While doing some research on Hamilton Barracks for a forthcoming talk (watch this space!) I came across a couple of photographs in the collection that I hadn’t seen before. They show the Permanent Staff of the Militia Battalions that were stationed at Hamilton Barracks.
Warrant Officers and Non Commissioned Officers of the 3rd and 4th (Militia) Battalions of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and Highland Light Infantry.
The photographs appear to date from the 1890s, and were taken outside the Officers Mess building at the north end of Hamilton Barracks.
Warrant Officers and Non Commissioned Officers of the 3rd and 4th (Militia) Battalions of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles).
Whenever I come across a ‘new’ photograph I always examine the faces of the men shown in the hopes that I might recognise someone. This can help establish the identity of the unit (if not recorded on the photograph or its catalogue record) and possibly help date the image. Uniform details, such as what medals are worn, or what kind of tartan the Cameronian soldiers are wearing (they didn’t start wearing Douglas tartan until April 1892), can prove useful in narrowing down a time period.
In the first photograph, showing a mix of men from the Cameronians and HLI, I immediately spotted; Pipe Major James Nesbit, (standing on the left, wearing a kilt), Quartermaster Sergeant Tommy Finn (seated fifth from left), Sergeant Major Frederick Brightman (seated centre), and Sergeant Major William Taylor (seated seventh from the right). All of these men had lengthy service with the regular battalions of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) before transferring to the Permanent Staff of the militia battalions. In the case of Tommy Finn, he had started his military career as a boy soldier with the 90th (Perthshire) Light Infantry, serving as a bugler to General (later Field Marshal) Evelyn Wood VC during the Zulu War.
Close-up of Tommy Finn, wearing his medal for service in South Africa 1877-79 and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Tommy died in 1921, by which point he was Quartermaster of the 3rd Battalion Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) holding the rank of Major.
Pipe Major Nesbit and Sergeant Major Taylor are both present in the second image, but QMS Finn and Sergeant Major Brightman are missing – suggesting perhaps the photographs weren’t taken at the same time.
While scrutinising the other faces, my heart almost skipped a beat when I saw the medals proudly worn by one Cameronian soldier…
This soldier is wearing the Victoria Cross – Britain’s highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy.
This reclining sergeant is wearing the Victoria Cross, the highest gallantry award awarded to British service personnel for bravery in the face of the enemy. The sergeant, who is also present in the other photograph, is none other than Edmund Fowler VC.
Sergeant Edmund Fowler VC.
Fowler was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in South Africa in 1879, while serving as a private soldier in the 90th (Perthshire) Light Infantry, later the 2nd Battalion Scottish Rifles. His citation reads:
On the 28th March, 1879, during the assault of the Inhlobane Mountain, Sir Evelyn Wood ordered the dislodgment of certain Zulus (who were causing the Troops much loss) from strong natural caves commanding the position in which some of the wounded were lying. Some delay occurring in the execution of the orders issued, Captain the Honourable Ronald Campbell, Coldstream Guards, followed by Lieutenant Lysons, Aide-de-Camp, and Private Fowler, ran forward in the most determined manner, and advanced over a mass of fallen boulders, and between walls of rock, which led to a cave in which the enemy lay hidden. It being impossible for two men to walk abreast, the assailants were consequently obliged to keep in single file, and as Captain Campbell was leading, he arrived first at the mouth of the cave, from which the Zulus were firing, and there met his death. Lieutenant Lysons and Private Fowler, who were following close behind him, immediately dashed at the cave, from which led several subterranean passages, and firing into the chasm below, succeeded in forcing the occupants to forsake their stronghold. Lieutenant Lysons remained at the cave’s mouth for some minutes after the attack, during which time Captain Campbell’s body was carried down the slopes.
London Gazette, 7th April 1882
The lieutenant mentioned in the citation was Henry Lysons, also of the 90th (Perthshire) Infantry, and who was also awarded the Victoria Cross for the same action.
