The Royal Meath Militia was an Irish Militia regiment in County Meath raised in 1793. It later became a battalion of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians). It saw action during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the Easter Rising in 1916, and trained hundreds of reinforcements during World War I. It was disbanded in 1922.
Background Although there are scattered references to town guards in 1584, no organised militia existed in Ireland before 1660. After that date, some militia forces were organised in the reign of King Charles II but it was not until 1715 that the Irish Militia came under statutory authority. During the 18th Century there were various Volunteer Associations and unofficial militia units controlled by the landowners, concerned mainly with internal security. During the War of American Independence, the threat of invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, appeared to be serious. While most of the Regular Army was fighting overseas, the coasts of England and Wales were defended by the embodied Militia, but Ireland had no equivalent force. The Parliament of Ireland passed a Militia Act, but this failed to create an effective force. However it opened the way for the paramilitary Irish Volunteers to fill the gap. The Volunteers were outside the control of either the parliament or the Dublin Castle administration. When the invasion threat receded they diminished in numbers but remained a political force. On the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War In 1793, the Irish administration passed an effective Militia Act that created an official Irish Militia, while the paramilitary volunteers were essentially banned. The new Act was based on existing English precedents, with the men conscripted by ballot to fill county quotas (paid substitutes were permitted) and the officers having to meet certain property qualifications.Hay, pp. 146–7.McAnally, pp. 1–31.
Royal Meath Militia County Meath was given a quota of 488 men to find, in eight companies, and the Royal Meath Militia was formed. Thomas Taylour, Viscount Headfort, was commissioned as Colonel on 25 April 1793.Frederick, p. 176.Hay, p. 427.McAnally, Appendix VI.War Office, 1805 List.Whitton, Pt I, pp. 464–6. (He succeeded as 2nd Earl of Bective in 1795 and was created Marquess of Headfort in 1800.Burke's: 'Headfort'.)
French Revolutionary War The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars saw the British and Irish militia embodied for a whole generation, becoming regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in Britain or Ireland respectively), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits. They served in coast defences, manned garrisons, guarded prisoners of war, and carried out internal security duties.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255, 411.
The newly-formed Royal Meath Militia left its county in August 1793 and was quartered at Cashel, County Tipperary, later moving to Cork. By late August 1794 it was at Charles Fort.McAnally, Appendix III. The Irish Militia was augmented in 1795, County Meath's quota being increased to 612 men.McAnally, pp. 71–2. In December that year a soldier of the Meath Militia was shot through the head by a woman in Skibbereen, and the men would have sacked the town had not their officers prevented them.McAnally, pp. 84–5.
Anxiety about a possible French invasion grew during the autumn of 1796 and preparations were made for field operations. A large French expeditionary force appeared in Bantry Bay on 21 December and troops from all over Ireland were marched towards the threatened area: the Royal Meath was one of the first to arrive. However, the French fleet was scattered by winter storms, several ships being wrecked, and none of the French troops succeeded in landing; there was no sign of a rising by the United Irishmen. The invasion was called off on 29 December, and the troop concentration was dispersed in early 1797. The Royal Meaths went to Youghal and Waterford. At the same time the Light companies were detached to join composite battalions drawn from several militia regiments; the Meath company joined 2nd Light Battalion. When the militiamen of 1793 reached the end of their four-year enlistment in 1797, most of the Irish regiments were able to maintain their numbers through re-enlistments (for a bounty). At the time of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 the strength of the militia was boosted by further re-enlistments and recruiting for bounty rather than the ballot.McAnally, pp. 96–108, 121–6.Richey, Appendix IV.
Irish Rebellion On the outbreak of the Rebellion the Royal Meaths were sent to relieve Wexford. A company escorting a train of artillery was ambushed by the United Irishmen and cut up at the First Action at Forth Mountain (or Battle of Three Rocks) on 30 May. The captain and two subalterns, four sergeants and 94 privates of the regiment and gunners were killed and the guns were captured by the rebels, who drove off a second advance that afternoon. However, the Royal Meaths were part of the successful Defence of New Ross on 5 June, the decisive Battle of Vinegar Hill on 21 June, which broke the back of the rebellion, and possibly at Fox's Hill on 29 June or Foulkesmill on 20 June.McAnnaly, Appendix VIII.'The Battle of Three Rocks and the Capture of Wexford, 1798', The Irish at War.'Historic Importance of the Battle of Three Rocks in Wexford Underlined at 225th Commemoration', Irish Independent 14 June 2023.
In 1799 the regiment moved into Connaught and was quartered at Castlebar. Thomas Pepper became the regiment's Lieutenant-Colonel on 14 June that year, and the acting commanding officer (CO) in the absence of the colonel on other duties. Pepper held the position for nearly 50 years. In 1801 the regiment was granted a supernumerary lieutenant-colonel and a second major, leading to a number of promotions.
