The Royal Dublin Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army created in 1881 and disbanded in 1922. It was one of eight 'Irish' regiments of the army which were raised and garrisoned in Ireland, with the regiment's home depot being located in Naas. The regiment was created via the amalgamation of the Royal Bombay Fusiliers and Royal Madras Fusiliers, two army regiments stationed in India, with militia units from Dublin and Kildare as part of the Childers Reforms. Both battalions of the regiment served in the Second Boer War.

During World War I, a further six battalions were raised and the regiment saw action on the Western Front, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, during which its members won three Victoria Cross medals. Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, five army regiments whose traditional recruiting grounds were located in the new state, including the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, were disbanded.

History

Early history

The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as a result of Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 102nd Regiment of Foot (Royal Madras Fusiliers) and the 103rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Bombay Fusiliers). Both the fusilier regiments had originated as "European" regiments of the East India Company and transferred to the British Army in 1861 when the British Crown took control of the company's private army after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Under the reforms five infantry battalions were given Irish territorial titles and the 102nd and 103rd Regiments of Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

It was one of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, and served the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow and Carlow, with its garrison depot located at Naas. Militarily, the whole of Ireland was administered as a separate command within the United Kingdom with Command Headquarters at Parkgate (Phoenix Park) Dublin, directly under the War Office in London. Many of those killed while on service with the regiment and some of their relatives are buried in the Grangegorman Military Cemetery.

The 102nd was based in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) when it became the 1st Battalion. It moved back to the UK in 1886, being based in England, before moving to the Curragh in Ireland. It returned to England in 1893, remaining there until the Second Boer War began in South Africa in 1899: it arrived in South Africa in November 1899.

Second Boer War

left|thumb|Royal Dublin Fusiliers during the Second Boer War, 1899–1902 (IWM Q72298)

thumb|[[Fusiliers' Arch, nicknamed "Traitors' Gate" by Irish Republicans, commemorates the Royal Dublin Fusiliers killed in the Second Boer War, St Stephen's Green, Dublin]]

The Boers declared war on 12 October and invaded Natal and the Cape Colony. On 20 October the 2nd Dublins took part in the first major battle of the war, the Battle of Talana Hill near Dundee. The Boers had appeared on Talana Hill in the early morning and after they launched a few shells at Dundee, the garrison responded and attacked the hill. The 2nd Dublins took part in the attack and, after some fierce fighting, removed the Boers. They suffered heavy casualties in the process, losing, amongst others, Captain George Anderson Weldon, the first officer of the Dublins to be killed in the war. The British had to abandon Dundee soon afterwards, withdrawing to Ladysmith. The Boers besieged the town in late October. On 30 October the garrison's commander, Sir George Stuart White VC, ordered an attack on Lombard's Kop which the Dublin Fusiliers took part in.

On 15 November 1899, a detachment of Dubliners and the Durban Light Infantry were garrisoning an armoured train operating from Estcourt with the objective of monitoring Boer movements. The Boers ambushed them on their return and a section of the train was de-railed in the chaos. Among the passengers was Winston Churchill, then a war correspondent accompanying the detachment, who helped load the train engine with wounded before it made an escape attempt, pushing through the de-railed section that blocked its path and making it through safely. The remaining troops put up a stout defence until they were eventually compelled to surrender, including Churchill who had returned to the remaining defenders. Churchill later made a successful escape attempt from his prison in Pretoria. He wrote glowingly of the gallantry displayed by the Dublin Fusiliers and the other troops that were present during the ambush. The Dublins lost three men during the ambush.

The Dublin Fusiliers actively took part in the efforts to lift the Siege of Ladysmith, which lasted from 30 October 1899 to 28 February 1900. On 15 December the 2nd Dublins took part in the Battle of Colenso. The Dublins were part of the 5th Brigade (known as the Irish Brigade) who crossed the wrong part of the Tugela River and suffered heavy casualties in the process. The battle was a defeat for the British forces and became part of a notorious period for the British in the war, known as "Black Week". The defeat, however, did not discourage further attempts being made. The Dublins did not participate in any more attempts until January 1900 when they took part in the Tugela campaign, collectively known as the Battle of the Tugela Heights. February saw the Dublins take part in heavy fighting before, on 27 February, they supported the Royal Irish Fusiliers in their final charge on Pieters Hill, suffering heavy casualties though taking the position. This victory led to the siege of Ladysmith being lifted the following day by cavalry, with the main force of infantry arriving on 3 March. On 10 March 1900 Queen Victoria decreed that a sprig of shamrock be adorned on the headdress of Irish units on Saint Patrick's Day to commemorate their actions in South Africa. This tradition remains in existence with Irish units of the British Army.

