Worcestershire Militia
The Worcestershire Militia was an auxiliary military force in the English county of Worcestershire. From their formal organisation as trained bands in 1558 until their final service as the Special Reserve, the Militia regiments of the county carried out internal security and home defence duties in all of Britain's major wars, seeing action during the English Civil Wars and the Second Boer War and finally training thousands of reinforcements during World War I. After a shadowy postwar existence they were formally disbanded in 1953.
Early history
The English militia was descended from the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd, the military force raised from the freemen of the shires under command of their sheriff. It continued under the Norman kings, and was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by King Edward I's Statute of Winchester of 1285.In 1539 King Henry VIII held a Great Muster of all the counties, recording the number of armed men available in each Hundred. Though incomplete, the surviving Worcestershire lists are very detailed, giving the numbers of men for each ward of the city of Worcester and for each parish and township of the hundreds, together with the wealthier individuals charged with providing 'harness'.
Worcestershire trained bands
The legal basis of the militia was updated by two acts of 1557 covering musters and the maintenance of horses and armour. The county militia was now under the Lord Lieutenant, assisted by the deputy lieutenants and justices of the peace. The entry into force of these acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England. Although the militia obligation was universal, it was impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man, so after 1572 the practice was to select a proportion of men for the Trained bands, who were mustered for regular training.In 1586–7, following the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War, Queen Elizabeth's government ordered the TBs to be mustered and made ready to march at short notice. Worcestershire mustered 63 Horse and 672 Foot. During the Armada Crisis of 1588 Worcestershire furnished 600 trained foot in four 150-strong bands, together with 100 pioneers, 17 lancers, 83 light horse and 10 'petronels'. The foot joined Lord Hunsdon's army at Tilbury defending the Queen and were formed with the Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Huntingdonshire TBs into Sir Henry Goodere's Regiment, 2,100 strong.
In the 16th century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions, and between 1585 and 1601 Nottinghamshire supplied 1151 levies for service in Ireland. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than the Trained Bandsmen – in 1585 the Privy Council had ordered the impressment of able-bodied unemployed men, and the Queen ordered 'none of her trayned-bands to be pressed'. Replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties. In 1603 Worcestershire was assessed as having 2,500 armed men, 230 pioneers, 21 Demi-lancers and 85 'high horses'.
Most of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 were Catholic gentlemen from Worcestershire. After the discovery of the plot, their leader Robert Catesby and others withdrew to Holbeche House, where they were surrounded by a 200-strong detachment of Worcestershire TBs under the High Sheriff, Sir Richard Walsh. When they refused to surrender the militia stormed the house, killing Catesby and several other leaders and capturing the rest. Another TB party under Sir Henry Bromley of Holt Castle, acting on information from one of the prisoners, then searched Hindlip Hall and captured two Jesuit priests linked to the plot.
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the TBs declined in the early 17th century. Later, King Charles I attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the king rather than local control. The Worcestershire TBs in 1638 consisted of 491 musketeers and 309 'Corslets', together with 70 Horse.
In 1639 and 1640 Charles attempted to employ the TBs for the Bishops' Wars in Scotland. But many of those sent on this unpopular service were untrained replacements and conscripts. For the Second Bishops' War of 1640, Worcestershire was ordered to march 600 Foot to Newcastle upon Tyne. The raw conscripts were grouped into regional regiments of 1,200 men: Colonel Lord Grandison's Regiment drew upon Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Gloucestershire. Concerned at the prevalence of Roman Catholicism among the gentry, the Worcestershire troops demanded that their officers take Anglican Communion with the men and pledge that the campaign against the Scottish covenanters would not be to the disadvantage of the Protestant faith.
