Middlesex Regiment alien labour units

Works Battalions and Alien Companies of the Middlesex Regiment
Works Battalions and Alien Companies of the Middlesex Regiment
	Cap Badge of the Middlesex Regiment as issued during the First World War
Active	1916-1919
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Non-combatant
Role	Labour
Size	2 battalions; 8 independent companies

Last updated November 04, 2024

A number of alien labour units were established in the British Army's Middlesex Regiment during the First World War. The introduction of conscription of British citizens in 1916 led to a dilemma about what to do with the naturalized sons of enemy citizens. An instruction from the Army Council established the 30th and 31st (Works) Battalions of the Middlesex Regiment to take these men. These units would provide labour only and not serve in combat like the Labour Corps but were distinct from it.

The two battalions served only in Britain until 1917 when a shortage of labour led to independent companies being formed to serve in France on the lines of communication. Following the Russian withdrawal from the war, Russian men serving in the British Army were also sent to the units. In total eight companies were formed. There was some criticism in the House of Commons over the decision to deploy the men abroad and the length of time it took to demobilise them after the war.

Background

During the early part of the First World War aliens (i.e. foreign nationals) of hostile states, such as the Central Powers, were relatively unaffected.^[1] The naturalised sons of some of these aliens volunteered, and were accepted, to serve in the British Army.^[2] The rise of anti-German sentiment after the 7 May 1915 sinking of the RMS Lusitania saw the implementation of a general internment programme for aliens from hostile states.^[1]

The introduction of conscription from March 1916 provided a dilemma to the British government. The War Office was reluctant to take conscripted British citizens of enemy parentage into combat units but to exempt them from conscription was likely to lead to anger among other British citizens.^[1] Army Council Instruction 1209 of June 1916 attempted to provide a solution; a non-combatant labour unit was to be established to accept such citizens.^[3]

Establishment

The 30th (Works) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment was the first to be established in August 1916. It was soon filled and a second unit, the 31st (Works) Battalion, was also raised.^[1] Citizens liable to serve were only those who had been born in Britain or brought there before the age of 10 and who had remained resident since that point.^[4] Existing citizens of this type who were already serving in the army were also transferred to the unit, though a later Army Council Instruction provided an exemption at the request of the combat unit's commanding officer.^[2] Those serving as non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were permitted to keep their ranks.^[1] Additional personnel were drawn from Western, Southern and Northern Commands, who were each asked to supply enough officers and NCOs to command one company of each battalion.^[4]

Men serving in the battalions were largely of German, Austrian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Turkish origin.^[2] The only exceptions made were for those of Czech origin whose parents had been exempted from internment. This was because Czechs were generally regarded as unwilling subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and because a Czech Legion was already fighting for the Entente. The War Office declined a Home Office suggestion that interned Czechs should be posted to the units, proposing instead that the Home Office form its own civilian units.^[1]

The two battalions were administered by the Labour Directorate but did not form part of that organisation's Labour Corps, by request of the War Office. The men of the Labour Corps were generally those considered unfit for combat duty while the 30th and 31st battalions were formed of fit men, indeed Brigadier-General Edward Gurth Wace of the Labour Directorate described them as "excellent workers".^[3] The battalions initially provided labour to the Eastern and Southern Commands. The 30th battalion was based initially at Crawley, West Sussex, moving to Reading, Berkshire, in September 1916. The 31st battalion was first based at Mill Hill, London, moving to Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1917 and Reigate, Surrey; Harpenden, Hertfordshire; and Croydon, London, in 1918.^[2]

The unit was the subject of an article in the London Evening Standard in September 1916. A journalist had come across one of the battalions after covering the case of a deserting soldier who had absconded after being posted there. The journalist described it as the "queerest battalion in the British Army". He noted that many serving soldiers were unaware of it and that the parent regiment did not want to be associated with what had been described as a "foreign legion" and nicknamed the "Kaiser's Own".^[5]

Service in France

By early 1917 the British Army was beginning to be hampered by a shortage of labour on the lines of communication leading to the Western Front. The Middlesex works battalions were called upon to provide manpower. Independent labour companies were formed within the regiment, the first of which was the 1st (Alien) Company of four officers and 493 other ranks, which arrived in France on 6 March 1917. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Companies, of similar size, were also sent in the following weeks.^[3] The 30th and 31st battalions remained as formed units in Britain to accommodate men who were unfit to serve abroad and to serve as collecting points for men to be posted to France.^[6]

