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From Royal Marines 1664 to present.
Marines were the first British corps to live in regular barracks, and also to have fixed headquarters. Stability when ashore was something afforded to them by virtue of their connection to the Navy.
Since Stuart times, Marines had been associated with Navy dockyards. There was a company of the Admiral's Regiment living in a "Blocus" at Chatham in 1665, with three companies residing at Plymouth in 1667, and three others at Portsmouth in 1672.
Even before the formation of the Corps, Marines were permitted to work in the Dockyards for "the encouragement of a sixpence a day"1, when there was a shortage of other suitable labour. After 1755, there was a provision for Marines to work in the dockyards when they were not required for duty at sea, "and have such allowance for the same as shall appear reasonable".2 This sixpence was paid by the Clerk of the Cheque without any deduction.
There was no extra pay for guarding the Dockyards, however, despite that duty being potentially dangerous. Orders were given to Marine sentries to fire on rioters if the latter threatened the Dockyard, during the Portsmouth shipwrights' strike in 1743. There was further trouble with shipwrights in 1768, over the use of timber off-cuts for firewood:
In wartime, Marines were too valuable to spared for such duties and were invariably ordered to sea or to guardships. During the 1745 Jacobite rising, a rebuke was given to Admiral Vernon for not releasing Marines from guard duties, for they could be "employed much more usefully to His Majesty's Service in serving on board his men of war for which immediate purpose they were raised, and not to garrison untenable old castles".4 In 1778, Admiral Keppel removed 150 Marines from duty at Haslar Hospital and Forton Jail, and sent them to the Channel Fleet.
Living arrangements for Marines did not immediately change after 1755, though. Marines lived in small groups, usually of six to eight men, in the places allowed under the Mutiny Acts: "Inns, Livery Stables, Ale-Houses, Victualling Houses and all houses of persons selling Brandy, Strong Waters, Cyder or Metheglin". These arrangements, naturally, lent themselves to many instances of drunkenness and indiscipline.
Until the opening of barracks in the three Divsions' towns, there was a great deal of trouble in each. Rochester found itself filled with Marines, being overflow from Chatham Division, "to the great distress of the inhabitants"5. Portsmouth had a terrible reputation until 20th May, 1765, when the first Marine barracks opened there. Chatham and Plymouth did not acquire their own barracks until 1780 and 1781, respectively.
Being now in a settled existence allowed for officers such as Mackenzie, at Chatham, and Collins, at Plymouth, to bring about a system of order to those Divisions:
Living in fixed barracks meant abiding by a particular set of regulations, including the one requiring officers living in barracks to wear uniform at all times. This was tested by one Marine subaltern, who refused Colonel Mackenzie entry owing to the colonel's wearing a blue coat, rather than red. There were Printed Instructions in every barrack room, to remind each Marine of his duty. Further, Colonels Commandant issued many orders addressing the novel circumstances of barracks life: issuance of pewter chamber pots "to prevent a nuisance in the Barracks", window cleaning, unauthorised Scaling or going over the Walls", and sentries who damaged their sentry boxes "by carving Names, and making holes with their bayonets".
In each Division, barrack women were employed to wash clothes and clean bedsteads with hot water, soap, and sand, "to destroy as much as possible Bugs and other Vermin, breeding in the Crevices or Joints". Emphasis was on hygiene, the same as it was aboard ship:
Similar attention was paid to the practise of cohabitation:
Officers doing duty at night were reminded "particularly to enquire that no other women lye in the Men's Rooms, except those who are publickly appointed to that Business", though the precise nature of that business wasn't specified.8
Barracks life had its advantages, however. Discipline ashore was more regular and allowed for less arbitrary brutality than when at sea. In the 1750s, the Colonel Commandant at Chatham wrote that "the Men are struck and beat notwithstanding former orders to the contrary, he repeats that no Man be struck with Hand or Stick on any account whatsoever".9
O'Loughlen adds to this, stating "Soldiers of a Patriot King who fight the Battles of their country, ought not to be treated like Slaves at the Option of hot-headed individuals".10
It helped that Marines were encouraged to manage their own behaviour, with such incentives as excusing able, steady men from drill, excepting twice-weekly field days, and allowing leave to those who met the uniform regulations, wearing their hat properly cocked and their queue exactly eighteen inches long.
