Dublin fusiliers

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 The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as a result of Childers reforms by the amalgamation of the 102^nd Regiment of Foot and the 103rd Regiment of Foot, whose predecessors had been in the service of the East India Company. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the Company’s private armies were transferred to the British Army in 1862. Under the reforms five infantry battalions were given Irish territorial titles and the 102nd and 103rd Regiments of Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers.See Angloboerwar site for an in depth look at the regiment

 

The regiment served the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow and Carlow in Ireland, with its garrison depot located at Naas. Militarily, the whole of Ireland was administered as a separate command within the UK with Command Headquarters at Parkgate Dublin, directly under the War Office in London.

 

The 102^nd, was based in Ceylon when it became the 1st Battalion. It moved back to the UK in 1886, being based in England, before moving to the Curragh in Ireland. It returned to England in 1893, remaining there until the Second Boer War began in South Africa in 1899. It arrived in South Africa in November 1899.

 

After the Boer War the Battalion was based in Crete and Malta, both in the Mediterranean. It was posted to Egypt in 1906, where it later received its Colours at Alexandria by the

Regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief, HRH Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. The 1st Dublin’s later joined the British garrison in India, the then overseas ‘home’ of the British Army, remaining there until the outbreak of war in 1914.

 

When the 103rd became the 2nd Battalion, it was based in England before moving to sunnier climes in 1884, when it was posted to Gibralter. The following year it arrived in Egypt and then moved to India in 1889, being located in a variety of places there. In 1897 the 2nd Dublin’s was based in Natal  where it would still be when the Boer War began in 1899.

 

Upon the conclusion of the war, the 2nd Battalion returned to the UK, being based in Cork, Ireland. It left for Aldershot, England in 1910, where it received its new Colours from the Regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief the following year. It remained in England until war began in 1914.

Boer War

The 1st Battalion sailed on the Bavarian on 10th November 1899, arrived at the Cape about the 28th, and was sent on to Durban. Along with the 1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st

Border Regiment, and 1st Connaught Rangers, they formed the 5th Brigade under Major General Fitzroy Hart.

 

During the actual relief operations, that is, from the beginning of December 1899 to 3rd March 1900, A, B, and C companies of the 1st Battalion were attached to the 2nd Battalion, which actually took the place of the 1st Battalion in the Irish Brigade. During that period the remainder of the 1st Battalion garrisoned Mooi River and other posts on the lines of communication.

 

The 1st Battalion, now united, was at Colenso from 3rd March to 6th May, when they joined Talbot-Coke’s brigade at Elandslaagte and then crossed the Biggarsberg with him.

 

The 2nd battalion was in South Africa when war was declared, and, when Sir George White landed at Durban, was stationed at Glencoe, along with the 1st Leicestershire Regiment, 1st King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 18th Hussars, and the 13th, 67th, and 69th Batteries Royal Field Artillery, under General Penn-Symons. The 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers arrived in time to be also sent to Glencoe, completing an infantry brigade.

 

The Boers declared war on 12 October and invaded Natal and the Cape Colony. On 20 October the 2nd Dublin’s took part in the first major battle of the war, at Talana near Dundee. The Boers had appeared on Talana Hill in the early morning and after they launched a few shells at Dundee, the garrison responded and attacked the hill. The 2nd Dublin’s took part in the attack and, after some fierce fighting, removed the Boers. They suffered heavy casualties in the process, losing, amongst others, Captain Weldon, the first officer of the Dublin’s to be killed in the war. The British had to abandon Dundee soon afterwards, withdrawing to Ladysmith. The Boers besieged the town in late October. On 30 October the garrison’s commander, Sir George Stuart white VC, ordered an attack on Lombards Kop which the Dublin Fusiliers took part in. On the same evening the battalion was “hurriedly entrained” and sent down the line to occupy Fort Wylie and protect the great bridge over the Tugela, but the advancing tide of Boer invasion soon lapped round them and they had to move still farther south.