Both Fowler’s and Lysons’ medals are in the regimental museum collection, and are on display in Low Parks Museum. I knew from Fowler’s medals that he had later joined the Royal Irish Regiment and had served with them in Egypt, thus qualifying for the 1882 Egypt Medal and Khedive’s Star, but I had no idea that he had returned to the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) once more, serving on the Permanent Staff of the 3rd (Militia) Battalion. A check of Fowler’s service records (via FindMyPast) gives the following outline of his service:
Joins 90th (Perthshire) Light Infantry on 17th March 1877, with regimental number 1317.
Pays for discharge from 90th at Netley on 29th January 1880, after almost three years of good service.
Re-enlists Royal Irish Regiment on 15th February 1882, with regimental number 373.
Awarded Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria, 13th May 1882.
Transfers to Permanent Staff, 3rd Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) on 16th March 1896, with regimental number 5484.
Promoted Colour Sergeant 14th May 1898
Discharged 13th February 1900, having been found no longer physically fit for active service due to chronic ulcers of the leg.
The information from Fowler’s record can help us narrow down the dates of the photographs even further. As he doesn’t appear to be wearing the rank insignia of a Colour Sergeant in either photograph, they were likely taken between March 1896, when he transfers to the 3rd Battalion, and May 1898, when he is promoted to Colour Sergeant.
I’m always amazed at the stories that are often hidden away in these old photographs, just waiting to be rediscovered.
This fascinating photograph is contained within an old album in the regimental collection. It shows Private Brown of B Company, 1st Battalion The Cameronians – winner of the Imperial Prize competition at Bisley in 1894. The rather impressive silverware next to him are the challenge vases awarded as part of the prize; the other part being a personal cheque of £100 – a fair old sum for a Private soldier in 1894! Brown’s left hand rests on the stock of his Lee-Metford rifle with which he secured victory, and the honour of being forever immortalised in the records of his Regiment.
Private Brown, winner of the Imperial Prize at Bisley, 1894
The entry in the regimental Digest of Service for 1894 records that:
“The Battalion gained a large number of Prizes at the Browndown Rifle Meeting. At Bisley, the Imperial Prize which was open to Officers, N.C. Officers & men of the Regular Army was won by Pte J. Brown of the Battalion, who secured himself £100 & a pair of very handsome Silver Challenge Vases which were placed in the Officers Mess.”
1894 was the first year the Imperial Prize was competed for at Bisley, the home of British competition shooting since 1890. The Imperial Prize was competed for over two days of shooting. On the first day, competitors were allowed seven shots at targets placed at 200, 500, and 600 yards distance. Once the points were tallied, the top 100 progressed to the second and final day of shooting, comprising of 15 shots at a distance of 800 yards.
Newspaper reports from the time record that the weather over the two days of shooting was far from ideal, with heavy rain and high winds. At the end of the 500 yards stage of the event, the two highest scorers were a Lieutenant of the Scots Guards, and a Sergeant of the Northamptonshire Regiment. A good round at the 600 yards target saw Private Brown of The Cameronians in contention for the win, in what turned out to be a very close final round:
“The contest virtually lay between Col.-Sergt Phillips, Sergt.-Major Brown, and the winner. The sergeant-major finished with 152, at which time Private Brown had 148, and two shots to go. His fourteenth was a bull. He took a long aim for his last, and as the signal from the target was some time in making its appearance it was thought he had missed. A cheer was raised when a bull was signalled.”
