shorts

[FROGSMILE]

my earliest sighting of tailored shorts [not bloomers] is on a company or two of 2nd RWF on manoeuvres in India c. 1910, and I will try to sort out a detail to post.

Very interesting and clear use also of full sets of 1903 (Mounted Infantry) Pattern Bandolier Equipment.

[Muerrisch]

The tall dark figure bottom left is CSgt WH Stanway, who rose to become Bt Lt-Col, OBE DSO MC and whose final major duty was to lead the mixed force that put down the Connaught Rangers' Mutiny Jubbalpore India 1920. Known as "Black Jake". Crack shot rifle and pistol, admired by Pte. Frank Richards DCM MM who knew a thing or two about soldiering.

[FROGSMILE]

The tall dark figure bottom left is CSgt WH Stanway, who rose to become Bt Lt-Col, OBE DSO MC and whose final major duty was to lead the mixed force that put down the Connaught Rangers' Mutiny Jubbalpore India 1920. Known as "Black Jake". Crack shot rifle and pistol, admired by Pte. Frank Richards DCM MM who knew a thing or two about soldiering.

I think he was mentioned as Quartermaster by either Graves or Sassoon.

[Muerrisch]

In my own write, as Morecambe and Wise said:

Company Sergeant Major William Henry Stanway. William Stanway could have been forgiven a smile of satisfaction as he tied the laces of his highly polished black shoes and slipped on the jacket of the dark suit appropriate to the occasion: the jacket heavy with his decorations and medals earned under three sovereigns. Since retirement from the army, he had helped to run the Natal Park Hotel, a family business, and now he was to accompany, as host, the Royal Family and Field Marshal Smuts, guests at the hotel, on their visit to Bergville.

William was born in Manchester on 22nd August 1881. His parents were John and Susan, and he had at least five siblings. Details of his early life are sketchy but by his own account on his Army Form B 199A he was educated at St Philip’s High School and Manchester Technical College. He joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers on 13th November 1899 at Wrexham, number 6193, religion Church of England, and was promoted corporal March 1900 at Plymouth, a remarkably rapid promotion, and one that was followed by selection for membership of the Imperial Contingent to Australia 1901 with the Duke of York (later King George V). As Duke and Duchess of York, George and Mary carried out a wide variety of public duties. In 1900 and 1901 they toured the British Empire, New Zealand and Canada. From which duty Stanway reported to the First Battalion of his regiment in South Africa, engaged in war against the Boers, and was made lance-sergeant and subsequently sergeant, again remarkably quickly. He arrived too late to gain the campaign medal clasps for the principal actions, but was awarded the customary ‘state’ clasps to the Queen’s South Africa medal. On returning to England in 1902 he soon acquired The Mounted Infantry Certificate at Salisbury, assessed ‘VG’, and passed the NCO School Aldershot as a qualified instructor. Before very long, he was sent to India to join 2nd RWF at Agra in November 1903, thus beginning a 13 year association with that battalion. He was promoted to colour sergeant c. 1905, a phenomenal rise in six years. William married Emily Mary in India on 8th March 1906, and they had three girls born to them whilst on the Indian sub-continent, and a boy during the Great War. In 1908 he gained a ‘Distinguished’ at the School of Musketry, Maymyo, Burma, for Rifle and Machine gun, and was a very good combat shot, as ‘The War the Infantry Knew’ subsequently recounted: ‘Stanway was giving occasional but deadly aid to the snipers. Once he snapped an officer where the German parapet was low. Another day he got a pheasant for the pot. He had a disconcerting habit at one time of keeping his revolver on the table when playing cards, to shoot rats as they ran along the cornice beam of the dug-out’. When the regular infantry adopted the 4-company organisation in 1913, the four most senior colour sergeants in a battalion became the company sergeant majors, and, such was the rapidity of his rise, he was one such. Nevertheless, prospects of even further promotion were not good: there could only be one regimental sergeant major at a time, and only one regimental quartermaster sergeant, and, as both the incumbents had benefited similarly by an enlightened ‘fast track’ promotions policy in the battalion, they each had several years to run. If he had nursed any ambitions of an officer’s commission, his marriage (and now his age) disqualified him, even though he was greatly respected and admired. The one possible way ahead was to obtain a quartermaster’s commission, but even here he was likely to be thwarted because Quartermaster and Honorary Lieutenant H Yates had only been promoted in 1912 and was himself comparatively young.

