The Suffolk Militia was an auxiliary military force in the county of Suffolk on the East Coast of England. From their formal organisation as Trained bands in 1558 until their final service as the Special Reserve, the Militia regiments of the county served in home defence in all of Britain's major wars, seeing action in the Second Dutch War, serving in Ireland and the Channel Islands, and 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 and Plantagenet kings and was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by the Statute of Winchester of 1285.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Fissell, pp. 178–80.Hay, pp. 14–7, 60–2.Maitland, pp. 162, 276. At a muster in 1539 the listed Hundreds of Suffolk produced the following forces:Hay, pp. 70–1.Hay, pp. 272–3. Risbridge: 161 archers, 178 billmen Wilford: 58 men in 'harness' (armour), 56 archers, 180 billmen Loes: 179 men Woodbridge (detached from Loes): 85 men Thredling: 141 men Cosford: 530 men
Under the Tudors the legal basis of the militia was updated by two acts of 1557 and covering musters (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 3) and the maintenance of horses and armour (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 2), which placed the county militia under a lord lieutenant appointed by the monarch and assisted by deputy lieutenants. The entry into force of these Acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England.Beckett, p. 20.Boynton, Chapter II.Fissell, pp. 184–5.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 125.Hay, p. 88.Maitland, pp. 234–5, 278.
Suffolk Trained Bands
Although the militia obligation was universal, it was clearly 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 (TBs), who were mustered for regular training. From 1583 the maritime counties such as Suffolk were given precedence for training: in return for a reduced quota they were supplied with professional captains to muster and train them. The Armada Crisis in 1588 led to the TBs being called out as the Armada approached. Suffolk was ordered to assign 2000 men to defend the county's ports and landing places and to send 2500 into Essex to join the Queen's army at Tilbury.Beckett, pp. 23–6.Boynton, pp. 13–7, 91–2, 96, Appendix I.Fissel, pp. 187–8.Hay, pp. 90, 95Hussey, p. 17.
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the TBs declined in the early 17th Century, but renewed Anglo-French tensions in the 1620s led to the Suffolk TBs being placed on alert for duty at Landguard Fort.Hussey, pp. 20–1. Later, King Charles I attempted to reform the TBs into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the king rather than local control.Beckett, pp. 33–9.Fissel, pp. 174–8. In 1638 the Suffolk Trained Bands mustered four regiments of foot and one of horse.Ive, pp. 230–3. The TBs were called upon to send contingents for the Bishops' Wars, in 1639 and 1640. Suffolk was unusually obedient in providing good men and weapons in 1639, but in 1640 the Suffolk men were unwilling, and mutinied.Fissel, pp. 83–4, 205–8, 252–5.
Control of the trained bands 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 between the King and Parliament, 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.Beckett, pp. 42–3.Maitland, pp. 325–6.Reid, pp. 1–2.
However, when the Second English Civil War broke out in 1648, the whole county force of Suffolk was called out to oppose the Royal army that had invaded Essex. The Suffolk TBs participated in the Siege of Colchester. They were embodied again during the insurrection in neighbouring Norfolk in November 1650.Ive, p. 223.Ive, pp. 209–10.Reid, pp. 224–5, 233. During the Third English Civil War a temporary brigade recruited from the Eastern Counties TBs for six months' service was sent north, but when the Scottish army moved south the Suffolk TBs marched to take part in the Battle of Worcester.Ive, pp. 79–81, 90, 212–4.Reid, p. 247 & 251
Restoration militia After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the English Militia was re-established by the Militia Act of 1661 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.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Hay, pp. 104–6.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Webb, pp. 422–3.Western, pp. 3–16.
James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk, was re-appointed Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk (and Cambridge), having previously held the post in 1640–42. He personally held the colonelcy of the Suffolk regiment of horse militia, and was also governor of Landguard Fort from 1665.
