Take a look at Rotherham's military history...
AFTER glorious scenes when the Yorkshire Regiment was given the Freedom of the Borough two weeks ago, we look at the records from Rotherham's first foray into the armed forces.
The orderly book from Rotherham Rifle Volunteers 1860 - 1876 gives vivid accounts of the corps' activity.
It was founded after a meeting was called in June 1859 by the 'Feoffees (trustees) of the Common Land'.
The platform consisted of local worthies, including coal mine owner, G W Chambers and eminent businessman Matthew Henry Habershon. The bulk of the 80-strong meeting consisted of working-class.
It was proposed by various speakers that the 'younger mechanics of this district be encouraged to learn to shoot tolerably well, and put themselves in as safe a position as possible' in the context of a disciplined corps of men meeting at regular intervals for drill and training.
The 19th West Yorkshire Volunteers (generally known as the Rotherham Rifle Volunteers) was duly set up, with Mr Chambers as commanding officer, and attracted a steady number of willing young men, many of them tradesmen or clerks.
Kimberworth draper Robert Mayor took the rank of sergeant and Westgate-based Arthur Hirst became captain.
"Concerns about the defence of the realm and the state of the British Army are nothing new," said assistant archivist Celia Parker.
"At the end of the 1850s the army was badly depleted by the losses of the Crimean War (1853-1856) and shaken by the Indian Mutiny of 1857."
"The great continental powers, namely France, Prussia and Austria, each had several hundred thousand men under arms, and there were worries that if new wars were to break out in Europe, as they did in the 1860s, Britain might be at a disadvantage."
Celia added: "Rotherham had had a flourishing militia during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century and, of course, during the Second World War the Home Guard, or 'Dad's Army', was intended to fulfil a similar role."
"The strength of the squad in the early years was around 60. It seems to have attracted an interesting range of people, mainly trade and skilled working-class, probably from a mixture of patriotism and enjoyment of parading in uniform and learning to shoot."
"My particular favourite is one of the less steady young men, colour sergeant Joseph Thurgarland, who was dismissed in October 1863 after he had disgraced himself by abandoning a drill at Doncaster to 'parade the Common with a female and dance with her to the music of the band'."
"Then, having been ordered back to the ranks, he absconded a second time to again walk with a female. I do hope it was the same one!"
- The orderly book will be on display from Tuesday 25th August for two months in the Archives and Local Studies searchroom.
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Weather for Dinnington
Thursday 24 May 2012
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