The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-04-11 00:00:00

THE EASTER VOLUNTEER,
MANCEDTRES.
GRAND REVIEW AT BRIGHTON.'

The manceuvres for which great preparations had
for some time been in progress by the volunteer
forces of the country were climaxed on Easter
Monday by a grand review on the Downs in weather
with which the most inveterate grumbler could hardly
find fault. Most of the regiments mustered early, and
the period during which they waited on the 'White
Hawk-hill they afforded keen enjoyment to all who
could appreciate a picturesque spectacle. The Duke
of Cambridge reached the ground on horseback a
quarter of an hour before the time fixed for the march
past. Promptly the duke took post, under the great
banner of crimson and gold, and the march past
began. The volunteer force on the ground numbered,
according to the field state, 18,866 officers and men;
and there were additional details, such as the two
squadrons of Middlesex Yeomanry and the 4th
Dragoon Guards, to which fine regiment of heavy
cavalry was entrusted the duty of keeping the
ground, that brought the grand total up to little short
of 20,000 all told. The Volunteer Army was com-
posed of three divisions, two of which were subdivided
into two brigades each, while the third contained
three brigades. The command of the Ist Division
vested in Major-General Hon. W. Fielding, corn
mending 3rd Brigade, Aldershot, and his briga-
diers were Lieutenant-Colonel A. C. Hamilton,
R.E. (let Brigade), and Colonel H. Panter, 37th
Regimental District (2nd Brigade). In command of
the 2nd Division was that distinguished cavalry officer
Maj.-Gen. Sir Drury Lowe, K.C.8., commanding
Cavalry brigade, Aldershot; egad of it the Ist Brigade
was commanded by Colonel J. S. Hand, commanding
44th Regimental District, and the 2nd Brigade by
Colonel Gordon Ives, 18th Middlesex R.V.C. The
officer commanding the 3rd Division was Major-
General R. Gipps, C. 8., commanding Home District,
whose brigade commanders were Colonel G. H.
Moncrieff, Scots Guards (Ist Brigade), Colonel
G. R. Fitzroy, Coldstream Guards (2nd Brigade),
and Colonel Viscount Bury, K.C.M.G., 12th Middle-
sex R.V.C. (3rd Brigade). Of the Ist Division the
Ist Brigade consisted partly of Metropolitan and
partly of Essex I•egiments, the 2nd Brigade almost
wholly of Surrey corps. The Ist Brigade of the 2nd
D;vision consisted entirely of provincial battalions,
the 2nd partly of Surrey, partly of London corps.
All three brigades of the 3rd Division were composed
of Middlesex regiments.
The cavalry arm was scantily represented. The
mounted men of the Honourable Artillery Company
were the first to pass the saluting-point, and presented
a smart and servicable appearance. They were fol-
lowed by four (nominal) troops of the Middlesex
Yeomanry, in rank entire, who showed to as much
advantage now as they had done on the Friday and
Saturday previous in the more practical service of
field work. Then came the artillery, twenty-four
heavy guns in all, drawn by heavy cart-horses, and
the complete field battery of the H.A.C., which,
as regards dressing and general smartness,
may compare not unfavourably with regulars
of the same arm. All the engineer battalions
marched past correctly and smartly, the palm perhaps
resting with Colonel Kirby's Tower Hamlets' men.
The Surrey men won universal appreciation, and, if
the 3rd and 4th were most accurate in dressing and
intervals, there was little to choose between them and
their comrades of the Ist and 2nd battalions. No
regiment did much better than Colonel Routledge'n
battalion of Royal Fusiliers, which constituted the
divisional infantry of the Ist Division. The fine phy-
sique of the provincial battalions comprised in the Ist
Brigade of the 2nd Division was very noteworthy, and
Sir Robert Lindsay's Berkshire Corps, the strongest
on the ground—it mustered 800 men—conquered
successfully the difficulty of exceptionally large com-
panies. The Lancashire lads upheld their time-
honoured reputation for fine marching, and Colonel
Tamplin's Brighton battalion was of course the local
favourite, and quite deserved the plaudits with which
its good work was hailed. The Woolwich Arsenal
Corps (3rd West Kent) showed to great advantage in
the 2nd Brigade of Sir Drury Lowe's divi.,ion
and in the 3rd Division the marching honours
were shared by the Lo idon Scottish, the 22nd
Middlesex, the Victories, and the St. George's.
The Artists hardly did so well as usual, getting
a little flurried in coming up the straight; and pro-
bably if the votes of experts on the ground were to be
taken, the consensus of opinion would designate the
London Scottish as doing best, where all did well. It
was as a whole a very remarkable spectacle, regarded
purely in a military sense, and one which might bear
comparison with the performance of almost any
infantry of the line since the introduction of the short
service. As the troops passed the saluting point
they moved along the racecourse in the direction of
the battle ground, and took up the assigned
positions preparatory to the commencement of
hostilities. Hitherto they had been one army;
now they were to
.separate into friend and foe.
The "friend "—that is to say, the force representing
a portion of the British army concerning itself in the
discomfiture of an invader—consisted of the Ist and
2nd Divisions, which had for their commander
Major-General R. White, commanding the Eastern
District. The " foe " was headed by Major-General
Monck, commanding Chatham district, who had at
his disposal the 3rd Division. Contrary to the usual
order of things, the "friend " engaged in the
defence of England constituted the "attacking
force." The "foe," since the work set him was to
defend himself when caught in the act of inva-
sion, was the "defending force." The common
objective of friend and foe alike, according to "the
idea," was Brighton, the former bent on its protec-
tion, the latter with quite another intent. Having
landed at Newhaven, the foe had been moving toward
Brighton along the coast, and when so near it as
Rottingdean had found his right threatened by a
British force hurrying southward for its protection.
Thus threatened, the foe had to pause in his march
and take up a defensive position to his own right (his
front facing northward) to meet and, if possible, to
repel the attack of the British force which had got as
far on its march of succour as the vicinity of Falmer.
The ground was of necessity circumscribed,
and the respective commanders had to make the best
of their positions. To summarise the affair it may be
said that probably very few cartridges remained un-
expended at the close. The firing was cheerfully
brisk from beginning to end. When the "Cease fire"
sounded, the troops remained halted in the positions
they occupied at the moment of the cessation of active
hostilities, and the umpires rode along the lines in
pursuance of their duty of the appraisement of
results, after which the Field-Marshal-Com-
manding-in-Chief addressed some critical ob-
servations on the work of the afternoon to a
circle composed of the officers commanding battalions
and those of superior rank. Presently the "
sembly " sounded, when brigades and divisions were
reformed, and the whole force, with the exception of
the details for embarkation at the subsidiary stations,
marched back to the morning rendezvous on the
Level and Enclosures. The entrainment at Brighton
main station was in full swing by six o'clock, and
the trains were sent off with punctuality and des-
patch.