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The East Devonshire. or 20th Regiment, as
it was formerly called from 1782 until it was changed to the
"Lancashire Fusiliers" in 1881, was raised by Sir Robert Peyton
in 1688, and served in the Irish wars until 1691. It took part in
the expeditions to Cadiz and Portugal in 1702 and 1707, but saw no further
active service until 1743, when it was present at Dettingen and Fontenoy.
The Jacobite rising of 1745 recalled it to England to assist in the siege
of Carlisle and the battle of Culloden; but after Dettingen the next
important battle was that of Minden, where "Kingsley's Regiment"
lost 17 officers and 310 men killed and wounded; but, though released from
duty because of this, they requested to resume their "portion of duty
in the line". As one of the six "unsurpassable"
Minden regiments, therefore, the 20th wear the laurel-wreath on their
colours. They returned, says Thackeray in "The
Virginians", "as covered with laurels as a Jack-a-Green on May
Day". The "Minden rose" on the colours was long
believed to have been worked by Queen Anne; but the original colours were
burnt at the surrender at Saratoga in 1771. Their charging cheer is
known as the "Minden yell", their march as the old 20th was the
"Minden March" though now, like other Fusilier regiments, they
use the "British Grenadiers". On the 1st August, the
anniversary of the great day, the toast after "The Queen" is
that of "To those who fell at Minden", and is drunk in solemn
silence. The rose on the colours, and on the mess-table on Minden
day, are traditionally believed to be a remembrance of the roses the men
plucked and wore as they crushed through the gardens to the great
fight. At Warburg, Zierenberg, Wesel. Kirch-Denkern, Groebenstein,
and Wilhelmsthal they displayed equal bravery, and after the conclusion of
hostilities embarked for Canada to form part of Burgoyne's army, and to
surrender at Saratoga.
"Egmont-op-Zee" is the next name
on the colours, and the regiments also bears the Sphinx and
"Egypt" for its good service at Alexandria in 1801. While
on its way homeward it landed in Calabria, and helped materially to gain
the victory of Maida by a brilliant flank attack when the issue was by no
means certain. For many years afterwards the men wore myrtle in
their caps on each 4th of July, in remembrance of the myrtle clad slopes
of Maida. It served in the Peninsula in 1808, and was present at
Vimiera and Corunna, sharing in the horrors of the retreat through snow
and frost, when it was dreadful to see lying by the roadside the numbers
of dead, consisting of men, and sometimes women and children; and in
1812-14 fighting at Vittoria, the Pyrenees, St Sebastian, Nivelle, Orthes
and Toulouse. It relieved the 66th in guarding Napoleon at St
Helena, and twelve of its grenadiers carried the Emperor's body to its
first resting place at Longwood. Some relics of the Napoleonic wars
are still retained in the regiment. These are a black silk rosette -
one of those made by the ladies of Toulouse for each officer - a lock of
the Emperor's hair, a feather from his hat, and three volumes of
Marlborough's Campaigns given by Napoleon, and containing his name on the
title page, a name which Sir Hudson Lowe tried to insist on having erased!
A 2nd battalion had meanwhile been
added. It was first raised in 1756, but after two years became the
67th Regiment of the Line. The next appeared in 1799, and was
reduced in 1802; the third and last dates from 1842.
The regiment saw much service in the
Crimea, embarking for that war in 1854, and fighting at the Alma and
Inkerman, where they charged with the "Minden yell"; - in
the siege of Sevastopol, notably at the assaults of the 10th June and 8th
September 1855; and at the capture of Kinburn. At Inkerman
Assistant-Surgeon Wolseley was cut off by the advance of a Russian column,
but, says the sergeant who describes the gallant story, "swe charged
into a body of Russians without any support, and it's the greatest miracle
in the world how we ever came out again. The last words we heard
from Sir George Cathcart were, "Nobly done, 20th!" It was
reported to be the only regiment that marched into the captured town with
bands playing and colours flying. Its last active service was during
the Mutiny, when it was engaged at Chauda, Umeerpore, Sultanpore, the
operations in Oude and the Trans-Gogra district, and for its services
bears "Lucknow" on its colours. Among its most
distinguished officers may be noted Wolfe, the hero of Quebec, who,
entering the service in "Wolfe's Regiment of Marines", was later
on transferred to the 20th, which he commanded in 1758. The 3rd and
4th battalions are composed of the former 7th Royal Lancashire
Militia. The Volunteer battalions are the 8th, 12th and 17th
Lancashire, with headquarters at Bury, Rochdale, and Salford
respectively.