In May, the British began their advance towards the Transvaal, one of the Boer republics, and early the following month the Dublins took part in the effort against Laing's Nek during the attempt to achieve an entry into the Transvaal. This was successfully achieved and the capital, Pretoria, was captured on 5 June. The war, however, did not end and the Boers began a guerrilla campaign against the British. During this phase of the war, many blockhouses were constructed to help restrict the movement of the Boer guerrillas and men of the Dublin Fusiliers helped to garrison them. This phase of the war also saw the mounted infantry companies, among which were Dublin Fusiliers MI, in their element, hunting the (now small) groups of Boers. The Dublin Fusiliers also took part in the hunt for Christiaan de Wet, a prominent Boer officer.

The last of the Boers surrendered in May 1902, the Treaty of Vereeniging formally ending the conflict. During the war, volunteers from the three militia battalions of the Dublins had been used to provide reinforcements for the two regular battalions fighting in South Africa. The 2nd Dublins had left South Africa in January 1902. The Dublins suffered nearly 700 casualties (killed, wounded, missing) during the conflict, many of whom died of disease, indeed the vast majority of British Army casualties were from disease.

The 4th (Militia) battalion, formed from the Royal Dublin City Militia in 1881, was one of the reserve battalions. It was embodied in May 1900, disembodied in December the same year, and later re-embodied for service in South Africa during the Second Boer War. 17 officers and 524 men returned aboard , arriving at Queenstown (now Cobh) on 2 October 1902.

A music hall song commemorating the bravery of the fusiliers was entitled: "What Do You Think of the Irish Now?" by Albert Hall and Harry Castling. One of the verses said: "You used to call us traitors/ Because of agitators/ But you can't call us traitors now."

After the end of the Boer War the 1st Battalion transferred to Malta on the SS Dominion in November 1902, and was also partly based at Crete, both in the Mediterranean. It was posted to Egypt in 1906, where it later received its Colours at Alexandria by the regiment's Colonel-in-Chief, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. The 1st Dublins later joined the British garrison in India, the then overseas 'home' of the British Army, remaining there until the outbreak of war in 1914.

Upon the conclusion of the war, the 2nd Battalion returned to the UK, being based in Buttevant, County Cork, Ireland. It left for Aldershot, England in 1910, where it received its new colours from the regiment's Colonel-in-Chief the following year. It remained in England until war began in 1914. The regiment now had three Reserve but no Territorial battalions.

Western Front

The 2nd Dublins arrived in France in the month war was declared as part of the 10th Brigade in the 4th Division. The battalion did not take part in any more major battles for the rest of the year. The regiment's last major battle was in the Battle of the Sambre on 4 November.

Gallipoli, Salonika and the Middle East

thumb|right|V Beach, viewed from the [[SS River Clyde|SS River Clyde on 25 April 1915]]

thumb|left|Officers of the 1st Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, March 1915. This photo was likely taken in [[Torquay, Devon, prior to embarkation to Gallipoli.]]

The 1st, 6th and 7th Dublins all took part in the Allied Gallipoli Campaign in the Dardanelles after Turkey joined the Central Powers in November 1914. It was an effort to support Russia by keeping the Dardanelles Strait open. The 1st Dublins, as part of 86th Brigade of the 29th Division, landed at V Beach, Cape Helles on 25 April. In spite of the severe casualties, the British forces managed to land large numbers of troops by nightfall. On the morning of 26 April the British force, including the Dublins, took the fortress, led by Lieutenant Colonel Doughty-Wylie, before moving onto the village of Sedd el Bahr. Lieutenant-Colonel Doughty-Wylie and Captain Walford (who helped organise the attack) both died at the moment of victory. The 1st Battalion sustained just over 600 casualties within the first two days, out of a total of just over 1000 men that had landed. Nearly all of their officers, including Lieutenant Colonel Richard Alexander Rooth, had been killed on the day of the landings. The battalion and the 1st Munsters had suffered so heavily that they had to form a composite battalion known as the 'Dubsters' on 30 April.

thumb|right|The 6th Dubin Fusiliers on a route march near [[Basingstoke, Hampshire, 1915]]

The 6th and 7th Dublins joined the 30th Brigade of the 10th (Irish) Division upon their creation in August 1914. gaining the company the nickname 'The Toffs' which was in reference to the 2nd Dublins nickname, 'The Old Toughs'.