Militia musters were supposed to be held for four days each year, but in many counties this did not happen for several years at a time. Suffolk was one of the offending counties, and several times in the 1660s the Earl of Suffolk had to 'iterate' his orders for the settlement of the militia, as he was being called on for progress reports and feared the displeasure of Parliament. It was not until 1664 that the county militia had been reorganised:Western, pp. 26–7. Col Sir Henry North, 1st Baronet's Foot Regiment – Bury St Edmunds division Col Sir Philip Cooke's Foot Regiment – Ipswich division Col Sir Edmund Bacon's Foot Regiment – Half in Bury and half in Ipswich divisions Probably a foot regiment allocated to the Beccles division Suffolk Horse Militia under the Earl of Suffolk
Second Anglo-Dutch War
During the mid-17th century Suffolk was one of the counties most vulnerable to raids. Following the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665 musters lasting seven days in April and May were ordered for the Suffolk foot companies. A Dutch fleet cruised off the Suffolk coast for several weeks after the Four Days' Battle in June 1666, and the guns of Landguard Fort opened fire on a Dutch scout ship. The two militia companies stationed at Southwold were stood down, then on 10 July the Dutch appeared off the town, and the troops there had to be hurriedly reinforced. Next day the inhabitants of Aldeburgh were frightened by the appearance of Dutch warships, having only '35 ill-disciplined men of the trained band and 20 guns, but not enough to manage them'. Then on 22 July coast watchers saw the refitted and reinforced English fleet sailing up from the Thames Estuary. Three days later it routed the Dutch fleet at the St. James' Day Battle. The Earl of Suffolk ordered this victory to be celebrated at Ipswich with 'bonfires, guns and bells'.Hussey, pp. 40–4.
After the success at the St James's Day Battle, and with peace negotiations in progress, the British government became complacent and to save money it did not commission all its warships for the 1667 campaign. However, in June the Dutch fleet carried out a devastating raid on the River Medway, destroying a partly-built fort at Sheerness and burning or capturing many of the warships laid up in the estuary. The fleet then sailed north to the Suffolk coast.Hussey, pp. 48–53.Webb, p. 423.Western, pp. 42–3.
In early June Lord Berkeley was appointed Lieutenant-General of Militia for Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, and by 13 June he and his staff had established the regional defence headquarters at Harwich. Reports of the approaching Dutch came on 19 June, and the available troops were moved south, the Essex Militia to the coast and the Suffolk towards Landguard, leaving Aldeburgh, Lowestoft, Southwold and Dunwich unguarded. The people of Aldeburgh were reported to be moving their valuables inland in case of attack. Next day the Dutch were sighted off Harwich, where the authorities prepared blockships to close the harbour entrance, and fireships to use against the Dutch warships. With detachments still raiding the Thames Estuary, the main Dutch fleet cruised off Suffolk, causing the militia to reoccupy the coastal towns: Sir John Rous, 1st Baronet (MP for Dunwich) took his company back to Southwold, Sir Edmund Bacon's company went back to Lowestoft, and there were three companies and a horse troop at Aldeburgh.
On 1 July the Dutch fleet off Harwich disappeared northwards, only to come back close inshore next day, having received reinforcements for its landing force. As they ran down before a favourable wind, the Dutch could see Sir Philip Parker, 1st Baronet's 'White Regiment' of Suffolk Militia being ferried across the River Deben at Bawdsey Ferry in an attempt to shadow their progress. A detachment of Dutch gunboats was sent in and opened fire to stop this operation, leaving more than half the foot militia north of the river, and forcing the horse militia to ride round the estuary via Woodbridge. The gunboats only withdrew when the tide changed in the afternoon, and the rest of the foot could be ferried over to Felixstowe. Meanwhile, five companies of the Yellow Regiment of Suffolk Militia under Major Holland had been ordered to march out of Old Felixstowe down to Landguard Fort.Hussey, pp. 53–69.Hussey, pp. 70–1.Western, p. 38.
The Dutch anchored off Felixstowe about midday and the landings began in the afternoon about north of Landguard Fort. About 1650 infantry, marines and sailors were landed with engineering equipment to make an attempt on the fort. They marched south, putting out flank guards in the hedgerows to keep Holland's militia at a distance (also hovering around were the sixth company of the Yellow regiment and their affiliated troop of horse, and a troop from Cambridgeshire). Two squadrons of warships also stood in to bombard the fort, but could not get close because of sandbanks, reducing the effect of their fire. The garrison of the fort consisted of a company of the Lord High Admiral's Regiment under Captain Nathaniel Darell, bolstered to about 200 by Major Holland and some of his men. The attacking force consisted of three storming parties each of about 200 musketeers, equipped with grenades, fascines (to throw into the fort's ditch) and scaling ladders. These columns came under heavy musketry and cannon fire from the garrison. Their return fire was ineffective. They also came under fire from English warships in the harbour firing over the neck of land, and by a small vessel that came close inshore and fired into the shingle to create potentially fatal showers of stones. The Dutch sought cover and suffered few casualties, though some did penetrate as far as the palisades guarding the ditch.