The process of handling Marines' complaints were also regulated: "Whenever any complaint is made, it may be stated by one man accompanied by a non-commissioned officer - if the grounds are just, redress shall be given".11
The disciplinary process was also attended to. When John Howe fell asleep on sentry duty, being still new to the Corps, his sentence of three hundred lashes was pardoned by the commanding officer after his sergeant and sergeant-major gave him a good character, staring Howe was "a remarkable Clean Tractable Lad that gave no trouble to any Person" who "Learned his exercise faster than any he had observed a long time for he had been five days in the first Squad, tho only a fortnight in the Division".12
Unfortunately, Howe found himself under punishment later, for selling his own and other people's clothing.
Another Marine was unusually fortunate to escape both a flogging and drowning. While on sentry duty on Southsea beach, William Dew was treated to a drink by a smuggling acquaintance. The next day he was rescued from the middle of Spithead, still in his sentry box, and "unable to give any coherent account of how he got on the Mother Bank". His colonel was unwilling to flog a recruit, and scarcely able to stop laughing, and suggested to Dew that he volunteer for the First Fleet in order to avoid the triangle.13
Flogging was not given to all offences, however. Less serious infractions merited less terrible punishments. Men who did not shave and shift their clothing on Sunday and Thursday had their grog stopped. One untidy Marine in Bermuda was sent aboard ship, where he was kept at hard labour for "being a disgrace to the Battalion". Drinking was the cause of most misbehaviour. In 1797, the captain of Queen Charlotte complained about "the incorrigible drunkenness and irregularity of several of the Marines of this ship... the Centinels get drunk on their posts and the guard are equally criminal". He pondered the question of their being removed, with this being preferable "to such incessant punishment as must follow unless I suffer the discipline of the ship to be entirely subverted".14
Major George Lewis RM expressed displeasure at the "disgusting scenes of drunkenness which took place" after his battalion's arrival in Bermuda. His expectation was that his NCOs should set an example of sobriety for the men, "without which a Body of men becomes a rabble, a disgrace to themselves and to the Country which gave them birth". NCOs frequently lost their stripes for the offence of drunkenness, but later were restored to their previous rank. Major Lewis also demoted a corporal, "being subject to fits and therefore unqualified for an NCO".15
Life for Marines ashore was not all drink and punishment, however. The three Grand Divisions allowed for concentration of personnel, and therefore excellent opportunities for training. In peacetime, the Marine Divisions could form a full battalion of ten parade companies, including Grenadiers and Light Infantry. Twice daily drills and twice weekly field days brought recruits up to standard fairly quickly.
When he joined his Division in 1799, Richard Swale visited a captain he had previously met in London:
Being thoroughly trained was a necessity for Marine officers, who would have to depend on their own resources when they went to sea. Fears arose in the 1780s, during wartime expansion, that "those who stand first on the Roster for Sea Duty, and Service, may not be so well qualified for separate commands, as others lower down". In response, two majors were appointed to "examine into the military abilities of those officers and report their opinion to the Commanding Officer".
The variance in the demand for drafts of men to go to sea made it difficult to judge who would go to sea when. In April 1783, there were three drafts sent from Chatham, totalling 103 all ranks, whereas in May, the following month, there were fifteen drafts, totalling 383 all ranks. Such demands were met promptly, according to Standing Orders: "The two Captains and three subalterns first for Sea Duty, not to be Detached from Headquarters for more than 48 hours till ordered for embarkation".
