35.2: The British exnerience of warfare, c.

1790-1918
▪ Unlike other armies of the time, the British did not use conscription to
bolster army numbers;
enlistment remained voluntary.
Changes in organising the military
• In periods of long service, battalions were generally operating under strength
as many
• At the end of the eighteenth century, there were three main bodies responsible
for the army. The discharges and deaths were due to disease.
structure was to last until the mid-nineteenth century
• During the Peninsular Campaign (1808-13), the army lost almost 25,000 men from
disease
• The War Office was responsible for day-to-day administration of the army, and
for the cavalry while fewer than 9,000 were killed in action,
and infantry.
The impact of the Crimean War
• The Board of Ordnance was responsible for the supply of weapons and
ammunition and was in
charge of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers.
• War broke out between Britain and France and Russia in 1853, forces were sent
to the Crimea
in September 1854.
• The Commissariat was responsible for the supply of rations and transport.
• The British commander was Lord Raglan, who had last seen action at the Battle
of Waterloo in
• None of these bodies were usually represented in the Cabinet. Overall strategy
was in the hands 1815.
of the Secretary of State for War.
• The war was the first in which regular reports were sent to newspapers in
Britain via the electric
• The arrangement resulted in confusion which often greatly hampered efficient
operation during telegraph, which had just been invented.
the Napoleonic Wars.

• The public were informed of the appalling conditions endured by soldiers and
the inefficiencies
• In the field, a commander's staff consisted of an Adjutant-General, who
handled finance, troop of the army.
returns and legal matters and a Quartermaster-General, who was responsible for
billeting and
organising transport.
• There were seven different organisations responsible for providing supplies and
equipment.
• Infantry and cavalry units had originally been known by the names of their
colonels. This could • Units received the wrong ammunition; there were almost
no medical supplies and uniforms did
be confusing if Colonels succeeded each other rapidly or if colonels had the same
name. not fit and food was rancid.
• In 1751 a numeral system had been adopted, with each regiment gaining a
number according to • In November 1854, the supply fleet was destroyed in
a major storm. Vast amounts of supplies
their rank in the order of precedence.
were lost in the Black Sea.
The impact of the Napoleonic war
• After the war reforms were begun to improve the army
▪ The British Army during the Napoleonic Wars experienced a time of rapid change.
In 1793, the The Times Fund
army was a small force of barely 40,000 men. By the end of the period, the numbers
had vastly
increased.
• The Crimean Army Fund' was set up and administered by The Times' newspaper in
response to
its reports of the privations of soldiers in the Crimea in the winter of 1854-1855.
• At its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. The British
infantry was the
only military force not to suffer a major reverse at the hands of Napoleonic
France. • The public response to the Fund was immediate and
the first of a number of ships, carrying gifts
to a value of £60,000, sailed for the Crimea in December 1854.
• In 1806, a system of limited service (seven years for infantry, ten for cavalry
and artillery) was
introduced to attract recruits. This was to meet the demands of the war against
Napoleon. • In addition to the £22,100 raised by the Fund to
purchase goods, a number of manufacturers and
suppliers contributed their wares to the relief effort.
• From 1800 onward soldiers began to receive a daily beer money allowance in
addition to their
regular wages, the practice was started on the orders of The Duke of York.
• The distillers of Campbeltown in Scotland sent 700 gallons of whisky for the
use of the
Highland regiments.
• Corporal punishment was removed for a large number of petty offences; it was
still retained for
serious offences.
• The Fund purchased and distributed such goods as clothing, food, beer and
spirits, books,
cutlery, tobacco, stationery, coffee-mills, soap and candles.
• The Shomcliffe System for light infantry was established in 1803, teaching
skirmishing, self-
reliance and initiative.
• It also received gifts from private benefactors of knitted clothing and
Christmas hampers.
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• The Funds representatives conveyed the supplies directly to the hospitals and
built a Crimean • A Land Transport Corps was created in 1855 and an Army
Clothing department was
Fund Station at Kadikoi to distribute the goods straight to the troops in the
field. established.
• The Fund's agents used their discretionary powers to hand out some of the
supplies as gifts, The Cardwell Reforms
most were sold to the soldiers at very low prices.
• The various sections of the War Department were all combined in the same
building.
Raglan
• The Army Enlistment Act fixed the term of enlistment to 12 years, part on
active service, part

• The Commissariat carried much of the responsibility for the distress and
extreme hardships on reserve.

suffered by the army in the Crimea, the government shifted responsibility to the
staff in the
Crimea.
• The length of service overseas was limited to six years followed by six years
in the reserve.
•
Raglan was blamed by the press and the government for the sufferings of the British
soldiers in • The Martini-Henry breech-loading rifle was introduced as the
main weapon of the infantry
the terrible Crimean winter during the Siege of Sevastopol owing to shortages of
food and
clothing.
• The purchase of Commissions was abolished; the selection and promotion of
officers was to be

by merit rather than money and influence.

• In fact, raglan wrote many letters complaining of the lack of supplies, most
of which went
unheeded.
• The regimental structure was reorganised on the basis of two 'linked'
battalions, one serving

overseas and one serving at home,

The MeNeill-Tulloch report

•
Britain was divided into 69 districts, each with its own county regiment and were
called by that
• By the beginning of 1855, news of the problems faced by the Army in the
Crimea had led to
name (for example, the York & Lanes, the Warwickshires).
widespread criticism and alarm anger in Britain.

•
Regiments were given a local attachment for recruitment purposes.
• John McNeill (a Scottish surgeon) and Colonel Alexander Tulloch, an
experienced officer at the
War Office, were sent to the Crimea.
•
Flogging in the army was abolished.
• They were instructed to report on the whole arrangements and management of
the Commissariat •
The regular and militia battalions of the army were amalgamated into territorial
regiments with
and the method of keeping accounts,
local names and local depots.
• They were also to investigate the causes of the delays in unloading and
distributing clothing and •
For the first time, the British army could claim to be 'professional'.
other stores sent to Balaclava.

Haldane's Reforms
• The McNeill-Tulloch inquiry was the most effective of the various
inquisitions into the
Crimean War.
The BEF
•
It sharply criticised Lord Raglan's personal staff in the Crimea and Commissary-
General Filder. •
Haldane proposed the creation of a force that could be ready to move abroad
whenever

necessary. It would be six infantry divisions and their supporting units.

• It led to many recriminations as officers sought to clear their names when

the report was
published in 1856.
• They would need to be organised in peacetime and prepared to mobilise in the
United Kingdom,

as they would be committed into action as soon as they reached the Continent
•
A board of general officers was convened to clear the army, but despite its
objections, the

McNeill-Tulloch report led to professional reform of the commissariat by the Royal

Warrant of
• The Army was now geared to a specific purpose; this was to include the
disbandment of ten
October 1858.
infantry battalions and a number of surplus artillery batteries, and the withdrawal
of some

overseas garrisons.
•
The War Office was created to centralise and control planning. The Commissariat was
brought
under its control.
• The Army at home was reorganised into six divisions by a Special Army Order
dated I January

1907, with one four-brigade Cavalry Division and two mounted brigades for
reconnaissance.
•
Far the first time, overall control of the Army was moved from the monarchy and the
aristocracy to Parliament.
• In February 1907, Haldane announced the coming year's spending estimates;
despite the

creation of the new force, the disbanded units and other minor efficiencies had
managed to

reduce overall spending by two to three million pounds.

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