 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(July 2012) |
The 1919 Southampton mutiny was a mutiny in the British Army which occurred in January 1919 in the aftermath of World War I. The soldiers, after being misinformed that they were being transported to Southampton to be demobilized, were then ordered to board troop ships for France. The mutiny was brought to an end without bloodshed when General Sir Hugh Trenchard threatened lethal force.
On 13 January 1919, around 5,000 soldiers [1] mutinied in Southampton, taking over the docks and refusing to obey orders. [2]
The former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force General Sir Hugh Trenchard arrived in Southampton in mid-January after Sir William Robertson, the Commander-in-Chief of Home Forces asked him to take charge. Trenchard had witnessed mutinies among French troops during World War I, and was quite prepared to be ruthless in his dealings. [3] After speaking to the ineffective camp commandant and sizing up the situation, Trenchard marched out onto the docks and personally issued a loud summons for the men to assemble. He then informed the soldiers that he would hear their grievances but only after they had returned to their duties. This resulted in much heckling and Trenchard almost knocked over by the restless surging crowd. Leaving the scene in some disorder, he decided force would be needed, [4] and arranged for 250 soldiers, including military policemen, to be sent to the docks. Whilst they were en route, Sir Henry Sclater, the General Officer Commanding Southern Command, telephoned Trenchard in the middle of the night, and after hearing Trenchard's plan, insisted that Trenchard must under no circumstances order the security detachment to open fire on the mutineers. Trenchard replied that he was not seeking the G.O.C.'s approval, merely informing him of his intentions. [5]
After the security detachment arrived at the docks, Trenchard spoke to his men, explaining his plan and issuing them with extra ammunition, and ordering them to fix bayonets. The security detachment was then deployed to the open front of the huge customs shed where the mutinying soldiers were gathered. Trenchard ordered the detachment to load and make ready, he then ordered on the mutineers to surrender. In response a sergeant shouted obscenities. Trenchard's military policemen seized the sergeant, none of the sergeant's fellow mutineers resisting in the process. Trenchard re-issued his order for submission, and the crowd gave their assent. [6]
Trenchard spent the rest of the day hearing each man in turn. The majority were prepared to return to France and Trenchard granted such men a conditional discharge from charges of insurrection in military law that they were liable to. He also discovered that they were in fact going to be transported back to France. [7]
Those ring leaders who had been in the customs shed were confined aboard the troop ship. Some other ring leaders were holding out in nearby huts and Trenchard obtained firehoses and had the windows of the huts smashed. The remaining ring leaders were then drenched in ice-cold water and they surrendered, being detained aboard the troop ship. [8]
In August 1919 it was reported in American newspapers that a similar situation involving 300 soldiers of the Berkshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Regiments had occurred in August 1919. They had been on leave in the UK when they refused to board a ship at Southampton to sail to France, where they feared they would be outfitted for battle in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. After airing their grievances the men were marched, under armed escort, back to their rest camp. [9] [10]
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Father of the Royal Air Force."
The Connaught Rangers was an Irish line infantry regiment of the British Army formed by the amalgamation of the 88th Regiment of Foot and the 94th Regiment of Foot in July 1881. Between the time of its formation and Irish independence, it was one of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland. Its home depot was in Galway. It was disbanded following the establishment of the independent Irish Free State in 1922, along with the other five regiments that had their traditional recruiting grounds in the counties of the new state.
HMS Hermione was the lead ship of the Hermione-class, a six-ship class of 32-gun fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 9 September 1782 at Bristol. Hermione was commissioned and then paid off a number of times during the 1780s. She underwent repairs between October 1790 and June 1792, followed by a period spent refitting at Chatham Dockyard until January 1793. She was recommissioned in December 1792 before sailing to the Jamaica in March 1793. Hermione served in the West Indies during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, participating in the British attack on Port-au-Prince, where she led a small squadron that accompanied troop transports.
The Cocos Islands mutiny was a failed mutiny by Sri Lankan soldiers against British officers, on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands on 8 May 1942, during the Second World War.
