Spanish-American War veteran recruited, jailed

[BereniceUK]

Interesting report of a court case which took place at Lancaster Borough Police Court on 9th April 1915. William Humphrey Hingham, originally from Killough in County Down, now Northern Ireland, had served in the Montgomery Mounted Rifles in the Spanish-American War, 1898. He travelled from New York to Liverpool in October/November 1914 and was recruited there, giving a false age and military history. Became a private in the King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) and at some point his attestation was discovered to be false. Result - a month's hard labour and presumably discharged.

He claimed that he was told by the recruiter that he would have to give his age as 42, rather than the true one of 45, and that he had served in an Irish regiment.

The adjutant at the trial said that Hingham had travelled from New York "at the expense of the nation". So did the UK government or the army pay the travel expenses of those who applied to join the British Army from the USA?

Was this a unique example of a Spanish-American War veteran becoming a serving soldier in the British Army during the Great War?

Edited 1 February , 2021 by BereniceUK

[ss002d6252]

I can see 2 other men on the CWGC - but the CWGC data is not 100% as the information was supplied by relatives and obviously only covers the dead. I would have thought there were certainly others who served and survived.

Pvt Caldwell, Canadian Infantry
Pvt MCLeod, South African Infantry

Craig

[Khaki]

The Montgomery Mounted Rifles was a Confederate unit during the Civil War and I can find no record of it being reorganized in the post war years, neither can I find any record of his name in any of the three Alabama Regiments that existed during the Spanish American War. He may of course served under another name. Maybe someone who knows more about that period will be able to assist.

khaki

[BereniceUK]

The Montgomery Mounted Rifles was a Confederate unit during the Civil War and I can find no record of it being reorganized in the post war years, neither can I find any record of his name in any of the three Alabama Regiments that existed during the Spanish American War. He may of course served under another name. Maybe someone who knows more about that period will be able to assist.

khaki

I think I'd take anything he claimed with a pinch of salt until it was proved. Although to be fair, perhaps someone did check with the US Army before the court case.

[Scalyback]

Sounds a bit of an adventurer.

Maybe claimed the service but was in fact a bit of a dud, so prosecuted. The false enlisted charge was there but how often was it used and hard labour given as punishment? Did recruits with previous service get fast tracked to the front?

[BereniceUK]

Similar situation as with under-age recruits, I reckon. The recruiter got a bonus for each soldier he recruited, I understand, so he might be prepared to tell those under- and over-age what to put on their attestation form.

[Scalyback]

But once "caught", how many had sanctions against them? I thought any punishment of consequence was rarely used. Soldier on and all that.

[centurion]

I have the following as having served in both the Spanish American war and with British (or Imperial) forces in WW1 Where it is known I have included which US unit they served with in the Spanish American affair The ranks are their eventual British rank. All except possibly Moore and Stephens were British or Imperial citizens

Brig. Gen. Hubert A. Allen US Army
Maj. Chas. Burton Robbins US Army
Maj. Frederick G. Murray,
Maj. Elza C. Johnson
William Joseph Stephens died serving with Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Ypres, .
Horace E. Moore (1st Maine Artillery)

[centurion]

I have also seen a reference to at least one British officer who had served as a mercenary officer in Villa's army in Mexico but I haven't been able to identify him, It's likely that some of his brother officers in Villa's force were serving in the German Army in WW1

[BereniceUK]

I have the following as having served in both the Spanish American war and with British (or Imperial) forces in WW1 Where it is known I have included which US unit they served with in the Spanish American affair The ranks are their eventual British rank. All except possibly Moore and Stephens were British or Imperial citizens

Brig. Gen. Hubert A. Allen US Army

Maj. Chas. Burton Robbins US Army

Maj. Frederick G. Murray,

Maj. Elza C. Johnson

William Joseph Stephens died serving with Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Ypres, .

Horace E. Moore (1st Maine Artillery)

So many. I'm quite taken aback by that. Thanks for the information.

[centurion]

Looking at it sort of from the other direction the American Sydney H. Chapin managed to serve in the Matabele War and the South African War before doing his bit in WW1.