The policy for drafting was tolerably kindly, choosing Marines with the least sea time, or the most debts, and requiring that they be properly trained and equipped:
This was significant progress since 1711, when Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker had personally check that "every man at his coming aboard is provided with arms and all necessary accoutrements" and Colonel Bor's men pursued HMS Devonshire down the Solent in a small boat in order to join her.18
1 - Edye, p. 576
2 - RM, Extract From His Majesty's Order in Council dated 3rd April 1755
3 - Gen. Sir H. Blumberg & Col. C. Field, Random Records of the Royal Marines, p. 26
4 - Brian Ranfft, Vernon Papers, p. 511, 4 Nov 1745, Admiralty/Vernon
5 - RR, p. 205
6 - RM 11/45/3, 10 Sept 1783
7 - RM 11/31/2, 15 Nov 1779
8 - RM 11/31/2, 31 May 1781 & 9 Oct 1781
9 - RM 11/31/2, 10 Sept 1757
10 - O'Loghlen, p. 116
11 - RM 7/7/13, Order Book 3rd Battalion, 1 Aug 1814
12 - Howe, n.d. 1778
13 - L. Becke & W. Jeffery, A First Fleet Family... from the Papers of Sgt William Dew of the Marines (Fisher Unwin, 1896), pp. 43-4
14 - Perrin, Keith Papers ii, p. 28, 20 Nov 1797, Capt. J. Elphinstone-Keith
15 - RM 7/7/13, Order Book, 8 Apr, 9 Jun, 22 Jun, & 28 Sept 1814
16 - RM 11/13/091, Swale, n.d. 1799
17 - RM 11/31/2, 3 Nov 1780 & 28 Nov 1780; RM 11/45/3, 18 Nov 1783
18 - Edye MSS/XI, 26 Mar 1711, Admiralty/Adm. H. Walker
Marines were the first British corps to live in regular barracks, and also to have fixed headquarters. Stability when ashore was something afforded to them by virtue of their connection to the Navy.
Since Stuart times, Marines had been associated with Navy dockyards. There was a company of the Admiral's Regiment living in a "Blocus" at Chatham in 1665, with three companies residing at Plymouth in 1667, and three others at Portsmouth in 1672.
Even before the formation of the Corps, Marines were permitted to work in the Dockyards for "the encouragement of a sixpence a day"1, when there was a shortage of other suitable labour. After 1755, there was a provision for Marines to work in the dockyards when they were not required for duty at sea, "and have such allowance for the same as shall appear reasonable".2 This sixpence was paid by the Clerk of the Cheque without any deduction.
There was no extra pay for guarding the Dockyards, however, despite that duty being potentially dangerous. Orders were given to Marine sentries to fire on rioters if the latter threatened the Dockyard, during the Portsmouth shipwrights' strike in 1743. There was further trouble with shipwrights in 1768, over the use of timber off-cuts for firewood:
Both sides drew up in a line of battle, the Shipwrights armed with adzes and axes, and the Marines with their muskets and bayonets fixed, but happily the superior officer having notice of this fray, arrived just time enough, and prevented the consequences by ordering the Marines to restore the chips.3
In wartime, Marines were too valuable to spared for such duties and were invariably ordered to sea or to guardships. During the 1745 Jacobite rising, a rebuke was given to Admiral Vernon for not releasing Marines from guard duties, for they could be "employed much more usefully to His Majesty's Service in serving on board his men of war for which immediate purpose they were raised, and not to garrison untenable old castles".4 In 1778, Admiral Keppel removed 150 Marines from duty at Haslar Hospital and Forton Jail, and sent them to the Channel Fleet.
Living arrangements for Marines did not immediately change after 1755, though. Marines lived in small groups, usually of six to eight men, in the places allowed under the Mutiny Acts: "Inns, Livery Stables, Ale-Houses, Victualling Houses and all houses of persons selling Brandy, Strong Waters, Cyder or Metheglin". These arrangements, naturally, lent themselves to many instances of drunkenness and indiscipline.
Until the opening of barracks in the three Divsions' towns, there was a great deal of trouble in each. Rochester found itself filled with Marines, being overflow from Chatham Division, "to the great distress of the inhabitants"5. Portsmouth had a terrible reputation until 20th May, 1765, when the first Marine barracks opened there. Chatham and Plymouth did not acquire their own barracks until 1780 and 1781, respectively.
