Inniskilling fusiliers

The mobilisation of the 1^st Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers, or The 27^th Regiment as they still liked to be known, was completed by 19^th October 1899. Five days later, at midnight, the Battalion entrained at Mullinger, Ireland, escorted to the station by enthusiastic crowds carrying torches made of turf and soaked in paraffin oil. Five hours later the Inniskilling’s arrived at Queenstown with fifty-five sergeants, nine hundred and sixteen rank and file and twenty nine officers. The regiment, along with others, embarked on the SS Catalonia and by 4 pm. On November 5^th the ship got under way.  

By noon, on November 30^th the ship was anchored in Table Bay Cape Town. However on hearing the news that owing to the activity of the Boers in Natal, the Brigade was ordered to the eastern theatre of war. Early on December 5^th the Catalonia reached Durban. No time was lost in the disembarkation and about nine hours after docking the Battalion was on it’s way up country to the little village of Frere, reaching there on the 6^th.  

On the morning of December 13^th, orders were received for an advance northward along the railway line. In four hours they had reached the new camping ground, north of Chieveley station.

The 5^th Brigade was roused at 2.30 am, and after striking tents, packing wagons and swallowing a mouthful of food, they were ready. The men marched as light as possible carrying no greatcoats or mess tins; officers left their swords behind as it was thought that these gave the enemy a good target to shoot at.

The 5^th Brigade was to be deployed to the west of Colenso, to attack the Boers on the northern side of the Tugela. Having moved well into the Loop the Irish regiments were out in the open and at the mercy of the Boer shelling and long-range rifle fire.

Although part of the ‘Spionkop’ battle they were not involved on the actual mountain consequently their losses were minimal. At Vaalkrantz they were again not directly involved but, with the final push or Breakthrough, they were very involved in the front line along with the other Irish regiments, all sustaining heavy losses.

Buller now moved the bulk of his forces back to Chieveley to re-think his plan to relieve Ladysmith. Here the Inniskilling’s remained until 20th February, after Monte Cristo and Hlangwane had been captured, then the 5^th. Brigade moved Colenso, occupying the village. On the 22nd they moved to Wynne Hill where the Inniskilling’s took some casualties. On the 23^rd. in the afternoon, the Regiment attacked what is now known as Hart’s Hill, which was strongly fortified by the Boers but which the Inniskilling’s took and held, with heavy casualties

The Inniskilling Fusiliers were the front line, supported by the Connaught Rangers, Dublins and the Imperial Light Infantry.  In the face of a murderous fire, the attackers stood little chance of success and, as darkness fell they had to retire near the foot of the hill.  The dead and wounded were left where they lay, it being impossible to retrieve them. An armistice was agreed on the 25th when these unfortunates were brought in!

The losses in the attack were appalling.  The Inniskilling Fusiliers lost the gallant Colonel Thackeray, Major Sanders, and Lieutenant Stuart killed, 8 officers wounded, and about 54 men killed and 165 wounded.  Altogether the brigade’s losses were even heavier than at Colenso on 15th December.

Ladysmith being relieved, the battalion got some time to recuperate and gather strength from the drafts it so badly needed.  When General Buller moved north from the Natal-Pretoria Railway towards Belfast on the Delagoa line, he took with him the Ladysmith garrison and the Inniskilling Fusiliers, who replaced the 2nd King’s Royal Rifles, sent to Ceylon.

In 1922 the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (27^th) voluntarily gave up their 2^nd Battalion so as to enable the Royal Irish Fusiliers (87^th) to avoid disbandment and to continue to serve in the British Army as a single Regular Battalion.