Landships II

James H · Legend

The Legion of Frontiersmen

Centurion · Legend

I do have some info. Strangely enough there is actually a sort of connection with the mining operations at the Messines Ridge. I'll dig this out (no pun intended) and post.

Centurion · Legend

I think this unit may have been part of that formed by John Norton Griffiths Conservative MP for Wednesbury (near Birmingham). Just before the outbreak of war he issued the following advertisment
"With a view to working in unity if duty calls, all Africans, Australians, Canadians or other Britishers who served in either the Matabeleland, Mashonaland or South African War and who are not connected with any existing military or naval organisation and who would be desirous of serving their Empire again are requested to forward their names and addresseses with particulars etc, to Mr.J. Norton Griffiths M.P., 3 Central Buildings Westminster.
Mr Norton Griffiths commanded Scouts in the Matabeleland- Mashonaland war and served in a similar capacity in the Commander In Chief's (Lord Roberts') Heasdquarters staff in the South Arican War"
Several thousand responded and by 7th August 1914 the first unit of 500 men was paraded in London
Kitchener was at first not impressed but was later won round. The battalion was first officially called the Colonial Corps (I've not seen the term Frontiersmen') but later became the 2nd battalion King Edward's Horse.

Norton Griffiths (sometimes nick named Hell Fire Jack) may well have been one of the prototypes for John Buchan's Richard Hannay (39 Steps, Greenmantle, Mr Standfast etc). He had gone out to South Africa as a pennyless young man, had many adventures (some of which echo those in Buchan's novel Prester John)and founded a mining engineering company that made his fortune. He returned to England and founded a civil engineering company specialising in tunneling. At 42 he found himself in Belgium with the rank of major in the Colonial Corps. However as the war bogged down into trench warfare he become frustrated. His firm had worked on a number of sewer construction projects in Manchester and he recognised that the clay sub strata on parts of the Western Front was very similar to that in Manchester. In December 1914 he first suggested that tunneling companies be formed from Manchester clay kickers with the purpose of sinking mines under the German lines. These companies (who called themslves moles) eventually formed the nucleus for the Messines mining operation.

BTW this all reminds me of the only person (as far as I know) to have seen active service in the Matabele War, the South African War, the First World War and the Second World War. S O Solomon. He lied about his age to get into the army as a bugler in the Matebele War, served as an intellegence officer running agents in Boer teritory in the South African War, as an infantry officer and later as an RFC observer in Africa in WW1 (seing action against German colonial forces). He used his RFC service (and lied about his age again) to become an RAF station commander in Britain in WW2 when he insisted on accompaning the crews of his Coastal Command bombers on operational missions, sometimes manning the rear turret of a Wellington. He also made a fortune in the diamond trade in London and Amsterdam.

James H · Legend

Centurion:�The info you give is correct - it was sewer-diggers from Manchester who were the first tunnelers on the Western Front - but it's a different story from the Frontiersmen. This episode is even weirder.

The Legion of Frontiersmen was a body of volunteer horsemen from those parts�of the British Empire where horsemanship was a common skill. In 1904 they were�formed�by an Edwardian "adventurer" called Roger Pocock into a sort of international force dedicated to protecting the interests of the Empire (including keeping an eye out for possible insurrection). They became a sort of brotherhood, keeping in touch even when they moved to other countries. They were used unofficially by the War Office to do a bit of spying, and had many�very famous�men in their ranks - Captain Scott, Captain Oates, Ernest Shackleton, Erskine Childers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ridr Haggard, Jan Smuts, Edgar Wallace, and C. Aubrey Smith, to name but a few - and also attracted some dodgy characters of the type sometimes called "soldiers of fortune". It was very much an organisation of its time.

Shortly before the outbreak, they anticipated trouble with Germany and offered their services to the War Office. Accounts vary as to exactly what happened next. The dates are a bit contradictory and it might or might not have been in response to an appeal for help from King Albert of the Belgians, but what is certain is that about thirty Frontiersmen got together in Manchester. The Legion had an office on Market Street, which Centurion will know well. Forming a platoon, they headed south. Where they got 30 horses from in Manchester, I can't imagine; horses were generally used for pulling coal wagons or ice-cream carts. Anyway, it seems that they did.

Although the dates given range from June to August, they were definitely in Belgium before the BEF had set off for France. One account says that they offered their services to the French, but were turned away. They were certainly accepted by the Belgians, and took an apparently�non-combatant part in the defence of Ostend, being referred to as The British Colonial Horse. They were attached to the Belgian 3rd Regiment of Lancers, under the command of an English speaking Belgian officer. On August 16th, 1914, they saw action against German troops, a week before the BEF's first action at Mons, thus becoming the first British Empire troops to join battle in the War. Two men were wounded.

King Albert visited them and supposedly made them honorary escorts. They are apparently still honoured by the 3rd Lancers to this day.

By 1915, when the Belgian Front had become static, they were tranferred to the British Army and their heroic period was over, but the Frontiersmen still exist, and�I think I did them a disservice by suspecting them of being a bit sinister.

The dress uniform was fascinating, taking elements from throughout the Empire: a blue tunic with stand collar, modelled on the South African Police; a British Sam Browne belt; a Canadian-style stetson, nicknamed a "smasher", like the RCMP hat and similar to the New Zealand lemon-squeezer and the American Montana. The epaulettes were chain-mail!

There are a couple of possibly genuine photos of them, and some film at www.britishpathe.com of the platoon excercising their horses on the sands, probably near Folkestone.

Amazing story, right under my nose, and I'd never heard of it until the twilight of my years.

Paul Bonnett · Hero

The following website has some useful information on the Legion
http://www.legion-of-frontiersmen.net/

HTH
Paul

James H · Legend

Thanks, Paul. I hadn't seen that site. Even there they give two different dates on two different pages for the�landing in�Ostend - June 24th and July 24th.

Another account puts it as late as October, which can't possibly be right.

I've put a call in to the Regional History Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University to see if they know anything about this. It seems that someone in Australia has found out nine of the names of the thirty, so since I'm on the spot I'll see if there's anything in local sources - Parish Registers & so on - that might throw more light on it.

James H · Legend

This is from a Belgian article�that says that the Frontiersmen didn't actually see action until October 16th-18th.

The man in the centre appears to be wearing the dress uniform, on the left is the khaki drill, and the man on the right is wearing a Belgian cavalry tunic, presumably that of the 3rd Lancers.