Liverpool regiment
The history of the Regiment
The King’s Regiment (Liverpool) was one of the oldest infantry regiments of the British Army, having been formed in 1685 and numbered as the 8th Kings Regiment of Foot in 1751. Unlike most British infantry regiments, which were associated with a county, the King’s represented the City of Liverpool, one of only four regiments affiliated to a city in the British Army After 273 years of continuous existence, the regiment was amalgamated with the Manchester’s in 1958.
The Cardwell reforms and Childers reforms from the 1860s to the 1880s substantially reorganised the British Army. Childers reforms principally entailed single battalion regiments amalgamating to form regiments of multiple battalions. Though the King’s were not amalgamated, the regiment had to adopt a new title because of the numbering system’s abolition. Thus, on 1 July 1881, the two battalions of the 8th (The King’s) Regiment of Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions, The King’s (Liverpool Regiment). The 8th Foot had been associated with Liverpool since 1873, when the regiment became allocated to the 13th Brigade Depot in Liverpool. Regular regiments gained auxiliary battalions through the integration of the militia and volunteers, of which nine from Lancashire and the Isle of Man transferred to the King’s and ultimately became part of the Special Reserve and Territorial Force. The battalions retained distinctions such as unique titles, cap badges, uniforms, and honorary colonels. Of these, the most overtly individual were the Liverpool Rifles (6th Btn), Liverpool Irish (8th Btn), and Liverpool Scottish (10th Btn).
Under the new system, it was envisaged that one regular battalion would be based in the United Kingdom and one overseas. The 1st Battalion had been located in North West England since the late 1870s. While based in Salford Barracks, the battalion became the first target of a bombing campaign instigated by the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1881. The barracks sustained only minor structural damage from the explosion, which killed a child and badly wounded its mother. Soon afterwards, riots broke out during mineworkers’ strikes which required the intervention of the battalion and other units to quell the disorder. In 1882, the battalion moved to Ireland, based in the Curragh. During the otherwise uneventful posting, the 1st responded to sectarian riots in Belfast that coincided with the introduction of the 1886 Home Rule Bill in the British parliament. The battalion returned to England three years later.
The 2nd King’s had been on the Indian subcontinent since 1877 and had fought in the Second Afghan War. The Third Burmese War would punctuate the battalion’s overseas service in the 1880s. Intent on deposing Upper Burma’s King Thibaw and imposing imperial rule, Britain issued an ultimatum consisting of demands that were rejected as anticipated. Invasion then began in November 1885 in the form of the Burma Field Force, which progressed up the Irrawaddy River via transports, enabling the rapid capture of frontier forts and the capital Mandalay. After the capital’s seizure, the battalion provided an escort that oversaw the exile of Thibaw. A guerrilla campaign against the British followed the completion of Upper Burma’s annexation on 1 January 1886, lasting for at least five years. For more than a year, the King’s operated in small groups pursuing guerrillas in the Burmese jungle. Casualties numbered 12 officers and 256 men by the time the battalion had returned to India. The battalion moved to Aden for a year and left for Britain in 1892. Overseas service for the 1st King’s included a two-year residence in Nova Scotia, becoming the last battalion of the regiment to garrison Canada. The battalion subsequently became stationed in the West Indies in 1895, then Natal Colony in 1897. The Second Boer war began two years later.
The Boer War
Prior to the outbreak of the war, as relations between the British and Boer republics deteriorated, the 1st King’s formed a company of mounted infantry and underwent intensive training at Ladysmith. War was declared on 11 October and Natal was invaded by a Boer force under General Piet Joubert. General George White held authority over 13,000 British personnel dispersed throughout Natal. Heavy losses were incurred by the British in the first major engagements of the war, at Talana Hill and Elandslaagte. Retreat to Ladysmith ensued, where the largest British contingent was concentrated. Having besieged Kimberley and Mafekeng, Boers converged upon Ladysmith and positioned artillery pieces on surrounding hills overlooking the town.
