Volume 1 — CHAPTER V.
Reading edition
THE BRITISH ARMY.
Various employments of British Army.
Every army necessarily grows up according to the traditions of its past history. Those of the Continent having only to cross a frontier, marked by Royal, Imperial or Republican stones, have, in their rare but terrible campaigns, to pursue definite objects that can be anticipated in nearly all their details years beforehand. The British army, on the contrary, throughout the nineteenth century, since the great war came to an end in 1815, has had to carry out a series of expeditions in every variety of climate, in all quarters of the globe, amidst the deserts of North Africa, the hills, plains and tropical forests of South Africa, the mountains of India, the swamps of Burma, or the vast regions of Canada. Such expeditions have been more numerous than the years of the century; each of them has differed from the other in almost all its conditions. Amongst its employments this army has had to face, also, the forces of a great Empire and troops armed and trained by Britain herself. Accordingly, it has happened that the experience of one campaign has almost invariably been reversed in the next. To take only recent illustrations, the fighting which was suitable for dealing with Zulu warriors, moving in compact formations, heroic savages armed with spears or assegais, was not the best for meeting a great body of skilled riflemen, mounted on well-managed horses. Moreover, the necessary accessories of an army, without which it cannot make war, such as its transport and its equipment, have had to be changed with the circumstances of each incident. Just as it has been impossible to preserve throughout all its parts one uniform pattern, such as is established everywhere by the nations of the Continent, so it has not been possible to have ready either the suitable clothing, the most convenient equipment, or the transport best adapted for the particular campaign which it happened to be at the moment necessary to undertake. More serious than this, and more vital in its effect on the contest about to be described, was the fact that the services thus required continually of British troops prevented the formation of larger bodies of definite organisation in which the whole staff, needed to give vitality and unity to anything more than a battalion or a brigade, was trained together. For such wars as those in Egypt, or for the earlier wars in South Africa, in Canada, or in many other countries, it was much more practical to select for each enterprise the men whose experience suited them for the particular circumstances, and form staffs as well as corps of the kind that were needed, both in strength and composition, for that especial work. This was a very serious disadvantage, when it came to be necessary to make up a great host, in which not a certain number of battalions, batteries, and cavalry regiments had to be employed, but in which ultimately a vast organisation of 300,000 men, many of whom were entirely new to army life, had to be brought into the field. It is one thing for the army corps of a great Continental State, in which everyone has been practising his own special part precisely as he will be engaged in war, to march straight upon its enemy in its then existing formation, and it is quite another to draw together a staff formed of men, each of them experienced both in war and peace, none of whom have worked together, while few have fulfilled the identical functions which they have to discharge for the first time when bullets are flying and shells are bursting. It will so often appear in the course of this history that the operations seriously suffered, because the necessary links between a general in command and the units which he has to direct were inadequate, that it is only fair to the many officers of excellent quality who were employed on the staff that the nature of this comparison should be clearly appreciated. It was no fault of theirs, but a consequence of that past history which had built up the British Empire, that they had neither previously worked together, nor practised in peace time their special part in an organisation which had, in fact, to be created anew for the immediate task in hand.
The total forces of Empire.
Regular White troops.
At the time of Kruger's ultimatum of October 9, 1899, the British regular army was composed as follows:—
Officers. Warrant, Non-Commissioned Officers, and men.
Cavalry 780 18,853
Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery 660 18,855
Royal Garrison Artillery[80] 775 20,103
Royal Engineers 962 7,323
Infantry 4,362 144,103
Army Service Corps 240 3,858
Army Ordnance Department and Corps 227 1,433
Royal Army Medical Corps 831 2,876
Army Pay Department and Corps 205 582
Army Veterinary Department 131 —
9,173 217,986
Total, all ranks 227,159.
Their dispersion. These were all white troops; but it is essential that their distribution over the surface of the globe should be realised. The remarks which have been made as to the special cases quoted could easily, with slight modification, be shown to apply in practically every instance.
There were, including troops on the seas, on 1st October, 1899:—
Aden (Naval base) 1,092
South Africa (Naval base at Simon's Bay) 22,179
West Africa (Naval base at Sierra Leone) 38
Barbados 738
Bermuda (Naval base) 1,896
Canada (Naval bases at Esquimault and Halifax) 1,599
Ceylon (Naval base at Trincomalee) 1,402
China (Naval base at Hong Kong) 1,689
Crete 1,628
Cyprus 116
Egypt 3,699
Gibraltar (Naval base) 5,104
Jamaica 570
Malta[81] (Naval base) 7,496
Mauritius (Naval base) 962
St. Helena (Coaling station) 211
Straits Settlements (Naval base at Singapore). 1,407
Particular Service 47
India (less garrison of Aden) 67,921
United Kingdom (exclusive of Reserves) 108,098
—————
227,992
White Officers with natives. This total does not include the white officers employed with native troops, who numbered in all 1,814. The functions of these, however, will be best understood when the figures which follow have been considered, and the yet greater area of the earth's surface covered by those who served under the British flag has been taken into account. They are not matters for an appendix, but for the close study with a map of every adult and every child in the realm.