War in August 1914 brought new stresses and new opportunities, and he received an early and favourable mention in TWTIK by Captain Geiger, captain of A Company, on 26th August during the Retreat ‘….Captain Samson, my excellent Sergeant-Major Stanway and I held a council of war, and decided it was better the men abandoned their packs by order than throw them away themselves, as some others had done’. On 30th October news came that the Regimental Sergeant-Major, the RQMS and Stanway had been commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants, an exceptional measure prompted by severe losses among the officers by death, wounds and extra-regimental duties. These appear to have been regular commissions, rather than the customary temporary ones resorted to later in the war. The Regimental Sergeant-Major saw this change as retrograde, and compared his new status to that of a ‘bum wart’, but Stanway seems to have relished the opportunity and made the most spectacular and sustained progress of the three. He went to C Company.

William Stanway featured frequently in TWTIK and contributed to it, but was not publicly acknowledged as a contributor by Dunn; surely an accidental omission. Private Frank Richards DCM MM of the same company admired him greatly, saying that (with Sergeant Walter Fox) he was the best non-commissioned officer he ever soldiered with. Again with Fox, Stanway was praised by Richards as one of the two sergeant majors ‘who never pinched our rum’! The compiler and part-author of TWTIK heaped further praise: ‘Stanway has been given command of a battalion of Cheshires: an achievement for one who was only Company Sergeant Major only twenty months ago’ (TWTIK 2nd July 1916). His promotions were rapid: Temporary Lieutenant on 9th February 1915, Lieutenant on 21st May 1915, Temporary Captain on 8th August 1915, and substantive Lieutenant on the Regimental List in November 1915. TWTIK observed that his Military Cross was gazetted on 14th January 1916. Stanway’s first Distinguished Service Order (LG 22nd July 1916) was awarded for his leading part in saving the situation when the Red Dragon mine was exploded under the battalion on 22nd June 1916.

‘For conspicuous gallantry and ability when the enemy exploded a large mine which wrecked some 75 yards of our trench, and attacked in force after bombing the spot heavily, several officers being incapacitated. Captain Stanway, who commanded the next company, at once took charge, and after the enemy had been driven off with great skill and coolness, occupied the lip of the crater and organised defence’.

He was gazetted Acting Lieutenant Colonel on 4th July 1916, having been a Temporary Major and Second in Command of his battalion at times from December 1915, and temporarily commanding the unit from February to May 1916. He was given command of 1/6 Cheshires on 4th July 1916. Whilst Stanway was with the Cheshires, Edmund Blunden crossed his path (serving in the same brigade) and Blunden’s Undertones of War noted Stanway’s ‘indicatory stick, (him) speaking calmly of the night’s shelling, the hard work necessary to keep the trenches open and the enemy’s advantage of observation’. He was made a substantive regular Captain (RWF) 30th December 1916 and earned a bar to his DSO (MC recommended, DSO substituted) with the 1/6 Cheshires, LG 26th January 1917:

‘For conspicuous gallantry in action. He handled his battalion in the attack with great courage and ability. He captured the position, inflicting much loss on the enemy and took a large number of prisoners.’