Being now in a settled existence allowed for officers such as Mackenzie, at Chatham, and Collins, at Plymouth, to bring about a system of order to those Divisions:
for the Good of the National Service, the Welfare happiness and Regularity of Individuals as well as to preserve a true Military Subordination... without which there can be no regular Discipline.6
Living in fixed barracks meant abiding by a particular set of regulations, including the one requiring officers living in barracks to wear uniform at all times. This was tested by one Marine subaltern, who refused Colonel Mackenzie entry owing to the colonel's wearing a blue coat, rather than red. There were Printed Instructions in every barrack room, to remind each Marine of his duty. Further, Colonels Commandant issued many orders addressing the novel circumstances of barracks life: issuance of pewter chamber pots "to prevent a nuisance in the Barracks", window cleaning, unauthorised Scaling or going over the Walls", and sentries who damaged their sentry boxes "by carving Names, and making holes with their bayonets".
In each Division, barrack women were employed to wash clothes and clean bedsteads with hot water, soap, and sand, "to destroy as much as possible Bugs and other Vermin, breeding in the Crevices or Joints". Emphasis was on hygiene, the same as it was aboard ship:
Particular care to be taken, that on no pretence whatsoever, are any old Clothes, Rags, Living or Dead Dogs or Cats, or any other Animal or thing whatsoever, thrown into the Boghouses, which may prevent the Drains in performing their so necessary office.7
Similar attention was paid to the practise of cohabitation:
The Commanding Officer is sorry to find it necessary in this public manner, strictly to forbid any officer bringing or suffering to be brought into the Barracks or Guard Room, any Woman of loose or suspected bad Character or to lodge a night in the Barrack.
Officers doing duty at night were reminded "particularly to enquire that no other women lye in the Men's Rooms, except those who are publickly appointed to that Business", though the precise nature of that business wasn't specified.8
Barracks life had its advantages, however. Discipline ashore was more regular and allowed for less arbitrary brutality than when at sea. In the 1750s, the Colonel Commandant at Chatham wrote that "the Men are struck and beat notwithstanding former orders to the contrary, he repeats that no Man be struck with Hand or Stick on any account whatsoever".9
O'Loughlen adds to this, stating "Soldiers of a Patriot King who fight the Battles of their country, ought not to be treated like Slaves at the Option of hot-headed individuals".10
It helped that Marines were encouraged to manage their own behaviour, with such incentives as excusing able, steady men from drill, excepting twice-weekly field days, and allowing leave to those who met the uniform regulations, wearing their hat properly cocked and their queue exactly eighteen inches long.
The process of handling Marines' complaints were also regulated: "Whenever any complaint is made, it may be stated by one man accompanied by a non-commissioned officer - if the grounds are just, redress shall be given".11
The disciplinary process was also attended to. When John Howe fell asleep on sentry duty, being still new to the Corps, his sentence of three hundred lashes was pardoned by the commanding officer after his sergeant and sergeant-major gave him a good character, staring Howe was "a remarkable Clean Tractable Lad that gave no trouble to any Person" who "Learned his exercise faster than any he had observed a long time for he had been five days in the first Squad, tho only a fortnight in the Division".12
Unfortunately, Howe found himself under punishment later, for selling his own and other people's clothing.
Another Marine was unusually fortunate to escape both a flogging and drowning. While on sentry duty on Southsea beach, William Dew was treated to a drink by a smuggling acquaintance. The next day he was rescued from the middle of Spithead, still in his sentry box, and "unable to give any coherent account of how he got on the Mother Bank". His colonel was unwilling to flog a recruit, and scarcely able to stop laughing, and suggested to Dew that he volunteer for the First Fleet in order to avoid the triangle.13
Flogging was not given to all offences, however. Less serious infractions merited less terrible punishments. Men who did not shave and shift their clothing on Sunday and Thursday had their grog stopped. One untidy Marine in Bermuda was sent aboard ship, where he was kept at hard labour for "being a disgrace to the Battalion". Drinking was the cause of most misbehaviour. In 1797, the captain of Queen Charlotte complained about "the incorrigible drunkenness and irregularity of several of the Marines of this ship... the Centinels get drunk on their posts and the guard are equally criminal". He pondered the question of their being removed, with this being preferable "to such incessant punishment as must follow unless I suffer the discipline of the ship to be entirely subverted".14
Major George Lewis RM expressed displeasure at the "disgusting scenes of drunkenness which took place" after his battalion's arrival in Bermuda. His expectation was that his NCOs should set an example of sobriety for the men, "without which a Body of men becomes a rabble, a disgrace to themselves and to the Country which gave them birth". NCOs frequently lost their stripes for the offence of drunkenness, but later were restored to their previous rank. Major Lewis also demoted a corporal, "being subject to fits and therefore unqualified for an NCO".15
Life for Marines ashore was not all drink and punishment, however. The three Grand Divisions allowed for concentration of personnel, and therefore excellent opportunities for training. In peacetime, the Marine Divisions could form a full battalion of ten parade companies, including Grenadiers and Light Infantry. Twice daily drills and twice weekly field days brought recruits up to standard fairly quickly.
