Lancers part 2. Grenfell and de Montmorency

 A bit of an overlap with Part 1.

One of the officers in the newly created 21st Lancers who took part in the "shock action" cavalry charge at Omdurman[1] and awarded a VC for bravery for trying to rescue the mortally wounded Lt Robert Grenfell was Lt Raymond de Montmorency[2][3].

Montmorency would be killed during the Boer War leading an irregular unit he founded, the Montmorency Scouts[4]. In turn, Grenfell’s brother would earn one of the first VCs of the First World War with the 9^th Lancers[5]. Serving in South Africa at the time as Raymond de Montmorency was his cousin, Hervey de Montmorency[6], a member of the irregular Rhodesian Volunteers[7].

Whilst Erskine Childers would be on his yacht Asgard[8] bringing obsolete black powder 1871 Mausers to Howth, County Dublin in 1914, Hervey de Montmorency would take part in the smaller, more secretive landing at Kilcoole in County Wicklow aboard the yacht Chotah[9] owned by Sir Thomas Myles[10].

The forebear of the aforementioned de Montmorency's, Reymond Hervey de Montmorency, was one of those advocating for the introduction of lancers to British service[11], writing an 1820 publication proposing regulations and training for lancers[12]. During the Napoleonic War and prior to a name change, de Montmorency had served as Redmond Morres. Captured in April 1811[13][14], he was apparently able to study the working of Polish or French Lancers (Uhlans/ Chevau-Légers Lanciers). Napoleon had created nine lancer regiments in a Decree issued on the 18^th June 1811[15]; it is not clear which unit de Montmorency would have been able to study.

In 1816, four British light dragoon (mounted infantry) regiments were selected for conversion to lancers with 9^th, 12^th, 16^th and 19th Light Dragoons becoming the 9^th, 12^th, 16^th and 19^th Lancers. The 16^th Lancers would arrive in Dublin in April 1816 and be issued their lances shortly afterwards[16].

A century later, on the 24^th April 1916, a mixed group of 5^th and 12^th Lancers, would be fired on in Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street)[17]. While the Dublin Metropolitan Police were unarmed, the Royal Irish Constabulary during the Rising carried carbines remodelled from Boer war Lee-Enfield and Lee-Metford rifles, declared obsolete by the War Office in 1904. The carbines were upgraded to fit the obsolete 1888 pattern bayonet and fired obsolete .303 Mark VI ammunition.

Sent in to contain the Easter Rising was General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell, a veteran of the Sudan and Boer wars, and relative of the Grenfell brothers[18]. Amongst the modern technology sent to Dublin and available to General Maxwell were a number of Rolls-Royce armoured cars armed with Maxim/Vickers machine guns.

In 1928, shortly after the death of Douglas Haig, lances would finally be taken out of British front line service. Horses would start to disappear too, with the 11^th Hussars and 12^th Lancers being the first cavalry units to be mechanised with armoured cars[19].

A century later, the British Army retains obsolete names with units still carrying the designation lancers and undertaking cosplay with lances[20].

While it seems a good idea to move obsolete military weapons and ammunition to paramilitary police to give a new lease of life to equipment, it does raise the question as to why ammunition deemed too uncivilised to use against your enemies’ soldiers is ok to use against your own civilian population.

Obsolescence did not cause the mounted infantry/dragoons to be re-armed and re-named in 1816 (other units would become lancers later and be renamed too). The British were on the winning side of the Napoleonic wars when they had no lancers in their order of battle.

Like the London tower block that carried forward the Grenfell family name, did the British bolt on a capability that made it look like they were moving forward but actually created more problems than it solved? Not obsolescent, just unnecessary. Could the British have won their subsequent battles and campaigns without lancers?

The British Army is currently running a number of projects to replace some of its aging weapons and it will be interesting to see the outcomes[21]. The Gimpy has now been in service since 1961; beating the 56 years of service of the Vickers machine gun in the British Army (1912-1968).

 

[1] National Army Museum. "The 21st Empress of India's Lancers. A Memento of the Famous Charge at Omdurman Sept 2nd 1898". https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1968-06-7-1.

[2] Government of Canada. "Raymond de Montmorency". https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/people-and-stories/raymond-de-montmorency.

[3] VC and GC Association. "Raymond Harvey Lodge Joseph de Montmorency VC". https://vcgca.org/our-people/profile/1835/Raymond-Harvey-Lodge-Joseph-de-MONTMORENCY.

[4] Anglo-Boer War.com. "Montmorency's Scouts". https://www.angloboerwar.com/unit-information/south-african-units/montmorencys-scouts.

[5] VC and GC Association. “Francis Octavus Grenfell VC”. https://vcgca.org/our-people/profile/179/Francis-Octavus--GRENFELL.

[6] Grant, Robert. "Hervey Guy Francis Edward de Montmorency, DSO". https://theauxiliaries.com/men-alphabetical/men-m/montmorency/montmorency.html.

[7] Anglo-Boer War.com. "Rhodesian Volunteers". https://www.angloboerwar.com/unit-information/south-african-units/rhodesian-volunteers.

[8] National Museum of Ireland. "Asgard: From Gunrunning to Recent Conservation". https://www.museum.ie/en-ie/museums/decorative-arts-history/exhibitions/the-asgard.

[9] Martin, F X. The Howth Gun Running". https://www.rte.ie/documents/news/fx-martin-on-the-howth-gunrunning.pdf.

[10] Grace, Pierce. "Trinity College Dublin Alumni. Sir Thomas Myles (1857-1937), M.B., B.Ch. (1881)". https://www.tcd.ie/medicine/alumni/alumni-stories/thomas-myles/.

[11] British Empire website. "Reymond Hervey de Montmorency". https://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/9thlancersmontmorency.htm.

[12] de Montmorency, Reymond H. "Proposed Rules and Regulations for the Exercise and Maneuvers of the Lance". https://books.google.fr/books?id=bORhAAAAcAAJ&hl=fr&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false.

[13] Brown, Steve. “Register of British Officer Prisoners Held at Verdun 1804-1813”. https://www.napoleon-series.org/military-info/organization/Britain/Miscellaneous/c_POWsatVerdun.html.

[14].Barrett, Charles R B. “History of the XIII. Hussars Volume 1 and Volume 2”. https://archive.org/details/histxiiihussars/Vol1HistXIIIHussars/page/143/mode/2up. p. 143.

[15]. Bukhari, Emir and McBride, Angus. “Napoleon’s Dragoons and Lancers”. p. 18.

[16] Graham, Henry. “History of the Sixteenth, the Queen's, Light Dragoons (Lancers), 1759 to 1912”. https://archive.org/details/history16thlancers/page/n101/mode/2up. p. 67-68.

[17] National Library of Ireland 1916 Exhibition. “Casualties. Insurgents, soldiers, and police. Lancers. Killed, Died of Wounds, or Wounded.” https://www.nli.ie/1916/exhibition/en/content/casualties/insurgents/img/0286.jpg. p. 49.

[18] Dictionary of Irish Biography. “Maxwell, Sir John Grenfell”. https://www.dib.ie/biography/maxwell-sir-john-grenfell-a5532.

[19] Upton, Peter. “The Cherrypickers. 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own) 1715 to 1969”.

[20] UK Ministry of Defence. “The Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeths' Own)”. https://www.army.mod.uk/learn-and-explore/about-the-army/corps-regiments-and-units/royal-armoured-corps/royal-lancers/.

[21] Army Technology. “UK plan to withdraw L7A2 machine gun in 2035”. https://www.army-technology.com/news/uk-plan-to-withdraw-l7a2-machine-gun-in-2035/.