Edinburgh Evening News, 13th July 1894
Private Brown won the competition with a score of 158, five points clear of the runner up, Captain Cowie of the Royal Engineers. Described in one newspaper account as a ‘young’ soldier, Brown was almost 40 years old when he won the Imperial Prize, and had originally joined the 90th Perthshire Light Infantry, an antecedent regiment of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), in February 1874. The article from the Edinburgh Evening News closes with the remark “Up to this year the winner had not been an abstainer from ardent spirits, but he is, and has been all this year, a teetotaller.” This somewhat curious statement takes on new meaning when one examines Private Brown’s service record. Born in Londonderry, John Brown enlisted for service at Hamilton on 28th February 1874, aged 18 and 6 months. He had previously been occupied as a Labourer. Brown’s military service got off to something of a rocky start when, after only five months service, it was discovered that he had neglected to mention he was actually enrolled in the Londonderry Light Infantry militia at the time of his enlistment with the 90th. There follow a number of instances of imprisonment by order of the Commanding Officer, until September 1876 when Brown is transferred to the 73rd Regiment (another Perthshire regiment). Whether this transfer was at his own request, or by order of the Commanding Officer of the 90th, is not recorded. The transfer did, however, mean that Private Brown would miss active service with the 90th in South Africa (1878-1879).
While with the 73rd, Brown continues to appear before his Commanding Officer resulting in further spells in prison, and numerous instances of loss of Good Conduct Pay. Despite his frequent clashes with regimental authority, Brown is permitted to extend his period of service to 12 years ‘with the Colours’ in July 1879. This would suggest that, while numerous, the nature of these ‘crimes’ were not serious enough to warrant discharge and were probably related to drunkenness.
Brown re-joined the 90th Perthshire Light Infantry on 30th September 1880, remaining with it through it’s transition to become the 2nd Battalion Scottish Rifles following the amalgamation with the 26th Cameronian Regiment in 1881. The cycle of ‘Awaiting Trial’ followed by ‘Imprisoned’ along with the occasional ‘Forfeiture of Good Conduct Badge’ continue until early 1894. A spell of good behaviour sees his first Good Conduct Badge restored on 28th February 1894, followed by a second on 30th August of that year. If the newspaper article quoted earlier is to be believed, we might assume that this period of improved conduct is a result of Private Brown’s newly found sobriety. Whether this change in personal circumstance also led to Brown’s success at Bisley can only be guessed, but we can assume that he had already demonstrated some skill at musketry before winning the Imperial Prize. This photograph is from another album in the regimental collection and is captioned simply as “Shooting Trophies – Aldershot – 1891-1893”:
Private Brown is standing in the back row, fifth from the right. His appearance in this photograph might suggest he was already an accomplished marksman and may have indeed contributed to the securing of one or more of the prizes on display.
As the above photograph demonstrates, The Cameronians were not unused to success in competitions of shooting and musketry. In 1893, the 1st Battalion had taken 1st and 2nd Prize in the “Evelyn Wood Competition” at Bisley; a group event focused on a mix of marching and shooting. Still, winning a competition as grand as the Imperial Prize was something worth celebrating:
“Private Brown, of the Cameronians, who won the Imperial Cup at Bisley, returned to Portsmouth, where his regiment is quartered, on Saturday night, and met with a right royal reception… A telegram was received by the regiment during the evening from Sergeant-Major Brightman that the winner would arrive by the 9.43 train. Accordingly a waggonette, with the regimental band and pipers, was at the station to receive him. The news had got abroad, so that besides his comrades there was a large crowd ready to meet the successful marksman. The train was about an hour late and when it did draw up at the low level platform there was an enormous crowd awaiting it. On emerging from his compartment, Brown experienced an enthusiastic reception, and the crowd and his comrades carried him amid ringing cheers to the waggonette, while the band struck up “See the Conquering Hero Comes.” The cups were carried by Sergeant-Major Brightman and Sergeant-Instructor Jennings. On reaching the barracks Brown was escorted to the Officers’ Mess, where he was received by the officers, who complimented him heartily on his success.”
Hampshire Telegraph, 28th July 1894
Further evidence of the Battalion’s pride in securing the Imperial Prize is demonstrated by the above photograph being published as a postcard by the Battalion in 1894, with the addition of some recently acquired silverware!
Postcard published by The Cameronians in 1894. The challenge vases won as part of the Imperial Prize have been super-imposed in front of the display of silverware won by the Battalion.