The 1915 Singapore Mutiny, also known as the 1915 Sepoy Mutiny or the Mutiny of the 5th Light Infantry, was a mutiny involving up to half of a regiment of 850 Indian Muslim sepoys against the British in Singapore during the First World War. The mutiny, on 15 February 1915, lasted nearly seven days. It resulted in the deaths of eight British officers and soldiers, two Malay officers and one soldier, 14 British civilians, five Chinese and Malay civilians and one German internee before it was finally quelled by British forces and Allied naval detachments. More than 205 sepoys were tried by court-martial, and 47 were publicly executed.
The Salerno mutiny occurred during the Second World War and involved about 200 British soldiers who, on 16 September 1943, refused assignment to new units as replacements during the initial stages of the Allied invasion of Italy.
The fifth expedition of the Somaliland campaign, which took place in 1920, was the final British expedition against the Dervish forces. Although the majority of the combat took place in January, British troops had begun preparations for the assault as early as November 1919. The British forces included elements of the Royal Air Force and the Somaliland Camel Corps. After three weeks of battle, Diriye Guure's Dervishes were defeated, bringing an effective end to their 20-year resistance.
Andrew Philip More Boyle was a Scottish journalist and biographer. His biography of Brendan Bracken won the 1974 Whitbread Awards and his book The Climate of Treason exposed Anthony Blunt as the "Fourth Man" in the Cambridge Five Soviet spy ring.
The Southern Nigeria Regiment was a British Colonial Auxiliary Forces regiment which operated in Nigeria in the early part of the 20th century.
Eustace Broke Loraine was a pioneer British aviator and the first Royal Flying Corps officer to be killed in an aircraft crash.
Major-General Sir George Vere Kemball, KCMG, CB, DSO, R.A. (1859–1941) was a British Army officer of the 19th and early 20th century. He was a career officer in the British Army spending most of his career in India and Nigeria.
The Pennsylvania Line Mutiny was a mutiny of Continental Army soldiers, who demanded higher pay and better housing conditions, and was the cause of the legend and stories surrounding the American heroine Tempe Wick. The mutiny began on January 1, 1781, and ended with a negotiated settlement on January 8, 1781. The negotiated terms were finally concluded by January 29, 1781. The mutiny was the most successful and important insurrection of Continental Army soldiers during the American Revolutionary War.
Hugh Trenchard served as Metropolitan Police Commissioner from 1931 to 1935.
Hugh Trenchard was the commander of the Royal Flying Corps in France from 25 August 1915 until 2 January 1918.
Hugh Trenchard saw service in Nigeria from 1903 to 1910 where he was involved in efforts to bring the interior under settled British rule and quell inter-tribal violence. During his time in West Africa, Trenchard commanded the Southern Nigeria Regiment for several years and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
The Pompton Mutiny, also referred to as the Federal Hill Rebellion, was a revolt of Continental Army troops at Pompton Camp in what was then Pompton Township, New Jersey, present-day Bloomingdale, New Jersey, that occurred on January 20, 1781, beneath the command of Colonel Israel Shreve.
The Metropolitan Police Act 1933 was an Act of Parliament initiated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was largely the brainchild of Hugh Trenchard, who served as Metropolitan Police Commissioner from 1931 to 1935.
HMS Lothian, was a former cargo ship launched in 1938, as MV City of Edinburgh, which was requisitioned during the Second World War as a troop transport and later converted by the Royal Navy into a headquarters ship in the Pacific. The ship is notable for a mutiny that occurred onboard whilst docked at Balboa, Panama in September 1944.
Lady Shore was a merchantman launched at Calcutta in 1794. In 1797, she commenced a voyage as a convict ship to Australia until a mutiny cut the voyage short.
The siege of Arrah took place during the Indian Mutiny. It was the eight-day defence of a fortified outbuilding, occupied by a combination of 18 civilians and 50 members of the Bengal Military Police Battalion, against 2,500 to 3,000 mutinying Bengal Native Infantry sepoys from three regiments and an estimated 8,000 men from irregular forces commanded by Kunwar Singh, the local zamindar or chieftain who controlled the Jagdishpur estate.