 

On 15 November 1899, a detachment of Dublin’s and the Durban Light Infantry were garrisoning an armoured train operating from Estcourt with the objective of monitoring Boer movements. The Boers ambushed them on their return and a section of the train was de-railed in the chaos. Among the passengers was Winston Churchill, then a war correspondent accompanying the detachment, who helped load the train engine with wounded before it made an escape attempt, pushing through the de-railed section that blocked its path and making it through safely. The remaining troops put up a stout defence until they were eventually compelled to surrender, including Churchill who had returned to the remaining defenders. Churchill later made a successful escape attempt from his prison in Pretoria. He wrote glowingly of the gallantry displayed by the Dublin Fusiliers and the other troops that were present during the ambush.

 

Before General Buller made his first advance, the 1st Battalion had arrived in Natal as part of the Irish Brigade. In the Colenso despatch list of troops engaged, the 1st Battalion Dublin Fusiliers, is mentioned, but the casualties of the regiment are debited to the 2nd Battalion. The fact seems to be that three companies of the 1st Battalion were added to the 2nd, and thus really both fought at Colenso and the other engagements prior to the relief of Ladysmith. 

At Colenso the Irish Brigade, coming under a very heavy fire before extending, pushed into a loop of the river, where they were subjected to severe fire from the front and both flanks, but remained in position until ordered to retire.

 

In the fighting between 13th and 27th February, the final Breakthrough, Hart’s men were at first near the rail-head, and were brought down to Colenso village on the 20th. On the 23rd Hart attacked the main Boer position with the Inniskillings with the Dublin’s in support.

 

The regiment was transferred to the command of General Barton for the last great effort on the 27th, when Barton attacked and carried the eastern portion of Pieter’s Hill. In addition to the Dublin’s, his troops that day were the Royal Scots Fusiliers and the Royal Irish Fusiliers. The assault reflected credit on every one taking part in it, and gained the praise of

General Buller.

 

After the relief of Ladysmith the two battalions of Dublin Fusiliers were to be separated. The 2nd, which had been fighting constantly, and had suffered terribly from 20th October to 27th February, was taken by sea to Cape Colony in April and remained with General Hart.

 

In May, the British began their advance towards the Transvaal, one of the Boer republics, and early the following month the Dublin’s took part in the effort against Laing’s Nek during the attempt to achieve an entry into the Transvaal. This was successfully achieved and the capital Pretoria, was captured on 5 June. The war, however, did not end and the Boers began a guerrilla campaign against the British. During this phase of the war, many blockhouses were constructed to help restrict the movement of the Boer guerrillas and men of the Dublin Fusiliers helped to garrison them. This phase of the war also saw the Mounted Infantry companies, among which were Dublin Fusiliers MI, in their element, hunting the (now small) groups of Boers. The Dublin Fusiliers also took part in the hunt for Christiaan De Wet, a prominent Boer officer.

 

The last of the Boers surrendered in May 1902, the Treaty of Vereeniging formally ending the conflict. During the war, volunteers from the three Militia battalions of the Dublin’s had been used to provide reinforcements for the two regular battalions fighting in South Africa.

 

The 2nd Dublin’s had left South Africa in January

 

The Dublin’s suffered nearly 700 casualties, killed, wounded and missing, during the conflict, many of whom died of disease, indeed the vast majority of British Army casualties were from disease

 

In the fourteen days’ fighting the Dublin’s losses were 1 officer and 20 men killed, and 6 officers, over 100 men wounded. 

Eight officers and 7 non-commissioned officers and men of the 2nd Battalion were mentioned in General Buller’s despatch of 30th March 1900, 5 of the latter being recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

 

Queen Victoria decreed that a sprig of shamrock be adorned on the headdress of Irish units on St Patrick’s Day to commemorate their actions in South Africa. This tradition remains in existence.