Following the restoration of his Good Conduct Badges in 1894, there are no further reprimands or reductions logged in Private Brown’s service records and he was finally discharged from the 1st Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) on 30th March 1895, with 21 years and 34 days service under his belt. Of this, 19 years and 251 days would count towards his pension – bad behaviour comes with a cost after all!
A recent enquiry concerning a photograph on display in Low Parks Museum prompted me to look into the photograph in more detail, and see what information, if any, we could learn about “The Four Youngest Cameronians”. The original photograph is contained within a regimental photograph album; a check of the album page showed that the surnames of the boys had been written in pen, underneath the photograph. Sadly, many of the photographs in the regimental collection fail to record the names of those shown, so it was fortunate in this case that the boys had been named, and the date on which the photograph was taken had also been recorded.
“The Four Youngest Cameronians” 1891
The image has been captioned as “The Four Youngest Cameronians” and the individuals are named, left to right, as Boys ‘Banks’, ‘Baldock’, ‘Banks’, and ‘Chamberlain’. The photograph was taken on 8th July 1891. ‘Boy’ was the rank used by the Army for young soldiers under the age of 18.
The photograph is interesting as the Boys are wearing Government Tartan trews as opposed to the Douglas Tartan that we generally associate with The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). Permission was granted by Queen Victoria in May 1891 for the Regiment to adopt the use of Douglas Tartan, but this did not come into effect until 1st April 1892.
Looking at the names, the somewhat unusual name of Baldock jumped out as familiar, and doing a quick check of our other collections I found that he was named in another image in the museum collection. Amazingly, I also found a record in our Regimental Enlistment Registers (1919-1934) for a William J H Baldock, who had enlisted at Cork on 11th December 1890, aged 14. The entry would suggest that William Baldock had served in the Regiment continuously from December 1890 until his retirement as Regimental Sergeant Major in January 1922. He had served in the Boer War, and the First World War, and had been awarded the Queen’s and King’s South Africa Medals, the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, and also the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
There were no obvious matches for the other names in the Enlistment Registers, so I assumed that both Banks Boys and Boy Chamberlain had left the Regiment before the enlistment books commenced in 1919. Time to go to the local library to see what information I could find on Ancestry.com (if you don’t have a membership for Ancestry it is worth checking with your local library as many provide free access).
Working on the assumption that all the boys were around the same age as William Baldock, I was able to find service records for an Alfred Ernest Banks, an Edward William Banks, and a Charles Alfred Chamberlain. Alfred Banks joined the 1st Battalion at Cork on 9th January 1891, aged 14 years and two months. Edward Banks joined at Aldershot on 30th June 1891, aged 14 years. Charles Chamberlain also joined at Aldershot, on 1st July 1891, aged 14 years. The 1st Battalion The Cameronians had been stationed in Cork until 28th January 1891 when it embarked on HMS Assistance en route for Aldershot. Charles Chamberlain joined just in time to have his photograph taken 7 days later!
The Banks Boys appear to be brothers; both listed their mother as next of kin – Alice Banks of 1, The Crescent, Sandgate. Interestingly, Alfred was born in Richmond Barracks, Dublin, and his father is listed as ‘Joseph Banks – address unknown’, so it is possible that Alfred’s father was a soldier. Edward was born in Dover, and there are no details of his father recorded. Given the stated ages of Alfred and Edward and their places of birth, I think we must assume that one of them (or possibly both) provided false information as to their true age. The service records helpfully provide physical descriptions of each recruit – including height. Alfred (4′ 8″) was the taller of the two Banks Boys, so we might assume that he is shown second from the right in the photograph above, and that Edward (4′ 7″) is first from the left.
Charles Chamberlain served for four years with The Cameronians. He remained with the 1st Battalion for all of his service. On 27th June 1895 he was attested as a Private soldier, presumably on his 18th birthday. Charles found himself in a spot of bother in December 1895 which cost him the forfeiture of his Good Conduct pay. Whatever happened was serious enough to warrant a trial, and in January 1896 Charles was convicted and sentenced to 14 Days imprisonment with Hard Labour for “absence from Defaulter’s parade”. Charles was discharged on 18th January 1896 “in consequence of his services being no longer required”.