With the diminishing threat of invasion after 1799, the strength of the militia could be reduced, and the surplus men were encouraged to volunteer for regiments of the line.McAnally, pp. 149–53. By the end of 1801 peace negotiations with the French were progressing and recruiting and re-enlistment for the Irish Militia was stopped in October. The men received the new clothing they were due on 25 December, but the Treaty of Amiens was signed in March 1802 when the regiment was disembodied. The men were paid off at Kells on 16 March, leaving only the permanent staff of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and drummers under the regimental adjutant.McAnally, pp. 164–72.
Napoleonic Wars The Peace of Amiens was short-lived, and preparations to re-embody the Irish Militia began in November 1802. By March 1803 most of the regiments had been ordered to enlist men, a process that was aided by the number of previous militiamen who re-enlisted. Britain declared war on France on 18 May 1803 and the warrant to embody the Irish Militia was issued the next day. The light companies were once again detached to form composite light battalions, but these were discontinued in 1806.McAnally, pp. 172–80.
Over the following years the regiments carried out garrison duties at various towns across Ireland, attended summer training camps, and reacted to various invasion scares, none of which materialised. They also provided volunteers to transfer to the regular army. In 1805 the militia establishment was raised to allow for this.McAnally, pp. 180–94.
Trouble arose in the Irish Militia in 1807–08 over the men enlisted or re-enlisted in 1803. Many were under the impression that they had signed up for five years and would gain their discharge during 1808, whereas their attestation was for five years 'or for such further time as the militia shall be embodied', but the situation was confused by additional wording in the oath. Many regiments came close to mutiny over the issue, which was put to the law officers. The situation in the Royal Meath was worse: it was discovered that the form of the oath they had taken was not as laid down by the Militia Acts. The colonel, the Marquess of Headfort, was ordered back from London to rejoin his regiment and negotiate a settlement. He claimed a 'severe Rhumatic (sic) attack' and declined to travel to Ireland. However, he offered personally to pay two guineas (£2.10) to compensate each man in the regiment who was affected, and this gratuity encouraged 90 men to re-enlist, while 20 had volunteered for the regulars, leaving only 20 cases unsettled. Volunteering for the Line began on 1 October 1807, and proceeded briskly. The ballot was then used to refill the depleted ranks of the militia regiments, though most counties were able to obtain enough volunteers. Only one parish in Meath held a ballot, and that was not enforced.McAnnaly, pp. 210–27; Appendix IX.
In July 1811 an 'Interchange Act' was passed and Irish Militia regiments were invited to volunteer for up to two years' service anywhere in the United Kingdom, exchanging with English and Scottish units. The Royal Meath was one of the regiments that volunteered, and on 26 January 1812 it embarked from Cork, where it had been stationed since 1810, and landed at Harwich, proceeding to quarters in Ipswich. Later it served at Chelmsford and Bristol.McAnally, pp. 242–50. From November 1812 to April 1813 the regiment carried out guard duty at the large Prisoner-of-war camp at Norman Cross Prison.Chamberlain, pp. 50–3.
Napoleon abdicated in April 1814. With the end of the war most Irish Militia regiments returned to their home counties to be disembodied, the Royal Meath regiment doing so at Kells on 1 August. The regiment was called out again in May 1815 during the brief Waterloo campaign and its aftermath. The order to stand down finally arrived early in 1816.McAnally, pp. 256–64.
Long Peace After Waterloo there was a long peace. Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots might still held, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and the permanent staffs of militia regiments were progressively reduced.Hay, p. 154. On 7 April 1823 Thomas Taylour, Earl of Bective followed his father the Marquess of Headfort as colonel of the Royal Meath Militia. Lieutenant-Col Pepper was finally succeeded on 12 December 1846 by Thomas Edward Taylor, a kinsman of the Marquesses of Headfort and former captain in the 6th Dragoon Guards. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for County Dublin.Hart's, various dates.Sleigh, p. 158.
1852 Reforms The Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act 1852, enacted during a renewed period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on a county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment (although conscription by means of the Militia Ballot might be used if the counties failed to meet their quotas). Training was for 56 days on enlistment, then for 21–28 days per year, during which the men received full army pay. Under the Act, Militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances:Dunlop, pp. 42–5.Hay, pp. 155–6.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 91–2. 'Whenever a state of war exists between Her Majesty and any foreign power'. 'In all cases of invasion or upon imminent danger thereof'. 'In all cases of rebellion or insurrection'.
The Royal Meath Militia was revived. The rank of colonel in the militia disappeared after the 1852 Act and the positions of Honorary Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant were created. In the Royal Meath these continued to be filled by the 2nd Marquess of Headfort and Thomas Taylor, but a large number of new officers were commissioned.Army List, various dates.
Crimean War and after