Bermuda Militia Infantry
The Bermuda Militia Infantry | |
---|---|
overseas territory) | |
Branch | Army |
Type | Infantry |
Garrison/HQ | Bermuda Garrison |
The Bermuda Militia Infantry was raised in 1939 as a part-time reserve of the British Army's Bermuda Garrison.
History
The Bermuda Garrison
The
Despite short-lived attempts to raise militias without the aid or funds of the local government, a permanent reserve would not exist 'til the first of the three units authorised in 1892, the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC), was raised in 1894 as a reserve for the regular infantry force (which normally numbered one battalion posted to Prospect Camp. Various battalions were posted to Bermuda, normally for three years at a time. On occasions of heightened tensions, a second infantry battalion was sometimes posted to Bermuda. The BVRC was split into four companies, including three rifle companies and a headquarters company, with the archipelago divided between them into Western, Central, and Eastern areas of operation.
In 1895, the
The third reserve unit, a submarine mining militia meant to operate boats in support of 27th (Submarine Mining) Company, Royal Engineers, which had been assigned to Bermuda in 1888 to maintain and operate underwater mines, was never raised.[4][5][6][7] In 1900 the Royal Engineers Submarine Mining Companies also assumed responsibility for operating electric searchlights defending harbours.
The BVRC restricted its recruitment to whites (initially by recruiting only members of private rifle clubs, as all the Bermudian rifle clubs at that time barred non-white members). The majority of the BMA's recruits were coloured (understood at that time, in Bermuda, as anyone not able to be described as wholly white), but all of its officers were white.[8]
The BVRC and the BMA sent two drafts each to the Western Front during the
By 1939, with war looming, the BMA, with a single battery of coastal artillery, did not allow full use to be made of the available coloured manpower of Bermuda, even with the construction that year of a new battery of two 6-inch guns at Warwick Camp.
The territorial units in Bermuda were mobilised on 3 September 1939, on the declaration of war against Germany by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Serving soldiers were embodied full-time for the duration of the war, and conscription was quickly introduced to add to their numbers. A succession of British Army and Canadian Army battalions were posted to Prospect Camp through the war.
Creation of the Bermuda Militia Infantry
On 6 October 1939, the Bermuda Militia Infantry was created at
In January, 1940, having completed preliminary training, the BMI moved from St. George's Garrison to Warwick Camp for musketry training before returning to St. George's. In February, one platoon moved to St. David's Battery to replace its BVRC guards. The other remained at St. George's. The training the BMI had been given was judged not satisfactory, however, and the entire company was attached to the King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) at Prospect Camp in April, 1940, for six weeks of training. The BMI training with the KSLI ended a week earlier than planned due to the unexpected and secretive deployment of the KSLI detachment to the West Indies. The BMI moved from Prospect Camp to St. David's Island on the 24 May, 1940, occupying a tent camp with two new hutment buildings, each 60 feet long: one divided into two rooms to provide a dining room and canteen; the other into four rooms containing an office, a Quarter Master Sergeant Stores, an officers' mess, and a Permanent Staff mess. Accommodation was in the tents.
