The Lancers are coming (and going)

This is part 1 of a text put together for a question raised in a course underway on military history re the Boer war and obsolesence. As usual, I have wandered off topic as I follow threads I'm interested in. The topic used the foreword and Chapter 1 of Erskine Childers anti-cavalry book “War and the Arme Blanche” as the starting point. Part 2 is more to the point and will be what I end up handing in.

Following interest in the Polish/French lancers of the Napoleonic Wars, 4 British light dragoon 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 would arrive in Dublin in April 1816 and be issued their lances shortly afterwards[1].

One hundred years later the phrase “The Lancers are Coming” would be heard in Dublin on the opening day of the Easter Rising as Irish Volunteers heading to the General Post Office were caught crossing the street [2].

With a marked change of technology, we have recently seen that the B1 bombers (aka Lancers) of the USAF are now going from UK shores[3]. Meanwhile, long after the retirement of lances, there is still an element of lancer cosplay within the British Army[4], echoing Childers comment about “the stubborn adherence to tradition that they have not had the good sense to abandon”[5].

When the 11^th Hussars and 12^th Lancers put aside their horses in 1928 to become motorized armoured car regiments, they did not follow the 1816 (plus 1858 and 1897) pattern of changing names to reflect their new function but retained their old obsolete names.

Having taken time out from his job at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster to volunteer for service in the 2^nd Anglo-Boer War, Erskine Childers would be a key participant in the 1914 gun running operation, bringing obsolete black powder cartridge firing German 1871 Mauser rifles (aka Howth Mausers) to arm the Irish Volunteers. He would be aligned with others awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal who would be working for Irish independence e.g. Sir Roger Casement and Robert Monteith, and those who had been pro-Boer e.g. Arthur Griffith and John MacBride (commissioned a Major by Paul Kruger 2^nd October 1899[6]). The Fianna Commando would attack the Magazine Fort in Dublin’s Phoenix Park as one of the first actions of the Easter Rising[7]. Boer war veteran Lt Gerald Neilan would be killed leading an element of the 10^th Royal Dublin Fusiliers into Dublin city centre and Boer war cavalry veteran John Walsh and his brother-in-law William O’Neill would be amongst the 16 non-combatants murdered by soldiers of the South Staffordshire Regiment at North King Street[8].

John MacBride[9], commander of the Boer 1^st Irish Brigade, would stand for election as an MP, missing out by a small margin. Arthur Lynch, commander of the Boer 2^nd Irish Brigade would be elected MP for Galway North[10] and arrested on a charge of high treason[11]. The majority of ordinary Irish soldiers on either side of the Boer conflict would not have been eligible to vote in UK elections; ditto those who served in WW1, and in the case of Northern Ireland voting remained out of reach for some of the population/members of the British army until after 1969.

Amongst the first casualties of the Easter Rising shot at using the obsolete “Howth Mausers” were a mixed group of 5^th and 12^th Lancers, fired on in Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) on the 24^th April 1916[12]. While the Dublin Metropolitan Police were generally 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.

Eamon Bulfin, referenced by Desmond Ryan in the item re “The Lancers are Coming”, was a cousin of Boer War veteran General Sir Edward Bulfin[13]. General Bulfin sold his property in Dublin to James and Eoin MacNeill in February 1916[14]. It was from this property that Eoin MacNeill issued countermanding orders trying to stop the Easter Rising[15]. Left behind in South Africa having been mortally wounded at Colesberg on 1^st January1900, was another cousin, Farrier Sergeant John Bulfin of the Rimington Guides[16][17]; formerly no 3157, Corporal Shoeing Smith of the 4^th Dragoon Guards, commemorated on the Boer War Memorial in Uitenhage in South Africa[18].

Eamon Bulfin’s sister Catalina would marry Sean MacBride, son of Major John MacBride.

 

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[1] 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.

[2] RTE 1916. “The Lancers Are Coming”. https://1916.rte.ie/relevant-places/smash-the-windows-you-bloody-fools/.

[3] Gardner, Frank. BBC News. “What prompted the US bombers to leave RAF Fairford?”. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ck87z09xe82qo.

[4] The Royal Lancers. https://theroyallancers.org/.

[5] Childers, Erskine. “War and the Arme Blanche”. p. 3.

[6] Jordan, Anthony J. “Boer War to Easter Rising. The Writings of John MacBride”. p. 15.

[7] O’Neill, Hugo. Bureau of Military History 1913-21, Witness Statement No 1377. https://www.militaryarchives.ie/uploads/bmh/BMH_WS_1377_IO.pdf. p.12.

[8] Irish War Memorials. “North King Street Massacre Memorial #1070”. https://irishwarmemorials.ie/memorial/north-king-street-massacre-memorial-1070/.

[9] Dictionary of Irish Biography. “John MacBride”. https://www.dib.ie/biography/macbride-john-a5108.

[10] Dictionary of Irish Biography. “Arthur Lynch”. https://www.dib.ie/biography/lynch-arthur-alfred-a4931.

[11] Hansard. 12 June 1902 vol 109. “Arrest of Mr. Arthur Lynch, M. P.”. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1902/jun/12/arrest-of-mr-arthur-lynch-m-p.

[12] 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.

[13] Powell, John. “Haig’s Tower of Strength. General Sir Edward Bulfin. Ireland’s Forgotten General”. p.151-153.

[14] Powell. p. 3.

[15] MacNeill, Eoin. “Countermanding Order”. https://www.museum.ie/collections/collection/object-45006/.

[16] Stirling, John. “The Colonials in South Africa 1899-1902”. https://dn790009.ca.archive.org/0/items/colonialsinsouth00stiruoft/colonialsinsouth00stiruoft.pdf.p. 150-160.

[17] Royal Armouries. “Underwood and Underwood Stereoscopic photograph - Remington Scouts enjoying lunch in a Boer home”. https://images.royalarmouries.org/asset/41155/.

[18] Uitenhage War Memorial. https://artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/bldgframes_mob.php?bldgid=12520.