The companies were organised and equipped on the same basis as the labour companies of the Non-Combatant Corps, but remained under the auspices of the Middlesex Regiment. Particular rules were applied to the alien labour companies; they were not permitted to remain for more than a few days at base depots, with drafts being sent onwards quickly to their destination and separated men prioritised for return to their units or to Britain. Men of the companies were not permitted to transfer to other units without permission of the War Office. The companies could also not be split into small detachments or deployed near sensitive areas.^[3] The men of the units were issued steel helmets on arrival in France.^[6] Because of their supposed split loyalties the unit was nicknamed "The Kaiser's Own" (the Middlesex Regiment was known as the "Duke of Cambridge's Own").^[7]

The decision to deploy the units in France was questioned in Parliament on 8 March by the Liberal Party MP Joseph King and Philip Snowden of the Labour Party. King thought that the men had been promised they would not be deployed abroad "to fight their own kith and kin". The Under-Secretary of State for War, the Liberal Party's Ian Macpherson, replied that no such promise had been made and that the unit was non-combatant in nature.^[8]^[6] King separately claimed that the promise had been made by the former Secretary of State for War Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener and, to the mother of at least one man, by the British Army's director of recruiting. King feared that the men in the labour companies would be shot as traitors if captured in the field. Macpherson replied to King that the order to form the 30th Battalion was made some days after Kitchener had drowned and that no record was found of any promise he made.^[6]

King raised the matter again on 15 March, stating that the men in the units "think in German more than in English ... their conversation is largely carried on in German. They all have German names, they sing together German songs, and though I believe they are loyal subjects of the King and of our cause, undoubtedly they have strong German associations". He noted that many of the men's fathers were interned as enemy aliens and some had brothers or other relatives serving in the armies of the Central Powers. He restated that he had been told the men had been promised they would serve only in Britain and that he had now heard that an NCO of the unit had lost his rank for protesting against their deployment. He asked if the companies then awaiting transport to France would be retained in Britain. Macpherson declined to comment further, referring King to his statements made on 8 March.^[6]^[9]

Following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 1918 which saw the Russian withdrawal from the war, Russians and other aliens whom "it was not desirable to retain with fighting units" were taken out of British military service and sent to labour units. The non-Russians of this category were assigned to the Middlesex alien labour companies, allowing additional units to be formed.^[10] The 5th and 6th Companies were deployed to France in April 1918, the 7th Company in July and the 8th Company in December, after the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended the war.^[3]

Post-war

In February 1919 the war veteran and MP Josiah Wedgwood raised in the House of Commons that the men in the Middlesex alien labour units had been told they would be the last to be demobilised as they were the sons of aliens. The Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, replied that they were being treated the same as other men in the army for eligibility for demobilisation.^[2]

One former member of the Middlesex alien labour units, William Meller (born Wilhelm Moeller) of German and Swiss descent remained in France after the war as a gardener, tending war graves for the Imperial War Graves Commission. He was interned by the Germans after the 1940 Battle of France and died while imprisoned for his British nationality in Nazi Germany in 1942.^[7]

Related Research Articles

The 31st Division was an infantry division of the British Army. It was raised in the Great War by volunteers from Kitchener's Army and formed in April 1915 as part of the K4 Army Group and taken over by the War Office on 10 August 1915. Comprising mainly infantry battalions from Yorkshire and Lancashire, the division was sent to Egypt in December 1915 before moving to France in March 1916 and spent the remainder of the First World War in action on the Western Front. The 31st Division was the quintessential New Army division, being made up entirely of Pals battalions.

The British 30th Division was a New Army division that was originally made up of battalions raised by public subscription or private patronage. The division was taken over by the British War Office in August 1915 and moved to France in December. It served on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War.

The 41st Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised during the First World War as part of Lord Kitchener's New Armies. The division saw service on the Western Front and later on the Italian Front.

The 51st Battalion, Far North Queensland Regiment is an Australian Army Reserve Regional Force Surveillance Unit headquartered at Porton Barracks in Cairns. The battalion's primary role is to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance tasks in support of border security operations. Its area of operations includes the Torres Strait and the Cape York littoral environment. Additional tasks for 51FNQR include the collection and collation of military geographic information as well as community engagement and disaster relief operations.

The South African Overseas Expeditionary Force (SAOEF) was a volunteer military organisation in World War I.

