The 2nd Battalion, Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment

(Royal Canadians)

Aldershot

Uniform

England 1888 - 1892

On the 18th January 1888 the 2nd Battalion departed for England from Ireland, when they embarked upon  HMS Assistance for conveyance to  Shorncliffe, Dover.

The Assistance was an old worn out ship whose early demise was always being expected, and the vessel had an extraordinary affinity for bad weather. The voyage was one  of those usually experienced by her, with fog, headwinds and a breakdown of the engines that protracted the passage to five days. As most of the men of the Regiment came from the centre of Ireland, and had never even been to sea previously, they were not sorry to arrive at Dover, especially after all the rolling about! Having disembarked at Dover, the Battalion joined other troops to be stationed in Dover, namely the 14th Hussars, two batteries of the Royal Artillery and the 1st Oxfordshire Light Infantry. By the 23rd of July 1888 the strength of the Battalion was recorded as 22 officers, two warrant officers, 40 sergeants, 15 drummers, 747 rank and file, giving a total of 826 of all ranks.

The Regiment were quartered in huts that were in extremely bad repair at Shorncliffe, and as the camp was on the top of a hill, the cold wind that swept hill at times was very severe. The first winter they experienced was a very cold with a lot of frost and snow. The snow would drift into the huts through doors and windows, despite attempts to tightly shut them. There was often snow on the beds of the soldiers in the morning and always in the passage where they washed. Whilst in Dover the 2nd Battalion exchanged hospitality with the 89th Royal Irish Fusiliers and practiced musketry against them. A piece of silver plate was presented to the Officer's Mess by the officers of the 89th to commemorate the friendly relations, and this became a treasured article of the mess silver up to the disbanding of the Battalion in 1922. In 1890 the Regiment was ordered to move to Aldershot, and as Aldershot was in those days the heart of the British military machine, a brief description of the conditions in the 1890s may be of interest.

Aldershot

On 11th of February 1891, the 2nd Battalion left Shorncliffe for it's new station in Aldershot, its strength on arrival being

• 25 officers,
• 2 warrant officers
• 640 other ranks

and on the same day a new establishment was ordered to bring the Battalion up to 1009 of all ranks.

Both in military and other respects the place was far different from the Aldershot of today. Today Aldershot is a vast town but, when the 2nd Battalion went to it, in place of the modern brick barracks which now exist, there were row upon row of wooden huts originally destined for the Crimean War.

Permanent barracks known as the Wellington lines had been built for some time but considered to be uncomfortable by the officers. The Officers Mess was characterised by "unnecessarily large mess rooms and small anti-rooms". There were no bathrooms and, although electric light was fairly common in those days, there was no such utility in Aldershot. Even gas, introduced in 1816, had not found its way to military Aldershot! Both Mess and Barrack rooms were lit by the old, wasteful, dangerous and smelly system of oil lamps. Needless to say there were no telephones although these instruments had been for years in common use elsewhere.

The uniform of the army or at Aldershot was a red tunic, although in those days recruits had begun to wear a blue jumper, and a similar jacket was struggling for recognition as "undress" for officers. The official undress was a heavy blue garment called patrol jacket, garnished in front with heavy braiding, which, in summer felt uncomfortably hot. Also taking place at the same time was the introduction of Red Serge. This was in effect the tunic minus the ornate and expensive embellishments of the latter, and was created to enable an officer to take to the field without a plaster of gold lace. This also enabled him to avoid damage to at least 12 guineas worth of uniform in an afternoon. The more French looking Shako had replaced the helmets, while for undress, there was a smart, but uncomfortable, forage cap with its peak pressed against the forehead. For drill order there a streamlined fatigue cap replaced Glengarry, now seen only in Scottish Regiments. The weapon for the Battalion was a magazine rifle, the longer barreled Lee-Metford, which had replaced the Martin Henry.

An officer wore in those days a spiked helmet, covered with blue cloth, with the helmet plate in front containing the badge the Regiment. The jacket was "red serge", identical to the scarlet tunic, except that it was made of serge, not cloth; and that all gold lace was absent. Badges of rank were military stars, but in those days the significance of the emblems were different i.e. a captain wore two stars, a Lieutenant one, and a 2nd Lieutenant had shoulder straps very similar to those worn by an army schoolmaster. The crimson sash was worn over the left shoulder and the sword was slung from a white buff belt, worn outside the red serge tunic around the waist. It fastened in front by a buckle, on which was, in silver gilt, the Prince of Wales's plume inside the wreath of maple and laurel leaves, the latter marking the 109th distinguished service in the Indian Mutiny. On both this buckle and the helmet plate was displayed the honour "Central India". The haversack was white, and on the back of the belt was a rolled cape or greatcoat of dark grey cloth. A sword with a brass hilt was worn with a steel scabbard. Trousers of blue cloth with narrow red piping, (stripes) low black gaiters which reached just above the ankle and stout black boots.

The 2nd Battalion was one of the last units to serve in the old wooden huts of Aldershot, but soon moved into the new Albulhera barracks in the Stanhope lines. During this period John Dickson made rapid promotion having initially been promoted to lance-corporal in 1889 through corporal in 1890 and rapidly to Lance-Sergeant in June of 1991 some 6 years after joining the Battalion in Birr.

Whilst in Aldershot the Battalion spent much of its time practicing marching in full kit and the Battalion prided itself  that it could march any other Battalion in Aldershot off its feet. Manoeuvres were carried out by the Battalion in Frensham in 1892 and on Berkshire Downs in 1893.

In January 1892 John Dickson was promoted to full Sergeant.

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