Mutiny by 1st Garrison Bn, Notts & Derby Regt

[ddycher]

All

Continueing to look at the development of Kantara during the war and came across passing refs to a mutiny by the 1st Garrison Bn of the Sherwood Foresters. Anybody have any information on this one ? I know they were part of the "Force in Egypt" under Watson.

There are a couple of significant evcents as I see it at the time :

1. Allenby's provisional tour of his new command.

2. The construction of the 75th Division.

3. The utilising of the Egyptian Army for LOC duty.

I was wondering if this could be tied into any of these events ? I know the Garrison Bn's were again being combed for men to bring the TF battalions from India upto strength.

Regards

Dave

[rmcguirk]

Dave,

Have you seen this? – afraid it’s not much.

Derbyshire Lads at War: 1914-18

The 1st Garrison Battalion was formed in Lichfield in July 1915. In October 1915 it began transferring to Egypt, via Malta and Gallipoli. Many members of the battalion were involved in a serious mutiny in June 1917 at Kantara (Qantarah esh Sharqiya) in Egypt. Kantara was the terminus of a railroad to Palestine constructed during World War I and the base of the British Expeditionary Force in Egypt. 64 men were charged and all were given punishments of two years hard labour.

http://www.derbyshirelads.uwclub.net/Sherw...ns/garrison.htm

Regards,

Russell

[ddycher]

Thanks Russell

This was the link that started me off on this. I have not been able to find anything else anywhere so far.

How is Mr. Hay doing ?

Regards

Dave

[rmcguirk]

Thanks Russell

This was the link that started me off on this. I have not been able to find anything else anywhere so far.

How is Mr. Hay doing ?

Regards

Dave

Dave,

Good luck with your Kantara research. Would be interesting to know why the Sherwood Foresters were disgruntled to the point of mutiny...!

Hay is sitting on a back-burner at the moment. His name could conceivably appear in your sources, though, as he was in and out of Kantara a lot in 1916-17.

Regards,

Russell

[Andrew Hesketh]

'Derbyshire Lads' is my (now defunct) site. The mutiny at Kantara has intrigued me for some time, but I've never really had the time nor inclination to explore it in detail. A long time ago, I think on the pre-cursor to the present GWF, I asked a question about it and no definitive answers came up. The only suggestion somebody made was that the timing coincided with the replacement of the SMLE rifles with Ross(?) rifles and that this may have been a spark. I have no idea of whether there is any truth in this.

63 men were charged with mutiny on 5 June 1917, all receiving 2 years hard labour. An aditional man was charged on 11 June 1917 and received the same sentence.

I'll watch this thread with interest.

[ddycher]

Andrew

Thanks for this.

The best bet I have so far is that it co-incides with the combing out of the garrison battalions to bring up to establishment the TF battalions arriving from India. I have numerous ref's to these battalions, which embarked from India at indian establishment, being brought upto strength from garrison battalions on arrival.

Have nothing else as yet but will keep looking.

Regards

Dave

[corisande]

I have found real difficulties in researching things like this, as the "bad" things in a regiments history never get written up in anything official.

Have you tried National Archive search, which is always difficult to squeeze out answers even if the material is hidden somewhere in their archives?

[BRONNO]

All

Continueing to look at the development of Kantara during the war and came across passing refs to a mutiny by the 1st Garrison Bn of the Sherwood Foresters. Anybody have any information on this one ? I know they were part of the "Force in Egypt" under Watson.

There are a couple of significant evcents as I see it at the time :

1. Allenby's provisional tour of his new command.

2. The construction of the 75th Division.

3. The utilising of the Egyptian Army for LOC duty.

I was wondering if this could be tied into any of these events ? I know the Garrison Bn's were again being combed for men to bring the TF battalions from India upto strength.

Regards

Dave

From the War Diary

1st Garrison Btn "Suez Camp".

1st June 1917. 30 Other ranks of "B" Coy re-joined the Battalion from Deir-el-Belah.

2nd June 1917. 24 Other ranks of "D" Coy re-joined the Battalion from Ballah.

3rd June 1917. The Battalion was issued with "Ross" Rifles in exchange for "M.L.E's".

9th June 1917 . An escort of 1 Officer and 50 Other ranks proceeded as escort overseas.

20th June 1917. Lieut General H.M. Lawson C.B. inspected the Battalion in connection with "Man Power".

SUEZ

1^st July to 31^st July 1917. No matter of importance to record in connection with the Battalion.

BRONNO.

[ddycher]

Thanks Bronno

Whats your take on this ? The issue of the rifles or men being transferred to front line battalions ? Still thinking the combing out of the garrison battalions is the most likely. I'm amazed though that this incident gets no mention in the War Diary though.

Regards

Dave