had both been abolished with the disappearance of the Napoleonic threat. At the very top of the chain of command the arrangements were no less satisfactory. The army was the responsibility of the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, assisted by the Secretary at War, who conveyed the government’s wishes to the commander-in-chief whose headquarters were known as the Horse Guards. Completely separate was the Master General of the Ordnance who was not military but a member of parliament who controlled all forms of military equipment, including weapons and artillery and the supply of food to the army at home. Unconnected to this, adding to the disjointedness and disorganization, was the Commissariat, under the Treasury, with responsibility for feeding troops abroad. There was no uniformity of effort and control of the army, but instead a rambling, confused command that resulted in gross inefficiency and the loss of lives.
The Royal Commission of 1858, established in the aftermath of the Crimean War, reported in 1862, but few of its recommendations were implemented due to the opposition of ‘die-hard’, reform-resistant senior military officers, prominent among them the newly appointed commander-in-chief, Field Marshal Prince George, the Duke of Cambridge, a cousin of Queen Victoria. Earlier, in January 1856, Victoria herself had been quite innovative when she instituted a military decoration for bravery to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War. Since then, the Victoria Cross (VC) medal has been awarded to 1,355 individual recipients, more than 180 of whom were Irish. The first ever award of the medal was to Irishman Mate Charles Lucas of HMS Hecla, who came from Co Monaghan. During an engagement when Hecla was part of an Anglo-French fleet bombarding the Russian fortress of Bomarsund, a live shell from the fortress landed on the ship’s deck and remained there ready to explode. Lucas, however, picked up the smoking shell, carried it to the ship’s side and dropped it into the sea where it blew up. He was one of 4,000 Irishmen in the British Navy. Sergeant (later General Sir) Luke O’ Connor from Elphin, Co Roscommon was the first (army) soldier to receive the Victoria Cross on 20 September 1854 during the battle of Alma when, though wounded, he seized the Colour of the 23rd Regiment of Foot and continued to carry it in the advance until the end of the action. A fifteen-year-old drummer of the 64th Regiment of Foot during the Indian Mutiny at Cawnpore in November 1857 became one of the youngest ever to receive the Victoria Cross. Thomas Flynn from Athlone, Co Westmeath, earned the award when, despite being wounded, he continued to engage in a hand-to-hand encounter with two rebels. On 21 August 1860, at the capture of the Northern of the Taku Forts during the Third China War, fifteen-year-old Andrew Fitzgibbon, a hospital apprentice attached to the 67th Regiment, became the second of the two youngest recipients of the medal. Accompanying a party that took up a position within 500 yards of the fort, he began to attend to a wounded soldier and then, advancing under enemy fire, he ran across open ground to attend to another wounded man. In so doing he was himself severely wounded, though he survived and lived for another twenty-three years. The only man to win both a Victoria Cross and an Iron Cross was Dublin-born Assistant Surgeon (later Surgeon General) William Manley. He was with the Royal Regiment of Artillery in a medical capacity during the Waikato-Hauhau Maori War in New Zealand and on, 29 April 1864 near Tauranga, in the course of an attack on a rebel hill-fort, he risked his own life by attending to a wounded naval officer whom he carried away, returning to see if he could find any more wounded. The citation for the award of the Iron Cross earned during the Franco-Prussian War was, ‘For services with the British Ambulance Corps [which was attached to the 22nd Division of the Prussian army] caring for the wounded of the 22nd Division in the actions of Chateauneuf and Bretoncelle on 18th and 21st December 1870, and the battles of Orleans and Cravant on 10th December 1870.’
It was the Franco-Prussian War and the manner of the Prussian victory that was to shake the evident complacency of the British establishment. No longer could they continue to exist in the delusionary status quo of so-called defence. The military climate in Europe had begun to change. In response to the potential Prussian threat, the British Parliament, in early August 1870, approved monies for the recruitment of 20,000 additional troops. The prior provision of the 25,000-strong army for the Crimean War had practically denuded the country of every serving soldier on the ‘home front’, a situation that was repeated immediately after to meet the requirement to suppress the Indian Mutiny. The momentum for this enlargement had been seized upon by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell who, with the support of the Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone, introduced measures to update the army, bringing real change to bear by firstly centralizing the power of the War Office, then abolishing the system of purchasing officers’ commissions and by creating a strategic reserve at home. The Cardwell Reforms initially addressed the abolition of flogging, firstly at home, then on active service abroad and completely in 1880. It was considered imperative to discharge men of bad character and attract instead good quality recruits; consequently, the seven-year short service option was introduced, which was later extended to ten years and then increased to twelve years. The withdrawal from overseas territories saw 26,000 troops come back from far-flung self-governing colonies where locally raised forces began to manage their own defence. A functioning reserve was raised at home and, significantly, Cardwell divided Great Britain and Ireland into sixty-six regimental districts, thus ‘territorializing’ the infantry with each regiment associated with a particular county. There were to be two battalions per regiment, with one battalion serving overseas and the other garrisoned at home for training. Each regiment had a training depot and associated recruiting areas. Militia units would make up a third battalion. The infantry was re-equipped with the first proper breech-loading rifle – the Martini-Henry – and Cardwell’s reforms also extended to improving the Spartan living conditions of the soldier which were previously austere and harsh. Frugal barrack-room furniture was basic with rudimentary beds, benches and tables. Sheets were now changed monthly while the straw in the mattresses was replaced every three months. Pay was low: one shilling per day and one penny ‘beer money’. A four-and-a-half penny deduction for rations was abolished in 1873, but so too was the beer money. A soldier’s net pay was often subjected to regimental stoppages for lost kit and ‘barrack damages’.
The Curragh Camp’s original wooden hutments, even at their initial installation, had never really been fit for purpose. A decade and a half later, having weathered badly and now being almost dilapidated, they were deemed unsuitable for living in, the ill-fitting wooden planks forming their walls proving no barrier to the Curragh’s cold and winter winds. The last three decades of the nineteenth century saw the camp undertake a transformative journey from wood through concrete hutments to red-brick buildings. This allowed for the incorporation of Cardwell’s desire to improve the conditions of the ordinary soldier by upgrading facilities such as reading-rooms and canteens.
The Curragh Act 1868, as has been discussed, provided for the regularization of the status of the British army on the Curragh, a status protected by bye-laws passed the same year, and the Curragh formally became the main training ground for the British military establishment in Ireland. The Cardwell reforms updated and enlarged the army, and the concentration of forces at home enabled a strategic reserve to be built which could be given proper training at major camps such as Aldershot and the Curragh. ‘Ball practice’, musketry range-practice and great mock battles were part and parcel of training, and demonstrations were arranged for the regular visits of the commander-in-chief of British forces in Ireland. The training of the troops changed over the years to encompass new weapons, especially more accurate, longer range and quicker firing rifles, as well as new tactics – cavalry, for instance, becoming ‘mounted infantry’ – and new strategies, improved communications and means of transport. Important too was the opening of the Suez Canal which allowed for a more rapid deployment of troops to faraway destinations. Ireland was ideal for recruiting, training and providing an embarkation point for troops to serve in the colonies. The Cardwell Reforms had been exceptional, changing the strength, equipping, organization and training of an enlarged army in a radical and positive way so that it was available for action on the home front, in the colonies and for war.
Police Duties
When deploying their forces in Ireland during the nineteenth century the British had to achieve a balance between guarding against internal insurrection and having adequate manpower to meet the exigencies arising from colonial wars. The Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s had gone a long way towards addressing this