I have also found a few men who served in the Russo Turkish and the Russo Japanese wars

[Keith_history_buff]

World War I  "Honor Roll, Linn County, Iowa. An Illustrated Biography"


http://files.usgwarchives.net/ia/linn/military/ww1.txt

 

Some further details available at the aforementioned about those Spanish American war veterans, should any genealogists require it.

[leibregiment]

Another..

A Single broken British WW1 victory medal in my collection;

Captain James D'Orsay Murray (January 22, 1874 - January 22, 1946)

Veteran of the Spanish American war and the blockade of Cuba, Great War British Army and Nationalist speaker for the America First Committee. He was also associated with the Christian American Guards.

Served as a Landsman with 1st Naval Battalion (New York Naval Militia) as a with the USS Yankee (Second division) from the April 28 - Sept. 2, 1898, Cuban Blockade.
The U.S.S. Yankee was originally built as the passenger liner El Norteas. She was acquired by the United States Navy in 1898 and commissioned as an auxiliary cruiser and fitted with (10) 5-inch guns, (6) 6 pounders and 2 Colt machine guns. On May 29, 1898 Yankee put to sea with orders to join the fleet off Cuba. On June 6th Yankee duelled shore batteries off Santiago. On June 7th she participated in a cable cutting incursion at Guantanamo Bay. In company of the USS Marblehead, Yankee engaged two Spanish gunboats Alvarado and Sandoval, putting them to flight. Yankee and Marblehead then turned their fire toward shore silencing the fort at Caimanera. 

On June 13th Yankee engaged the Spanish gunboats Diego Velazquez and Lince, putting them both to flight. It also engaged the Sanbanilla Shore Battery before returning to blockade duty off Cienfuegos.

Awarded the Sampson Medal (clasps USS Yankee), West Indies Campaign medal and New York State Spanish War medal

In 1914 he was living in Italy as an owner of a vineyard at the time of the outbreak of the First World War. In 1915 he joined the American Volunteer Motor-Ambulance Corps attached to the British Red Cross (March to May 1915), he was initially an ambulance driver/Chauffeur in Doullens France in the Department of the Somme  (US Passport Number 2468, Washington) and then Section Seven, Formation Norton-Harjes.

I can only find a Jack D Murray on the BRC medal roll, also possible he was also awarded the French Victory medal as the Ambulance unit was attached to the French Army.

Commissioned British Army as 2nd Lieutenant Royal Field Artillery, Special Reserve, 7 August  1915, Staff Lieutenant, Royal Artillery, 25th Division, 1916
From 7 January 1917 to July 1917 served with No. 2 Section, 29th Division Ammunition . Column RFA (Then hospitalised)
Promoted Lieutenant, RFA SR on 1 July 1917, Captain Murray served first on the staff of General Burney, then as liaison officer on the staff of Lord Allenby from 7 Sept 1918 to sometime in 1919.

As well as the 1914/5 star British War medal and Victory, he was awarded an Italian Order Of The Crown 5th Class which was Gazetted in 1919 and Mentioned in General Allenby's Despatches in the London Gazette of 12 Jan 1920 for services with the Egyptian Expeditionary Forces.

Nationalist speaker for the America First Committee and supporter of Mussolini and Hitler and associated with the Christian American Guard, created in September 1940,it was not only against entry into the war.  It also opposed aid.  Its program was simple.  Since the United States, if properly armed, was impregnable against German attack, there was no reason to help England.  Aid would not only fatally weaken America‘s own defences. It would also draw the country into the conflict. The leaders of the AFC claimed they were motivated by concern for American lives.  For some, this was no doubt true.  For others, humanitarian rhetoric hid different motives.  Many joined the AFC as a way of attacking President Roosevelt and the New Deal.

It was dissolved on the 10th December 1941, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

At its peak, America First claimed 800,000 dues-paying members in 650 chapters, located mostly in a 300-mile radius of Chicago. 