His descendants have in their possession a German medal said to have been pressed on him by a grateful German officer, brought in wounded by Stanway. He commanded his Cheshires battalion until April 1918 and acquired the soubriquet Black Jack because of his ‘5 o’clock shadow’. The informal history of that unit says of him that he ‘showed no signs of the previous battalion commander’s contempt for the men under his command’ and that the tempo of the action under Stanway increased. AL September 1918 shows he was by now a substantive South Wales borderers seniority 30th December 1916, and a Brevet of Major dated 1st January 1918, employed with 1/6th Cheshires. According to his own meticulous notes he temporarily commanded his Brigade twice, in 1916 and in 1917. There is no indication in his personal career notes whether this transfer of regiments was voluntary or welcome, but when he posed for a formal portrait in later life in full regimentals it was as a Royal Welch Fusilier. A gunshot wound in the leg and a gassing in 1917 were his only wounds. In April 1918 he was given a well deserved break and was sent to command the 51st Leicestershire Regiment at Worksop, before returning to the Cheshires at the end of the war.

He reported to the Second battalion of his new regiment at Oswestry and went with it as a Brevet Lt-Col (dated June 1919) to Jhansi, India. Whilst in command of Sabathu station he played a key role in the suppression of the infamous mutiny of the Connaught Rangers, being ordered (presumably by virtue of his brevet) to command a strong detachment comprising a company of South Wales borderers, a company of Seaforth Highlanders, and a company of the machine Gun Corps. They marched to Jullundur, arrested the mutineers, and garrisoned the station.

Subsequently William became Adjutant Indian Defence Force 1921 to 1929, Commandant Nucleus Depôt Railway Reserve Regiment 1929 to 1933, and Director of Military Prisons and Detention Barracks India until 1936. He was awarded the OBE in 1931 for his work for ex-servicement, and the King’s Silver Jubilee medal in June 1935.

William Henry Stanway retired on 13th August 1936 after nearly 37 years service, went to live with family members in South Africa, and acted as a recruiting officer during the Second World War. He was awarded the South Africa Medal for War Services (1945) for his voluntary unpaid work. He died in Bergville, Natal, in 1961, having performed one last duty for his Monarch, King George VI (son of the Duke of York whom he had served in 1901). He was an official host, with Field Marshal Jan Smuts, for the visit of King George VI, his Queen, and the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in 1947. The hotel and the national park adopted the prefix ‘Royal’ as an appropriate reminder of the visit. Sadly, the hotel is now said to be a looted and unkempt shell of its former glory, but nothing can detract from the career, service and reputation of its one-time resident, William Stanway the warrior.

[FROGSMILE]

In my own write, as Morecambe and Wise said:

Company Sergeant Major William Henry Stanway. William Stanway could have been forgiven a smile of satisfaction as he tied the laces of his highly polished black shoes and slipped on the jacket of the dark suit appropriate to the occasion: the jacket heavy with his decorations and medals earned under three sovereigns. Since retirement from the army, he had helped to run the Natal Park Hotel, a family business, and now he was to accompany, as host, the Royal Family and Field Marshal Smuts, guests at the hotel, on their visit to Bergville.

