proved--had never set foot upon the deck of a man-of-war. Such overshadowing is not inducive to the fostering of esprit de corps, for it is the history and traditions of past glories which inspire that feeling, so invaluable to a Regiment, so great a support in the hour of peril, so animating in the crisis of battle, and which adds to the soldier's zeal for personal distinction the nobler aim of increasing the laurels of his Corps. "Britain's Sea-Soldiers" have had a long, eventful and checquered carcer since the "Maritime Regiment " was established by Charles II. in 1664, but despite the frequent breaks in the official continuity of the Marines up to the establishment of the present Corps in 1775, what may be called the line of heredity has never been completely destroyed, since many of the officers of the various new organisations came from the older Marine Regiments which they displaced or succeeded. As an instance of this it may be mentioned that Colonel B. N. Elliott, who fell gloriously leading the 4th Royal Marine Battalion on Zeebrugge Mole, was the last of a family which had held Marine Commissions continuously, son succeeding father, right back to the days of William and Mary. During all this time the Red-coated Marine remained essentially a Soldier though trained to serve the heavy guns afloat and to assist in the general work of his ship. In the long wars with France the Marine with his military training, discipline and steadiness formed an ideal combination with the Seamen with his dash, handiness and resource. Yet of recent years this valuable combination has been in jeopardy, and more than once. There was the proposal to supersede the excellent and honoured “ rig" of the latter by a travesty of a military "kit," it was supposed at the time with a view of lessening the difference between Seaman and Marine. Later on there was the more drastic proposal to deprive the Corps of its own Officers, who were to bereplaced in the lower ranks by a species of Warrant Officer, and in the higher by Naval Officers not very likely to "hoist their flags." Luckily for both Naval and Marine Services these proposals carried in them the seeds of their own undoing, and were abandoned. Still more recently, following on the abolition of the Royal Marine Artillery, or as the process has been more euphemistically termed-its amalgamation with the Royal Marine Light Infantry-it has been announced that the Corps is to be deprived of its time and battle honoured scarlet as a full dress, a uniform which has enabled it to shew the national colour in distant and other parts of the world where it would never otherwise have been seen, and where in the case of our colonists-it formed a link, in their eyes, with the Old Country. Does this foreshadow yet another attempt to transmogrify the Marine Soldier into a nautical nondescript ? I trust not! There is yet time to reconsider this proposal. There is no golden mean between the two extremes of perfect Military efficiency which has enabled the Marine in the past to so ably supplement the perfect Naval efficiency of the Seaman-and the practical extinction of the Corps in order that its men may be replaced by Seamen proper. In the writer's humble opinion any attempt to assimilate the Seaman and Marine-the twin-fighting men that have given us all our victories afloat and not a few on shore-will injuriously affect the esprit de corps of both branches, and I venture to think that those who "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest" the following pages will be inclined to endorse it. In conclusion, I have to express my warmest thanks to Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Beatty, for his kindness in writing a Foreword, which could not possibly be bettered, and which will be deeply appreciated throughout the Corps. I have also to thank General Sir Herbert Blumberg, Colonels N. D. O'Sullivan, J. A. Tupman and Captain N. K. Jolley, who formed the Regimental Committee without whose exertions and assistance this work would never have been published. To Captain J. S. Hicks I am much indebted for the cover design of the monthly parts, and for help in the preparation of the coloured plates. General C. G. Brittan's kind loan of some of the coloured prints in his collection has also been of much help in this respect, as well as various notes and sketches supplied by Colonel R. O. Patterson, the Rev. J. T. Trelawney-Ross, and the Rev. Percy Sumner, a recognised authority on the military costume of the past. The late Mr. D. Hastings-Irwin, another student of this subject, was also good enough to supply me with many valuable notes. I am also indebted to Mr. Ernest Edye for the loan of letters and photographs which had been collected by his brother the late Colonel L. Edye, to Colonel Hailes for the whole of my information respecting the "Manchester Marines," to Colonel Parkyns Hearle for much information as to the work of the Corps in the foundation of the Australian Commonwealth, and in the Ashantee War of 1873, to General H. S. Neville White for his account of the services of the Camel Corps in 1884-5, to Colonels G. J. H. Mullins and E. Wray for their valuable help in the story of the China War of 1900, to General Sir Charles N. Trotman for the loan of the Diary of Sir Richard Steele, R.M.A., in the Carlist War of 1836-7, and to Colonel L. S. T. Halliday, V.C., for the use of his grandfather's Diary in the same War. I have to thank Colonel H. Channer for much assistance when as Editor of the "Globe and Laurel he materially forwarded the project of publication, and my thanks are also due to several other brother officers for their kind help and co-operation. 1 have to acknowledge with thanks the permission given me by the Editor of the Journal of the Royal United Service Institution to utilise various articles I had contributed as the basis for some of the early chapters, and one or two others, as well as for the use of the blocks of the "Spanish Attack on Gibraltar," and the "Battle of Hernani," while I have to thank Colonel J. H. Leslie, R.A., for notes on the Defence of Landguard Fort and other matters, and Colonel Neil Bannatyne, the able historian of the 30th Regiment, for much information as to the Marine Regiments of Queen Anne's time, and the Capture of Annapolis Royal. Finally, I am very much indebted to the late Captain Portlock-Dadson for the use of his most interesting and comprehensive notes on the history of the Corps, which, arranged as they are, in chronological order, are most valuable for reference. GATEACRE, LANCS., January, 1924. C. F. CONTENTS British Marines in the Roman Army-The Grecian "Epibati "-Ships' Complements in 500 B.C.-The Persians and Phoenicians-Little hope of Military Reward for the Classiarii-The Count of the Saxon Shore- The Butes Carles of Alfred the Great and King Harold-War-ships of the Middle Ages, and their Crews -The "Retenue de Poupe "-Complements of Henry VIII's ships-The Gentlemen Adventurers-Dr. John Dee's proposals for Sea Soldiers-Fresh-water Soldiers-Soldiers of Cromwell's Army fighting as "Tawney" of the "Firelocks" of the "New Model"-The French Marine Regiments-Reasons for the establishment of Marines-Derivation of "Jolly "-Anecdote of Sir George Rooke when a Captain in the Maritime Regiment-The Dutch attack on Landguard Fort repulsed by the Admiral's Regiment-The Battle of Sole Bay-Marines serving with the French Army-Battle of Entzheim-Detachment sent to Virginia-Formation of a Grenadier Company-The Marines in Flanders-Marines at the Defence of Tangier -The Marine Regiments of the Earls of Torrington and Pembroke The Siege of Cork-Controversy as to the value of the Marines-Instruction in Naval Gunnery-Reorganisation of the Marine Regiments... VI.-King James II's Irish Marines and their French representatives of to-day... ... ... ... ... ... ... Remarks on the Early Marine Regiments, by Mr. J. Burchett, Secretary to the Admiralty, 1703... The Bestowal of the distinction Gibraltar on the Royal Marines-The Formation of Six Regiments of Marines and Six others "for Sea Service," 1702-Their Uniform-Operations at Vigo-Sir George Rooke -Extracts from the Journal of the Rev. Thomas Pocock, Chaplain of the Ranelagh Landing at Fungerole -Decision to attack Gibraltar--The Marines landed-The Seamen storm the New Mole-Place surrendered to the Prince of Hesse-Further details of the capture of the Rock-Cromwell's designs on Gibraltar |