42nd Brigade was an infantry formation of the British Army during both World Wars. It was formed in August 1914 as part of Kitchener's Army, and was assigned to the 14th (Light) Division, serving on the Western Front. It was reformed in World War II for line of communication and deception purposes. As 42 Brigade it became a regional headquarters from 1982 to 2017.

43rd Brigade was an infantry formation of the British Army during both World Wars. It was formed in August 1914 as part of Kitchener's Army and was assigned to the 14th (Light) Division, serving on the Western Front. It was reformed in 1943 as an internal security formation for North Africa and was later employed for deception purposes in Sicily. As 43 (Wessex) Brigade it was a regional headquarters in the UK from 1985 to 2014.

The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966. The regiment was formed, as the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms when the 57th (West Middlesex) and 77th (East Middlesex) Regiments of Foot were amalgamated with the county's militia and rifle volunteer units.

A pioneer is a soldier employed to perform engineering and construction tasks. The term is in principle similar to sapper or combat engineer. Pioneers were originally part of the artillery branch of European armies. Subsequently, they formed part of the engineering branch, the logistic branch, part of the infantry, or even comprised a branch in their own right.

The 39th Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised during the First World War. The division was part of Kitchener's New Armies and saw service on the Western Front and in Italy from 1916 onwards.

The 35th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Originally raised in late 1915 for service during the First World War, the battalion saw service on the Western Front in France and Belgium before being disbanded in 1919. In 1921, it was re-raised in the Newcastle region of New South Wales as a unit of the Citizens Force. It was subsequently amalgamated a number of times during the inter-war years following the Great Depression, firstly with the 33rd Battalion and then the 2nd Battalion, before being re-raised in its own right upon the outbreak of the Second World War. Following this the battalion undertook garrison duties in Australia before being deployed to New Guinea where they took part in the Huon Peninsula campaign. After the end of the war, the 35th Battalion was disbanded in early 1946.

The 26th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Originally raised in April 1915 for service in World War I as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), it was assigned to the 7th Brigade and consisted of personnel recruited from the states of Queensland and Tasmania. The battalion fought at Gallipoli in the latter stages of that campaign before being withdrawn to Egypt in late 1915. In mid-1916, it was sent to Europe where it served in the trenches of the Western Front in France and Belgium for the rest of the war, fighting in most of the battles that the Australians took part in between 1916 and 1918. At the end of the war, it was disbanded in May 1919 as part of the demobilisation of the AIF.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">31st Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment</span> Australian Army infantry battalion

The 31st Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment was a Reserve infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Although it was officially formed as 31 RQR in 1965 the battalion can trace its lineage back to units formed in 1881 as part of the colonial defence forces of the state of Queensland.

The 34th Battalion was an infantry unit of 1st Australian Imperial Force (AIF), which was established in World War I for overseas service. Formed in Australia in 1916, the battalion fought on the Western Front before being disbanded in 1919. It was later re-raised as a part-time infantry battalion in the Illawarra region of New South Wales during the inter-war years. During World War II, the 34th was amalgamated with the 20th Battalion and undertook defensive duties in Australia before being disbanded in 1944. Post war, the 34th was re-formed in the early 1950s before being subsumed into the Royal New South Wales Regiment in 1960.

The 30th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. It was originally formed in 1915 during the First World War as part of the all-volunteer Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and saw service on the Western Front before being disbanded in 1919. It was re-raised in 1921 but was later amalgamated with the 51st Battalion in 1930. In 1935 the two battalions were delinked and the 30th re-raised in its own right. During the Second World War it undertook garrison duties in Australia before undertaking active service in New Guinea in 1944–1945. After the war, it was disbanded in early 1946. In 1948, the battalion was re-raised again and remained on the order of battle until 1960 when it was absorbed into the Royal New South Wales Regiment.

The 48th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. It was originally raised in 1916 for service during World War I and took part in the fighting in the trenches of the Western Front in France and Belgium, before being disbanded in early 1919. After the war, the battalion was re-raised as a part-time unit based initially in Victoria and later in South Australia. In 1930 it was amalgamated with the 43rd Battalion and remained so until late 1939, subsequently being linked with the 10th Battalion in 1942. The battalion did not see combat during World War II, and after the war was re-raised as an amalgamated unit, again with the 43rd Battalion, in 1952. They remained linked until 1960 when the 43rd/48th Battalion was subsumed by the Royal South Australia Regiment.