The BMI quickly grew, taking over the entire St. David's area of operation from the BVRC in 1940. Lieutenant JTO Redmond, BVRC, returned to his own unit on handing command of the BMI to Lieutenant WW Fuller, BMI, on the 6 June, 1940, and Second-Lieutenant JA Duval was commissioned into the BMI on the same day. In 1941, a platoon was posted near
Overseas Contingent
By 1943, with the German navy no longer able to pose a threat to Bermuda, and the buildup of a US Army garrison to protect not just the US bases, but the entire archipelago, the moratorium was no longer needed. Volunteers from the BMI and BMA were formed into a company to serve overseas. This company, numbering 104 officers and enlistedmen, joined with another of volunteers from the BVRC to form the Training Battalion at Prospect Camp, where they were trained for the
The Bermuda Militia contingent arrived on two ships on the 13th and 23 April 1944, to form the training cadre of the new regiment at Fort Eustis, a US Army base near Williamsburg, Virginia. Under the command of Lt. Colonel H. Wilkin, OBE, MC, they prepared as a training cadre for the arrival of detachments from the West Indian islands, each under its own officers. As most of the West Indians were new recruits, they were tested in Virginia for fitness. Those who had previous training had been prepared for service in the Pacific War. The new regiment numbered 1,200 officers and enlistedmen. The recruits were drawn from all over the British West Indies, mostly from members of local Volunteer Defence Forces. With more experience, and a generally higher degree of education, many of the Bermudian men were made non-commissioned officers and distributed around the regiment. A few officers and non-commissioned officers were also drafted in from British Army units.
The Caribbean Regiment left the USA for
The BMI was split into A Company, under Officer Commanding Acting (paid) Captain (substantive Lieutenant) J.A Duval, and B Company, under Captain W.W. Fuller, in April, 1943, and based at St. David's Battery and Prospect Camp, respectively. The personnel who had did not go abroad with the Contingent in 1944 were collected together in B Company, which remained based at Prospect Camp, and a new A Company was built up from recruits and based at St. David's Battery. A Company took over the guarding of
Disbandment
The Bermuda Militia contingent returned to Bermuda from Egypt aboard the MT Highland Monarch on 5 January, 1946. Soldiers (Sergeants W.H. Outerbridge and H.R. Robinson) from the BMI, along with soldiers from the other Bermudian territorials, marched as a contingent to represent Bermuda in the
The BMI and the BVE, as well as the Home Guard, were all permanently disbanded after the war. "B" Company, BMI, was disbanded on the 27 July, 1945, and its personnel absorbed into "A" Company, which was itself disbanded on the 1 March, 1946, with its personnel absorbed into the BMA's St. David's Battery. The BMA and the BVRC were both reduced to skeleton staffs with their personnel moved onto the Reserve, but were built back up in 1951 through new recruitment. In 1953, the coastal artillery in Bermuda was removed from use. The BMA converted to the infantry role, but was not retitled, and continued to wear the Royal Artillery uniform and cap badge until 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Bermuda Rifles (as the BVRC had been re-titled) to form the
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0-921560-03-6
- ISBN 978-0-921560-00-5
- ISBN 0-921560-11-7
- ^ 27557 Sapper ARCHIBALD LINDSAY, Royal Engineers: 5. ASSIGNMENTS AND CAMPAIGN SERVICE; Halifax and Bermuda (1896-1902). By Lieutenant-Colonel Edward De Santis. 2005
- ^ Submarine Miners Volunteers. By Glyn Davies. Rootsweb.
- ^ Fort Gilkicker website: Fort Monckton and the Submarine Mining Establishment
- ^ Little Bermuda's Precautions: Her Harbour Sown Thickly and Ingeniously with Torpedoes. Daily Alta California, Volume 42, Number 14108, 15 April 1888. California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC). Digital Library Consulting.
- ISBN 0-9696517-1-6
- ^ The Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Great War in France, by Dr. Edward Harris. The Royal Gazette. 2 August 2014
- ^ The Quarterly Army List, DECEMBER, 1946. Corrected generally to 8 October 1946. Volume 1. Page 14. ORDER OF PRECEDENCE OF REGIMENTS, ETC., IN THE ARMY. His Majesty's Stationery Office, London.
- ^ "History of the Bermuda Militia Artillery, by Jennifer Hind (formerly Jennifer Ingham), author of "Defence, Not Defiance: A History of the BVRC"". Archived from the original on 22 October 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ Heritage Matters: Bermuda's losses in the Second World War. By Dr. Edward Cecil Harris. The Royal Gazette.
- ^ "The Bermuda Regiment website: Brief History of the Bermuda Regiment". Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2014.