On 30 October, General White ordered an attack on northern Boer positions. White’s plans were described as vague, ambitious, and complicated, and the battle proved a disaster that became known to the British as “Mournful Monday”. The 1st King’s were allocated to Colonel Grimwood’s column, which intended to advance on and secure Long Hill, believed to constitute the Boer’s left flank. Unbeknownst to Grimwood, almost half of the brigade separated from the column during the night march while following a rightward deviation by the artillery batteries, including the oblivious 1st King’s and Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In the morning light, the brigade discovered that its right flank was exposed by the distance of John French’s cavalry and that Long Hill was unoccupied. Grimwood and French’s men became pinned down by heavy rifle and artillery fire. Amidst rumours of an attack against the town being imminent and failure evident, White ordered the column to retreat at noon. The artillery provided cover during the chaos that followed and prevented greater loss of life. To the north-west of Long Hill, at Nicholson’s Nek, the Boers took more than 1,000 soldiers prisoner.
The Boers enclosed Ladysmith on 2 November, beginning a 118 day siege. The King’s, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Llewelyn Mellor, became assigned to the north-eastern defensive sector under Colonel Knox, a disciplinarian who instituted a programme of fortification development in his area. Construction of the defences occurred mostly at night, although rain, oppressive heat, and cold limited the opportunity to rest.
On the night of the 7th December Colonel Mellor and three companies of the Liverpool’s seized Limit Hill and, through the gap thus created, a squadron of the 19th Hussars penetrated some four miles to the north, destroying the enemy’s telegraph line and burning various shelters, etc.
On 6 January, the King’s mounted infantry helped repulse a Boer attempt to penetrate the southern perimeter.
By late January, the scarcity of supplies had become particularly acute. Disease pervaded while the town resorted to consuming the garrison’s horses and mules.
Reinforcements began to arrive in South Africa in November under General Redvers Buller. The relief of the three besieged garrisons became the general’s priority. He divided his corps and assumed personal command of the Ladysmith expedition. The effort to relieve them was hindered by three successive defeats in December, termed by the British as “Black Week”, and further reverses in January and early February. The siege of Ladysmith ended on 28 February.
On 1st March 1900, the day of the relief, the 1st Liverpool’s and other troops, now emaciated and worn to absolute weakness, crawled some five miles north of Ladysmith to harass the enemy in their retreat, and did effect some good work in that way.
Two officers were mentioned in General White’s despatch of 23rd March 1900.
While its mounted infantry were absorbed by an MI battalion, the King’s gained a company of volunteers.
Britain eventually extended its prosecution of the war into the territory of the Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic. On 21 August, at Van Wyk’s Vlei, Sergeant Hampton and Corporal Knight held their positions and evacuated wounded mounted Kingsmen under heavy fire, for which they received the Victoria Cross. Two days later, Boer forces attacked the 1st Battalion while it was at the forefront of an advance south of Dalmanutha. The protracted engagement ended when the King’s were ordered to withdraw, having almost expended their ammunition and incurred losses. Casualties exceeded 70, while Private Heaton earned the Victoria Cross.
The nominal annexation of the Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic in May and September did not resolve the war. Instead, the Boer commandos transitioned to guerrilla warfare and resisted the British until 1902. The King’s concentrated in the Eastern Transvaal, where Boers under Botha and Viljoen operated. Detachments occupied networks of Blockhouses and provided complements for armoured trains. One such detachment was overwhelmed at Helvetia on 29 December. Situated near the Lydenburg-Machadadorp railway, Helvetia was garrisoned primarily by a contingent of the King’s equipped with a 4.7 gun nicknamed “Lady Roberts”. The nocturnal attack, conducted in fog, yielded considerable success for the Boers with scores of prisoners taken and the gun captured. Only King’s Kopje withstood the attack. The circumstances were controversial and a general court-martial later sentenced Major Stapleton Cotton, who ordered the surrender, to be cashiered and dismissed from the army. Author Arthur Conan Doyle publicly questioned the decision and contended that the wounds Major Cotton sustained merited “some revision” of the officer’s sentence.
The Boer War provided the first opportunity for the regiment’s volunteer battalions to serve overseas with regular forces, supplying individual detachments and service companies. The militia battalions, numbered the 5th and 6th during the war, contrastingly deployed to South Africa intact late in the conflict. A memorial sculpted by William Goscombe John to commemorate the regiment’s service in Afghanistan, Burma, and South Africa was erected in St.John’s Gardens, Liverpool and unveiled by Field Marshal Sir George White on 9 September 1905.
In 1958 the Regiment was amalgamated with the Manchester Regiment to form the present King’s regiment.
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