The Lancashire Fusiliers wear scarlet
uniforms with white facings. The Sphinx and laurel, crowned, are
worn on the button; a grenade, added when it became a Fusilier regiment,
on collar, cap, and waist-plate. Though no motto appears in the
official Army List, it claims to have that of "Omnia audax".
Its nickname of the "Two Tens" refers to the old number of the
regiment; those of the "Minden Boys" and "Kingsley's
Stand" relate to the great battle in which it distinguished itself;
but in the Peninsula it seems to have been known as the "Young
Fusiliers". |
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Lancashire Fusiliers by Harry Payne
Print serial number UN010.
Image size 7" x 12".
Print price £13 ($22).
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Captain Willis Heading a
Charge by a Landing Party Through Wire Entanglements and Under Heavy
Fire Near Cape Helles.
As the Lancashire Fusiliers landed on the shores of the Gallipoli
Peninsula on April 25th 1915, at a point west of Cape Helles,
a deadly fire assailed them from hidden machine guns.
Many of the men fell, but the survivors, with undaunted courage,
rushed up and cut the wire entanglements.
The difficulties of the attack were supreme, but Captain Richard
Raymond Willis, Sergeant Richards and Private Keneally, of the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, performed signal acts of bravery and
devotion to duty. The
cliffs were at length gained, and the position was maintained while the
conspicuous gallantry of Captain Willis was rewarded with the V.C.
First World War antique black and white book plate published c.1916-18 of glorious acts
of heroism during the Great War. This plate may also have text on the
reverse side which does not affect the framed side.
Order Code DTE248.
Title and text describing the event beneath image as shown. Paper
size 10.5" x 8.5" (27cm x 22cm)
Price £13 |
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How
Private Lynn, Of The 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, Won
The D.C.M., And The V.C.
Private
Lynn, of the Lancashire Fusiliers, might almost have been said that he
was born a hero. From the
moment the Great War broke out and the British Expeditionary Force
landed in France, he attracted the attention of his officers and
comrades by his cheerfulness in adversity and his utter contempt of
danger. Indeed, he might
almost be said to have set up his own standard of courage, for the
magnificent exploit which brought him a hero’s death and the Victoria
Cross was but the crowning act of a life of heroism, and merely an
eclipse of his own previous records.
He wasn’t destined to be feted or acclaimed, to hear his name
become a household word, to see him the idol of admiring thousands.
Indeed, death robbed him of the knowledge that his supreme act of
self-sacrifice had not passed unnoticed.
But wherever the English language is spoken the name of Lynn will
be held in honoured remembrance, for his life and death added a new page
to the long chapter of our national glory.
The campaign had not been a month old when
Lynn made his mark. The
regiment was strenuously engaged in the region of the river Aisne, and
the Germans were on the point of delivering one of their massed attacks
when his machine gun jammed, a habit to which even the best of machine
gun is addicted. The
situation was critical, for a machine gun is worth a thousand men at
such a moment quick as though Lynn dismounted his gun, carried it to the
rear under a heavy fire, repaired it with the calm precision of a boy
playing in his nursery, and returned in time to annihilate the attacking
column. For so valuable a
service he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
No one was more surprised than he when the good news was
announced, for to himself he pictured his deed as a simple act of duty,
neither requiring nor deserving any special recognition.