The 59th Division was an infantry division of the British Army during World War I. It was formed in late 1914/early 1915 as a 2nd Line Territorial Force formation raised as a duplicate of the 46th Division. After training in the United Kingdom and seeing service in the Easter Rising in April 1916, the division joined the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front in early 1917. It saw action at Ypres and Cambrai, and was almost destroyed during the German Army's Spring Offensive in March 1918. The reconstituted division took part in the final advances of the war.

The 142nd Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Territorial Army, part of the British Army, that served in the First and the Second World Wars, and remained in the United Kingdom throughout the latter.

The 121st Brigade was an infantry brigade formation of the British Army during World War I. Part of Lord Kitchener's 'New Armies', it served in the 40th Division on the Western Front. The brigade number was reactivated for deception purposes during World War II.

The 42nd Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Raised as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the First World War, it was established at Enoggera in December 1915, forming part of the 11th Brigade in the 3rd Division. It subsequently served on the Western Front in France and Belgium in 1916–18 before being disbanded on 22 October 1918. In 1921, the battalion was reformed as part of the Citizens Forces becoming known as the 42nd Battalion. Following the outbreak of the Second World War the battalion held a number of training exercises and camps until 1941, before being mobilised in March 1942 as part of the 29th Brigade, in the 5th Division. It subsequently served in New Guinea fighting against the Japanese during 1943–44 and on Bougainville in 1945, before being disbanded on 7 May 1946. In 1948, it was reformed as part of the re-raised Citizens Military Forces. Today, its lineage is perpetuated by the 31st/42nd Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment, a unit which continues to serve in the Australian Army Reserve.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 Messenger, Charles (30 April 2015). Call to Arms: The British Army 1914-18. Orion. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-78022-759-7.
1 2 3 4 5 Starling, John; Lee, Ivor (1 September 2014). No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War. The History Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-7509-5879-0.
1 2 3 4 5 Starling, John; Lee, Ivor (1 September 2014). No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War. The History Press. pp. 113–114. ISBN 978-0-7509-5879-0.
1 2 Bird, J. C. (3 June 2015). Control of Enemy Alien Civilians in Great Britain, 1914-1918 (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. pp. 312–313. ISBN 978-1-317-51316-2.
↑ Emden, Richard van (15 August 2013). Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War. A&C Black. pp. 246–249. ISBN 978-1-4088-3981-2.
1 2 3 4 5 Starling, John; Lee, Ivor (1 September 2014). No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War. The History Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-7509-5879-0.
1 2 DeAngelis, Caitlin Galante (16 January 2024). The Caretakers: War Graves Gardeners and the Secret Battle to Rescue Allied Airmen in World War II. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-63388-900-2.
↑ "Middlesex Regiment, 30th Battalion : Volume 91: debated on Thursday 8 March 1917". Hansard. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
↑ "30th Battalion Middlesex Regiment : Volume 91: debated on Thursday 15 March 1917". Hansard. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
↑ Messenger, Charles (30 April 2015). Call to Arms: The British Army 1914-18. Orion. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-78022-759-7.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[messenger73-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Messenger, Charles (30 April 2015). Call to Arms: The British Army 1914-18. Orion. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-78022-759-7.

[starling45-2] 1 2 3 4 5 Starling, John; Lee, Ivor (1 September 2014). No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War. The History Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-7509-5879-0.

[starling113-3] 1 2 3 4 5 Starling, John; Lee, Ivor (1 September 2014). No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War. The History Press. pp. 113–114. ISBN 978-0-7509-5879-0.

[bird312-4] 1 2 Bird, J. C. (3 June 2015). Control of Enemy Alien Civilians in Great Britain, 1914-1918 (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. pp. 312–313. ISBN 978-1-317-51316-2.

[5] Emden, Richard van (15 August 2013). Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War. A&C Black. pp. 246–249. ISBN 978-1-4088-3981-2.

[starling265-6] 1 2 3 4 5 Starling, John; Lee, Ivor (1 September 2014). No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War. The History Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-7509-5879-0.

[deangelis-7] 1 2 DeAngelis, Caitlin Galante (16 January 2024). The Caretakers: War Graves Gardeners and the Secret Battle to Rescue Allied Airmen in World War II. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-63388-900-2.

[8] "Middlesex Regiment, 30th Battalion : Volume 91: debated on Thursday 8 March 1917". Hansard. Retrieved 26 August 2024.

[9] "30th Battalion Middlesex Regiment : Volume 91: debated on Thursday 15 March 1917". Hansard. Retrieved 26 August 2024.

[10] Messenger, Charles (30 April 2015). Call to Arms: The British Army 1914-18. Orion. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-78022-759-7.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]