Civil war
Control of the TBs was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the First English Civil War. When open warfare broke out neither side made much use of the TBs beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops who would serve anywhere in the country, many of whom were former trained bandsmen, or using the TBs as auxiliary units for garrisons. The King commissioned two loyal members of parliament, Sir John Pakington and his brother-in-law Sir Samuel Sandys to raise the Worcestershire Militia for him. However, as the Parliamentary army approached Worcester, the Royalist commander, Prince Rupert decided that the old city walls were indefensible, and evacuated the city. To cover the evacuation, Rupert fought one of the first serious actions of the war on 23 September 1642 at Powick Bridge, south of Worcester. Afterwards, the city was plundered by the Parliamentarian troops. However, the Parliamentary army left on 19 October, marching to the Battle of Edgehill, and the Royalists were able to garrison Worcester and improve the fortifications. The garrison consisted of the Worcester TB regiment of foot under Sir Martin Sandys, while the King commissioned Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 1st Baronet as colonel of the county's horse and foot. Sir Samuel commanded volunteer regiments of horse and foot based at Worcester, probably including some of the trained bandsmen or at least their weapons.On 25 April 1643 Sir William Waller's Parliamentary force easily captured Hereford. He then moved on Worcester with 3000 men and eight guns, anticipating an equally feeble resistance. However, the defences had been improved and the 1500-strong garrison, including the regiments of both Sandys brothers, rejected Waller's summons. Waller attacked on the morning of 29 May, beginning with an artillery bombardment at 06.00, and by 10.00 he had cleared the suburbs and outworks. But his attacks on the Sidbury and St Martin's gates were repulsed, and the garrison launched a sortie though St Martin's gate. Waller decided not to press this First Siege of Worcester, and left the following morning. Afterwards Sir Samuel Sandys' professional regiments joined the King's field army at Oxford and took part in several of the major engagements of the war.
At the beginning of May 1644 Col 'Tinker' Fox with some of his Parliamentarian troops from Tamworth surprised Bewdley, which was garrisoned by Sir Thomas Lyttelton and about 150 of his TB regiment. Fox marched his prisoners away to Coventry and Lyttelton was sent to the Tower of London. The following month, as the King and Waller manoeuvred through the Midlands, the Royalist army rested at Worcester, re-equipping with shoes and stockings, before moving on. Although Waller marched past the city he did not attempt another attack. Later he was defeated by the King's army at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge.
By 1646 Worcester was one of the few towns left in Royalist hands. The governor, Col Henry Washington used it as a base for raids on Parliamentary forces. However, the Parliamentarians closed in on 21 May and began a regular siege of the city. The survivors of Sir Samuel Sandys' regiments were among the garrison, in addition to the City TBs. The Second Siege of Worcester ended with the surrender of the city on 23 July after 63 days.
As Parliament tightened its grip on the country it passed new Militia Acts in 1648 and 1650 that replaced lords lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State. From now on the term 'Trained Band' began to disappear in most counties. Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country. Many militia regiments were called out in 1651 during the Scottish invasion and the Worcestershires were ordered to rendezvous at Northampton. They were then diverted to Gloucester as King Charles II's Anglo-Scottish army entered the Severn Valley and established itself at Worcester to rest and recruit. Oliver Cromwell closed in with the Parliamentary army and militia. Major Mercer with the Worcestershire Horse was sent with Col Robert Lilburne's force to secure Bewdley bridge north of Worcester and block the Royalists' line of retreat. Then on 3 September Cromwell's numerically superior force advanced down both banks of the Severn and fought its way through the hedgerows and into the city, destroying the Royalist forces. The Worcestershire regiments of foot, horse and dragoons all fought at the Battle of Worcester alongside the Parliamentary army. Mercer's horse at Bewdley were responsible for rounding up many of the fleeing Royalists. The militia were stood down a week later.
Restoration militia
After the Restoration of the Monarchy the English Militia was re-established in 1662 under the Militia Act 1661. It was once again under the control of the king's lords-lieutenant, the men to be selected by ballot. This was popularly seen as the 'Constitutional Force' to counterbalance a 'Standing Army' tainted by association with the New Model Army that had supported Cromwell's military dictatorship, and almost the whole burden of home defence and internal security was entrusted to the militia under politically reliable local landowners.In 1667 the Worcestershire Militia was called out to suppress an insurrection among apprentices at Worcester, but the rioters dispersed when the militia arrived. There was a general call-out of the militia regiments of south-west England in 1685 in response to the Monmouth Rebellion, but they were not involved during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. They were embodied again in 1690 when there was an invasion threat from France.
In 1697 the counties were required to submit detailed lists of their militia. The County and City of Worcester under Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury as Lord Lieutenant, mustered a Foot regiment of seven companies totalling 786 men with Shrewsbury himself as Colonel, and Sir James Rushout, 1st Baronet, MP for Evesham, as his Lieutenant-Colonel, together with two troops of horse, each 60 strong, under Captains Lord Herbert of Chirbury and William Bromley of Holt Castle, MP for Worcester.
The militia were mustered for annual training until the Treaty of Utrecht and the accession of King George I, but after 1715 it passed into virtual abeyance. There were only two further trainings: in 1743 and during the Jacobite Rising of 1745.