William was born in Manchester on 22nd August 1881. His parents were John and Susan, and he had at least five siblings. Details of his early life are sketchy but by his own account on his Army Form B 199A he was educated at St Philip's High School and Manchester Technical College. He joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers on 13th November 1899 at Wrexham, number 6193, religion Church of England, and was promoted corporal March 1900 at Plymouth, a remarkably rapid promotion, and one that was followed by selection for membership of the Imperial Contingent to Australia 1901 with the Duke of York (later King George V). As Duke and Duchess of York, George and Mary carried out a wide variety of public duties. In 1900 and 1901 they toured the British Empire, New Zealand and Canada. From which duty Stanway reported to the First Battalion of his regiment in South Africa, engaged in war against the Boers, and was made lance-sergeant and subsequently sergeant, again remarkably quickly. He arrived too late to gain the campaign medal clasps for the principal actions, but was awarded the customary 'state' clasps to the Queen's South Africa medal. On returning to England in 1902 he soon acquired The Mounted Infantry Certificate at Salisbury, assessed 'VG', and passed the NCO School Aldershot as a qualified instructor. Before very long, he was sent to India to join 2nd RWF at Agra in November 1903, thus beginning a 13 year association with that battalion. He was promoted to colour sergeant c. 1905, a phenomenal rise in six years. William married Emily Mary in India on 8th March 1906, and they had three girls born to them whilst on the Indian sub-continent, and a boy during the Great War. In 1908 he gained a 'Distinguished' at the School of Musketry, Maymyo, Burma, for Rifle and Machine gun, and was a very good combat shot, as 'The War the Infantry Knew' subsequently recounted: 'Stanway was giving occasional but deadly aid to the snipers. Once he snapped an officer where the German parapet was low. Another day he got a pheasant for the pot. He had a disconcerting habit at one time of keeping his revolver on the table when playing cards, to shoot rats as they ran along the cornice beam of the dug-out'. When the regular infantry adopted the 4-company organisation in 1913, the four most senior colour sergeants in a battalion became the company sergeant majors, and, such was the rapidity of his rise, he was one such. Nevertheless, prospects of even further promotion were not good: there could only be one regimental sergeant major at a time, and only one regimental quartermaster sergeant, and, as both the incumbents had benefited similarly by an enlightened 'fast track' promotions policy in the battalion, they each had several years to run. If he had nursed any ambitions of an officer's commission, his marriage (and now his age) disqualified him, even though he was greatly respected and admired. The one possible way ahead was to obtain a quartermaster's commission, but even here he was likely to be thwarted because Quartermaster and Honorary Lieutenant H Yates had only been promoted in 1912 and was himself comparatively young.

War in August 1914 brought new stresses and new opportunities, and he received an early and favourable mention in TWTIK by Captain Geiger, captain of A Company, on 26th August during the Retreat '….Captain Samson, my excellent Sergeant-Major Stanway and I held a council of war, and decided it was better the men abandoned their packs by order than throw them away themselves, as some others had done'. On 30th October news came that the Regimental Sergeant-Major, the RQMS and Stanway had been commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants, an exceptional measure prompted by severe losses among the officers by death, wounds and extra-regimental duties. These appear to have been regular commissions, rather than the customary temporary ones resorted to later in the war. The Regimental Sergeant-Major saw this change as retrograde, and compared his new status to that of a 'bum wart', but Stanway seems to have relished the opportunity and made the most spectacular and sustained progress of the three. He went to C Company.

William Stanway featured frequently in TWTIK and contributed to it, but was not publicly acknowledged as a contributor by Dunn; surely an accidental omission. Private Frank Richards DCM MM of the same company admired him greatly, saying that (with Sergeant Walter Fox) he was the best non-commissioned officer he ever soldiered with. Again with Fox, Stanway was praised by Richards as one of the two sergeant majors 'who never pinched our rum'! The compiler and part-author of TWTIK heaped further praise: 'Stanway has been given command of a battalion of Cheshires: an achievement for one who was only Company Sergeant Major only twenty months ago' (TWTIK 2nd July 1916). His promotions were rapid: Temporary Lieutenant on 9th February 1915, Lieutenant on 21st May 1915, Temporary Captain on 8th August 1915, and substantive Lieutenant on the Regimental List in November 1915. TWTIK observed that his Military Cross was gazetted on 14th January 1916. Stanway's first Distinguished Service Order (LG 22nd July 1916) was awarded for his leading part in saving the situation when the Red Dragon mine was exploded under the battalion on 22nd June 1916.

'For conspicuous gallantry and ability when the enemy exploded a large mine which wrecked some 75 yards of our trench, and attacked in force after bombing the spot heavily, several officers being incapacitated. Captain Stanway, who commanded the next company, at once took charge, and after the enemy had been driven off with great skill and coolness, occupied the lip of the crater and organised defence'.