The Banks boys both went on to serve in India with the 2nd Scottish Rifles. Edward also saw service in South Africa in the Boer War and was awarded the Queen’s and King’s South Africa Medals. Alfred left the Regiment on 2nd January 1903, after 12 years service. Edward left on 7th June 1904, just short of completing 13 years service.
Ironically, we have less information available to us concerning William Baldock’s 30 plus years of military service than we do for the other three Boys in the photograph. This is because records relating to soldiers still serving after 1921 are currently not publicly available; William’s military records are still be held by the Ministry of Defence.
Colour Serjeant William Baldock, centre, 1908
We do know from William’s entry in the Enlistment Register that he served in South Africa from 1900 – 1904. William features in a group photograph of the 2nd Battalion in 1908, so it is possible that he remained with the 2nd after serving with them in South Africa. In this photograph William wears the rank of Colour Serjeant, a senior non-commissioned rank. The medal ribbons for his Boer War campaign medals can be seen worn above his left-chest pocket.
Since starting this research I have identified William Baldock in a photograph of the Serjeants of the 6th Scottish Rifles, which must date from between 1908 and 1914. The 6th Scottish Rifles was a Territorial Force battalion of The Cameronians, with headquarters in Hamilton.
Colour Serjeant Instructor of Musketry Baldock
It was common procedure for senior figures from the Regular battalions of a regiment (the 1st and 2nd Battalions of The Cameronians) to serve on secondment to the Regiment’s Militia and Territorial Force battalions to assist in training and maintaining high standards of discipline. From the rank insignia displayed on William’s right sleeve, he is serving as the 6th Battalion’s Colour Serjeant Instructor of Musketry at the time this photograph was taken. William’s medal ribbons are also clearly visible in this photograph, consisting of the Queen’s and King’s South Africa Medals, and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
William must have been still serving with the 6th Scottish Rifles when the First World War broke out in August 1914, and it was with this Battalion that he served with overseas in France. By the time of the Battle of Festubert in June 1915, William is the Regimental Serjeant Major of the 6th Scottish Rifles, the highest rank attainable by an enlisted soldier in an infantry battalion. William’s entry in the Enlistment Register records that he was discharged on 31st January 1922, with ‘Exemplary’ character. His address on discharge was given as 261 West Princes Street, Glasgow, then headquarters of the 5th/8th Territorial Battalion of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), which had only recently come into being following the amalgamation of the 5th and 8th Battalions. The regimental magazine for The Cameronians, called The Covenanter, records the occasion of RSM Baldock’s retirement in the March 1922 issue:
5/8th Battalion The Cameronians
The Warrant Officers and Sergeants of the Battalion had a very successful evening on Saturday, 28th January, which took the form of a Supper followed by a Smoking Concert. Major J. Murray Grierson represented the Commanding Officer who was unavoidably absent, and other officers were present. After the supper the chairman (C.S.M. Markwell) presented Sgt.-Major Baldock with a gold watch from the W.Os. and Sergeants as a token of their esteem and regard on his retiral from the regiment. C.S.M. Markwell in his speech before presenting the watch referred to R.S.M. Baldock as the perfect type of Sergeant Major – one who knew both office and parade sides of his work; one whose policy was that of the iron hand in the velvet glove, one who was ever courteous and helpful, yet “regimental” withal. These sentiments were loudly applauded. The watch, a fine enclosed hunter with the regimental crest on the front and in inscription inside the back cover, was then presented. In his reply, R.S.M. Baldock said he was particularly sorry to leave the battalion at the present time when two battalions were being amalgamated, but unfortunately it must be and all he could do was to wish all success to the new battalion…
It’s amazing to think that a simple photograph of four young soldiers, kept for posterity in a regimental photograph album, can provide such a fascinating glimpse into the lives of those shown, and the history of the Regiment in which they served.