“At the meeting of this organization held on Saturday, November 8th, Captain James D'Orsay Murray, a speaker for the America First Committee , was the main attraction. His audience cheered when he gave the Nazi outstretched arm salute and described the customary handshake greeting as a sign of weakness. He praised Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and referred to Winston Churchill as a drunkard who would be lynched by the people of France if they could get their hands on him. He called President Roosevelt a forger, charging that the secret Nazi Map showing Germany’s intention with regard to South America was a fake. He offered old worn-out Nazi propaganda stories such as the claim that Athenia was suck by the British. He planted the seed of defeatism by claiming that Germany is merely prolonging the agony. Noble, chairman of the meeting, went even further in his praise of Hitler’s New Order and condemnation of the President. He charged that President Roosevelt was responsible for the murder of Huey Long.”

Christian American Guards was a California-based front organization for the German American Bund. The group was organised in November 1941.  The group was formerly known as the American Guard.

Why someone who had volunteered and served in the British army in the great war would take this stand is unknown.

He died in 1946 aged 72 at Los Angeles California, Captain  James D'Orsay Murray is buried in the Los Angeles National Cemetery as a veteran of the Spanish American War

[Keith_history_buff]

How peculiar that he would indeed take that stand, having volunteered and served in the Great War. Thank you for sharing this very interesting anecdote.

One other British Army officer that I am aware of is Major Richard Henry Griffiths, killed in action at Villers-Tournelle, Somme on 27th April 1918.

It would be interesting to find out what happened to William Humphrey B/H/K/L/R/W ingham in the original post. Given the fuss over the expense incurred in paying his ticket from New York to Liverpool, you would think that they would have wanted to have retained his services in the army.

How peculiar that he would indeed take that stand, having volunteered and served in the Great War. Thank you for sharing this very interesting anecdote.

One other British Army officer that I am aware of is Major Richard Henry Griffiths, killed in action at Villers-Tournelle, Somme on 27th April 1918.

It would be interesting to find out what happened to William Humphrey B/H/K/L/R/W ingham in the original post. Given the fuss over the expense incurred in paying his ticket from New York to Liverpool, you would think that they would have wanted to have retained his services in the army.

[Andrew Upton]

2 hours ago, leibregiment said:

“At the meeting of this organization held on Saturday, November 8th, Captain James D'Orsay Murray, a speaker for the America First Committee , was the main attraction. His audience cheered when he gave the Nazi outstretched arm salute and described the customary handshake greeting as a sign of weakness. He praised Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and referred to Winston Churchill as a drunkard who would be lynched by the people of France if they could get their hands on him. He called President Roosevelt a forger, charging that the secret Nazi Map showing Germany’s intention with regard to South America was a fake. He offered old worn-out Nazi propaganda stories such as the claim that Athenia was suck by the British. He planted the seed of defeatism by claiming that Germany is merely prolonging the agony. Noble, chairman of the meeting, went even further in his praise of Hitler’s New Order and condemnation of the President. He charged that President Roosevelt was responsible for the murder of Huey Long.”

Christian American Guards was a California-based front organization for the German American Bund. The group was organised in November 1941.  The group was formerly known as the American Guard.

Why someone who had volunteered and served in the British army in the great war would take this stand is unknown.

 

1 hour ago, Keith_history_buff said:

How peculiar that he would indeed take that stand, having volunteered and served in the Great War. Thank you for sharing this very interesting anecdote.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Mosley

 

"In January 1914 Mosley entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, but was expelled in June for a "riotous act of retaliation" against a fellow student.^[6] During the First World War he was commissioned into the British cavalry unit the 16th The Queen's Lancers and fought in France on the Western Front. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as an observer, but while demonstrating in front of his mother and sister he crashed, which left him with a permanent limp, as well as a reputation for being brave and somewhat reckless.^[1] He returned to the trenches before the injury had fully healed, and at the Battle of Loos (1915) he passed out at his post from pain. He spent the remainder of the war at desk jobs in the Ministry of Munitions and in the Foreign Office.^[6]"

 

Former voluntary service in the Great War was no barrier to someone being a bad egg later in life...