He was gazetted Acting Lieutenant Colonel on 4th July 1916, having been a Temporary Major and Second in Command of his battalion at times from December 1915, and temporarily commanding the unit from February to May 1916. He was given command of 1/6 Cheshires on 4th July 1916. Whilst Stanway was with the Cheshires, Edmund Blunden crossed his path (serving in the same brigade) and Blunden's Undertones of War noted Stanway's 'indicatory stick, (him) speaking calmly of the night's shelling, the hard work necessary to keep the trenches open and the enemy's advantage of observation'. He was made a substantive regular Captain (RWF) 30th December 1916 and earned a bar to his DSO (MC recommended, DSO substituted) with the 1/6 Cheshires, LG 26th January 1917:

'For conspicuous gallantry in action. He handled his battalion in the attack with great courage and ability. He captured the position, inflicting much loss on the enemy and took a large number of prisoners.'

His descendants have in their possession a German medal said to have been pressed on him by a grateful German officer, brought in wounded by Stanway. He commanded his Cheshires battalion until April 1918 and acquired the soubriquet Black Jack because of his '5 o'clock shadow'. The informal history of that unit says of him that he 'showed no signs of the previous battalion commander's contempt for the men under his command' and that the tempo of the action under Stanway increased. AL September 1918 shows he was by now a substantive South Wales borderers seniority 30th December 1916, and a Brevet of Major dated 1st January 1918, employed with 1/6th Cheshires. According to his own meticulous notes he temporarily commanded his Brigade twice, in 1916 and in 1917. There is no indication in his personal career notes whether this transfer of regiments was voluntary or welcome, but when he posed for a formal portrait in later life in full regimentals it was as a Royal Welch Fusilier. A gunshot wound in the leg and a gassing in 1917 were his only wounds. In April 1918 he was given a well deserved break and was sent to command the 51st Leicestershire Regiment at Worksop, before returning to the Cheshires at the end of the war.

He reported to the Second battalion of his new regiment at Oswestry and went with it as a Brevet Lt-Col (dated June 1919) to Jhansi, India. Whilst in command of Sabathu station he played a key role in the suppression of the infamous mutiny of the Connaught Rangers, being ordered (presumably by virtue of his brevet) to command a strong detachment comprising a company of South Wales borderers, a company of Seaforth Highlanders, and a company of the machine Gun Corps. They marched to Jullundur, arrested the mutineers, and garrisoned the station.

Subsequently William became Adjutant Indian Defence Force 1921 to 1929, Commandant Nucleus Depôt Railway Reserve Regiment 1929 to 1933, and Director of Military Prisons and Detention Barracks India until 1936. He was awarded the OBE in 1931 for his work for ex-servicement, and the King's Silver Jubilee medal in June 1935.

William Henry Stanway retired on 13th August 1936 after nearly 37 years service, went to live with family members in South Africa, and acted as a recruiting officer during the Second World War. He was awarded the South Africa Medal for War Services (1945) for his voluntary unpaid work. He died in Bergville, Natal, in 1961, having performed one last duty for his Monarch, King George VI (son of the Duke of York whom he had served in 1901). He was an official host, with Field Marshal Jan Smuts, for the visit of King George VI, his Queen, and the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in 1947. The hotel and the national park adopted the prefix 'Royal' as an appropriate reminder of the visit. Sadly, the hotel is now said to be a looted and unkempt shell of its former glory, but nothing can detract from the career, service and reputation of its one-time resident, William Stanway the warrior.

Brilliant stuff Grumpy, I did try to send this by PM, but you are apparently "full".

[daggers]

Grumpy

Thanks for that essay - worth the effort of reading the whole thread!

D

[Muerrisch]

will clear a space in the IN BOX for overwhelming applause and sterling cheques.

[centurion]

The first reference I can find of a British army containing short wearing soldiers is in 1801 at the siege of Cairo and subsequent mopping up operations along the Nile when the 7th Bombay Volunteers (part of an Indian contingent from the Bombay and Madras presidencies which came up from the Red sea to join the British expeditionary force) wore them as a standard part of their uniform (Red coat with yellow cuffs and facings, white and blue shorts). It was not uncommon in the late 18th/early 19th century for Sepoy units in either the EIC's forces or the Mogul armies etc to have shorts as part of their uniform