Total strength and dispersion.
The effective strength of the armed land forces of the British Empire (exclusive of the Royal Marines, but inclusive of local colonial naval contingents for harbour defence), in September-October, 1899, was:—
Officers. Other ranks. All ranks.
Regular Army (European) on Oct. 1st, 1899.
With Colours 9,173 217,986 227,159
Reserves 1,803 81,134 82,937
Royal Malta Artillery 31 802 833
Regular Army
(Colonial Corps, European Officers, Native Troops) 233 7,798 8,031
———— 318,960
Regular Army of India.
With Colours (European Officers, Native Troops) 1,460 171,216 172,676
Reserves — 18,644 18,644
———— 191,320
Hyderabad Contingent.
(Officered by Europeans) 121 7,386 7,507 7,507
Imperial Service Troops.
(A few European Officers) — 18,289 18,289 18,289
Auxiliary Troops of the United Kingdom.
Militia 3,036 106,515 109,551
Yeomanry 654 9,460 10,114
Volunteers 8,020 215,901 223,921
Honourable Artillery Company 39 497 536
———— 344,122
Indian Volunteers — — 29,219 29,219
Indian Military Police — — 30,284 30,284
Channel Isles Militia 150 3,278 3,428 3,428
Malta Militia 60 1,755 1,815 1,815
Cyprus Police 26 731 757 757
Canada:
Local regular troops 91 936 1,027
Militia 2,398 28,463 30,861
Police (including 92 Newfoundland) 105 1,191 1,296
Naval Forces 50 472 522
———— 33,706
Australasia: New South Wales.
Local regular troops 49 876 925
Militia 228 3,815 4,043
Volunteers 97 2,724 2,821
Reserves 111 1,535 1,646
Police — — 1,977
Naval Forces 39 576 615
———— 12,027
Queensland.
Local regular troops 22 265 287
Militia 198 2,801 2,999
Volunteers 50 758 808
Cadets — — 875
Police — — 869
Rifle Clubs — — 2,520
Naval Forces — — 584
———— 8,942
South Australia.
Local regular troops 3 31 34
Militia 72 625 697
Reserves 40 529 569
Police — — 349
Rifle Clubs — — 1,003
Naval Forces — — 120
———— 2,772
Tasmania.
Local regular troops 2 20 22
Volunteers 88 1,696 1,784
Cadets 8 250 258
Police — — 60
———— 2,124
Victoria.
Local regular troops 24 349 373
Militia 158 2,867 3,025
Volunteers 110 1,598 1,708
Naval Forces — — 286
———— 5,392
West Australia.
Local regular troops 15 261 276
Volunteers 46 883 929
———— 1,205
New Zealand.
Local regular troops 11 277 288
Volunteers 330 6,368 6,698
Naval Forces 30 682 712
———— 7,698
Fiji.
Volunteers 19 189 208
Police 16 143 159
———— 367
Cape Colony.
Local regular troops 38 1,028 1,066
Volunteers 186 3,486 3,672
Cadets — — 2,000
Police — — 1,401
Mounted Rifle Clubs 64 997 1,061
———— 9,200
Natal.
Volunteers 112 1,489 1,601
Cadets — — 1,062
Police — — 659
Naval Forces 6 116 122
———— 3,444
Rhodesia.
Protectorate Regt. raised by Col. Baden-Powell 92 2,387 2,479 2,479
Rhodesian Regt.
British South Africa Police
Zululand.
Police — — 500 500
Basutoland.
Police — — 260 260
Bechuanaland Protectorate.
Police 14 190 204 204
West Indies.
Militia 23 574 597
Volunteers 122 1,845 1,967
Police 54 2,924 2,978
———— 5,542
Falkland Isles.
Volunteers 3 78 81 81
Colonies in Asia.
Local regular troops (Malay State Guides) 9 623 632
Volunteers 93 1,556 1,649
Police 47 2,881 2,928
———— 5,209
St. Helena.
Volunteers 4 51 55 55
West Africa.
Local regular troops 219 4,196 4,415
Volunteers 11 187 198
Police 40 2,202 2,242
Naval Forces 15 87 102
———— 6,957
Grand Total 1,053,865
EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA.
The local troops serving in Uganda, British East Africa, British Central Africa, and Somaliland, are not given. The aggregate area of these Protectorates is nearly four times that of Great Britain. The majority of their inhabitants were, and still are, but semi-civilised or wholly savage, and internal order has often to be maintained by serious fighting. In 1899 the force included three and a half battalions, but as it was then in process of reorganisation into one corps, the "King's African Rifles," its precise strength at that time cannot now be ascertained.