When he joined his Division in 1799, Richard Swale visited a captain he had previously met in London:
With the greatest hospitality and attention he took the trouble to go with me to all the Field and other officers of our Corps in consequence of which they took great pains to instruct me in the methods I was to pursue and the rules to observe... in a short time had the satisfaction of being taken notice of as an attentive good officer Recommended and Qualified to take charge of a party.16
Being thoroughly trained was a necessity for Marine officers, who would have to depend on their own resources when they went to sea. Fears arose in the 1780s, during wartime expansion, that "those who stand first on the Roster for Sea Duty, and Service, may not be so well qualified for separate commands, as others lower down". In response, two majors were appointed to "examine into the military abilities of those officers and report their opinion to the Commanding Officer".
The variance in the demand for drafts of men to go to sea made it difficult to judge who would go to sea when. In April 1783, there were three drafts sent from Chatham, totalling 103 all ranks, whereas in May, the following month, there were fifteen drafts, totalling 383 all ranks. Such demands were met promptly, according to Standing Orders: "The two Captains and three subalterns first for Sea Duty, not to be Detached from Headquarters for more than 48 hours till ordered for embarkation".
The policy for drafting was tolerably kindly, choosing Marines with the least sea time, or the most debts, and requiring that they be properly trained and equipped:
The Adjutant to be very attentive that when any Marines are ordered for Foreign or actual immediate service, that they be forwardest in their Discipline, and Military Knowledge and the Quartermaster is to be very carefull, that every Marine is furnished with proper Arms and Accoutre- ments and every other thing necessary.17
This was significant progress since 1711, when Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker had personally check that "every man at his coming aboard is provided with arms and all necessary accoutrements" and Colonel Bor's men pursued HMS Devonshire down the Solent in a small boat in order to join her.18
1 - Edye, p. 576
2 - RM, Extract From His Majesty's Order in Council dated 3rd April 1755
3 - Gen. Sir H. Blumberg & Col. C. Field, Random Records of the Royal Marines, p. 26
4 - Brian Ranfft, Vernon Papers, p. 511, 4 Nov 1745, Admiralty/Vernon
5 - RR, p. 205
6 - RM 11/45/3, 10 Sept 1783
7 - RM 11/31/2, 15 Nov 1779
8 - RM 11/31/2, 31 May 1781 & 9 Oct 1781
9 - RM 11/31/2, 10 Sept 1757
10 - O'Loghlen, p. 116
11 - RM 7/7/13, Order Book 3rd Battalion, 1 Aug 1814
12 - Howe, n.d. 1778
13 - L. Becke & W. Jeffery, A First Fleet Family... from the Papers of Sgt William Dew of the Marines (Fisher Unwin, 1896), pp. 43-4
14 - Perrin, Keith Papers ii, p. 28, 20 Nov 1797, Capt. J. Elphinstone-Keith
15 - RM 7/7/13, Order Book, 8 Apr, 9 Jun, 22 Jun, & 28 Sept 1814
16 - RM 11/13/091, Swale, n.d. 1799
17 - RM 11/31/2, 3 Nov 1780 & 28 Nov 1780; RM 11/45/3, 18 Nov 1783
18 - Edye MSS/XI, 26 Mar 1711, Admiralty/Adm. H. Walker