Of such staff are heroes made.
The long winter passed and with it a period
of cheerless days and sleepless nights in the welter of Flemish mud.
The spring dried the ground.
The weather became warmer, and even the professional grumbler who
flourish in every British Regiment found him becoming moderately
contended. And then, as the end of April was approaching, the enemy
showed that he had lost none of his cunning.
What he had lost was his sense of chivalry, even of soldierly
decency, and in a moment he told the world that there was no level to
which he would not stoop if military advantage might be snatched
thereby. He started out to
poison his foes with the most virulent gases his chemists and scientists
could find all the world knows the story of the second battle of Ypres,
how for three weeks our men, surprised and unprepared, held their ground
round the ruined city while the poisonous fumes rolled over them,
enveloped them choked and killed them.
On one of the most critical days of that most critical period the
Lancashire Fusiliers were peacefully making their tea in the trenches.
Some six hundred yards away was the enemy’s line.
There was a lull in the awful storm of shelling which had raged
incessantly for a week. Suddenly
the sentries called attention to a greenish yellow smoke of which was
rising from the German trenches. The
regiment had not had practical experience of the gas before, as they had
only just arrived at that part of the front.
Respirators of a sort had been issued to them the day before, but
their efficiency was uncertain, and, indeed, they were replaced by a new
pattern immediately afterwards. In
ignorance of what was happening the men watched the advancing cloud no
little curiosity. The
Germans were seen retiring from their front trench, and immediately Lynn
got his machine gun on to them with great effect.
In a few moments, however, the poisonous vapour was rolling over
the parapet, filing every hollow ground, and sinking to the bottom of
the trench. There was no
escape. The men choked and
blinded, fell writhing on the ground, and almost immediately came the
order to retire to reserve trenches.
Within a few seconds the trench was left to the dead, and dying,
and a mere handful of British soldiers, among them Private Lynn.
In the agony and confusion of that crisis Lynn realised that
behind that cloud of gas the enemy were advancing, and that the trench
was as good as lost. He
made up his mind that the trench should not be lost. There was no time to fix his respirator, though his eyes and
lungs were full of the poisonous fumes and his efforts to breathe
brought the blood to his mouth. One
by one his comrades succumbed and dropped, and soon he was alone.
The advancing Germans were near now, confident that their new
weapon had delivered their enemies into their hands.
They expected a trench empty except for corpses.
They were mistaken. The
very might and majesty of Britain stood waiting for them in the person
of a simple private soldier. With
a bound Lynn was on the parapet and had trained his machine gun straight
ahead through the gas. The
Germans could not see him they fell in heaps until the remnant lost
heart and retired defeated. No
German soldier set foot in that trench which the valour of one man had
saved. Meanwhile,
reinforcements had been brought up, and the Lancashire Fusiliers
prepared to charge and recover the trench, which they had given up for,
lost. What was their
amazement on discovering it tenanted, not by the enemy, but by Lynn, now
in the last stage of exhaustion, but still fighting his gun from the top
of the parapet. They lifted
him up and tenderly carried him away to a dug out.
Not even then did the hero’s spirit fail him.
A short time after the alarm was given for a second attack. Lynn left the dug out at once and made a frantic effort to
reach his gun. It was too
late. The deadly poison had
done its work. Only those
that have seen the sufferings caused by gas poisoning can realize the
agonies he endured before death, more merciful than the Germans,
released him from his pain twenty-four hours later.
“Somewhere in France” Lynn sleeps his
last sleep, but he has a place in our hearts and memories, in the
imperishable records of our fighting race. Extracted
from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire' |
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Lancashire Fusiliers by Richard Simkin
From the supplement of the Army and Navy Gazette, August 3rd 1895.
Original chromolithograph image size 10" x 13". One copy
available price £110. Order code SIM44.
Some light fold marks which do not show on image plus some foxing and
a small tear on left border
Please note left hand side of image has been cropped. |
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