Meanwhile, the 6th and 7th Dublins had landed in Salonika in October 1915 In August 1917 the 6th and 7th, along with the rest of the 10th (Irish), were ordered to concentrate in Salonika in preparation for moving from the Balkans. The following month the division arrived in Egypt and then commenced their participation in the Palestine campaign. 11 of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers were killed and 35 more wounded. John Dillon, an Irish MP who was in Dublin during the Easter Rising, told the House of Commons "I asked Sir John Maxwell himself, "Have you any cause of complaint of the Dublins who had to go down and fight their own people in the streets of Dublin? Did a single man turn back and betray the uniform he wears?” He told me, "Not a man." At the court martial of Seán Heuston two Royal Dublin Fusiliers officers, Captain A W MacDermot and Lieutenant W P Connolly give evidence against Heuston that resulted in him being executed by firing squad on 8 May 1916.

Guinness brewery killings

On the night of 29 April 1916, a picket of the 5th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers stationed within the Guinness Brewery arrested and then shot dead William John Rice and Algernon Lucas. The same night, in a separate incident, Cecil Dockeray, and Basil Worsley-Warswick were shot. 2nd Lt Lucas and 2nd Lt Worsley-Warswick were officers in the King Edward's Horse, Rice and Dockeray were employees at the brewery. The four men were killed while carrying out routine inspections of the premises. Company quartermaster sergeant Robert Flood, commander of the picket and who ordered the executions was court-martialled, charged with the murders of Rice and Lucas but was acquitted, claiming in his defence that he believed the four to be members of Sinn Féin and that his picket was too small to guard the four prisoners. In the court martial, it was made clear that neither Rice nor Dockeray were connected to or sympathetic to Sinn Féin or the rising. including the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. On 12 June, five regimental Colours were laid up in a ceremony at St George's Hall, Windsor Castle in the presence of HM King George V. (The South Irish Horse sent a Regimental engraving because the regiment chose to have its standard remain in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin). The Dublin Fusiliers detachment included the commanding officers of the 1st Dublins and 2nd Dublins, lieutenant-colonels C. N. Perreau and G. S. Higgingson, who had been captured in France during the first year of World War I, and the regiment's Colonel-in-Chief, the Duke of Connaught. The Colours remain there as of 2005. The six regiments were all disbanded on 31 July 1922. With the outbreak of the Irish Civil War conflict some thousands of their ex-servicemen and officers chose to enlist in the Free State government's newly formed National Army. The British Army veterans brought considerable combat experience with them and by May 1923 comprised 50% of its 53,000 soldiers and 20% of its officers.

On 27 April 2001, the Irish government officially acknowledged the role of the soldiers of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who fought in the First World War by hosting a State Reception at Dublin Castle for the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association.

Battalions

Battalions of the regiment throughout its existence were:

Formation

  • 1st Battalion (Regular), disbanded 1922, former 102nd (Royal Madras Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot
  • 2nd Battalion (Regular), disbanded 1922, former 103rd (Royal Bombay Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot
  • 3rd (Kildare Rifles Militia) Battalion (Special Reserve), disbanded 1922
  • 4th (Queen's Own Royal Dublin City Militia) Battalion (Extra Reserve), disbanded 1922
  • 5th (Dublin County Light Infantry Militia) Battalion (Extra Reserve), disbanded 1922

First World War

  • 6th (Service) Battalion, raised 1914, cadre 1918, disbanded 1919
  • 7th (Service) Battalion, raised 1914, absorbed 1918 into 2nd Btn
  • 8th (Service) Battalion, raised 1914, amalgamated 1918 and disbanded
  • 9th (Service) Battalion, raised 1914, amalgamated 1918
  • 10th (Service) Battalion, raised 1915, disbanded 1918
  • 11th (Reserve) Battalion, raised 1916, disbanded 1918

Victoria Cross recipients

  • Sergeant Horace Augustus Curtis (2nd Battalion)- First World War, 13 October 1918
  • Sergeant Robert Downie (2nd Battalion) - First World War, 23 October 1916
  • Sergeant James Ockendon (1st Battalion) - First World War, 4 October 1917

Battle honours

The regiment's battle honours were as follows: