The Formation of Ulsters 36th Division

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In the history of the Conservative Party entitled The Age of Belfour and
Baldwin 1902 - 1940 (1978) John Ramsden observes that Ulster Unionists demonstrated the reality of their loyalty to the Crown from the first days of the war with the speed with which they rallied to the flag in 1914 and the gallantry with which the died on the Somme in 1916.

Sir Edward Carson. along with close political colleagues. spent the weekend before the declaration of war at Wargrave, over-looking the Thames. as guests of Sir Edward Goulding, a leading Southern Irish
Unionist. Even before war was declared, Carson confidently assured Captain Wilfrid Spender on 3 August that

a large body of Ulster Volunteers will be willing to give their services for Home Defence and many will be willing and ready to serve anywhere they are required.

Spender, who before becoming the U.V.F. assistant quartermaster had been the youngest staff officer in the British Army, had spoken to Carson on behalf of some of his military friends on the Committee of
Imperial Defence and no doubt Carson's response was relayed to them but it appeared in the press. Two days later  the Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Council received the following telegram from Carson:

All officers, non-commissioned officers and men who are enrolled in the Ulster Volunteer Force, and who are liable to be called out by His Majesty for service in the present crisis are re quested to answer immediately.  His Majesty's call as our first duty, as loyal subjects to the King.

Following Carson's call several hundred men responded by joining Irish territorial  regiments and English and Scottish units before the creation of the Ulster Division.

The war confronted Carson with a dilemma in the sense that as a patriot and a loyalist he knew where his duty lay but, he did not trust Asquith, the Liberal prime minister, whom he feared would press ahead and implement Home Rule. Carson privately gave expression to his founded mistrust of the government in a letter on 5 August to his fiancée, Miss Ruby Frewen:

I am very much depressed as I fear the Government mean, if they can, to betray us, and pass the Home Rule Bill over our heads and whilst it is impossible to resist in Ulster owing to the difficulties caused by the present situation.  They are such a lot of scoundrels I believe they are quite capable of anything.

A telegram which Carson received from a UVF officer in Belfast revealed similar anxieties and highlighted Carson's dilemma:

Can we assure men before giving names for United Kingdom or foreign service no danger of Home Rule passing while they are away?

Carson's response to his dilemma was to put to one side his doubt about  the government as best he could, and follow the path that his sense of duty dictated.

Carson's public stance (as revealed in a letter dated '7 August 1914 to the Lord Mayor of Belfast and which was read at a public meeting held in the City Hall betrayed no hint of his dilemma:

Our loyalty is of no recent date. Such as been the very foundation and
groundwork of all our political action, and the motive power of our sacrifices to maintain our position in the United Kingdom. We will now be prepared to show once more without any bartering of conditions that the cause of Great Britain is our cause, and that with our fellow citizens throughout the whole Empire, we will make common cause
and suffer any sacrifice ...

Privately, Carson, for the sake of his followers, hoped it might be possible to extract a commitment from the government to put Home Rule in cold storage.

At the outset of war Asquith appointed Lord Kitchener, the hero of the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, as Secretary for War. Completely useless as an executive head of the War Office, as a poster he was to prove magnificent. He did possess one remarkable insight that he succeeded in impressing upon his cabinet colleagues: the war would last a long time, contrary to the popular view that it would be over by Christmas, and to wage it, a great "New Army", of the order of seventy divisions ("a million bayonets") would have to be raised.

Kitchener, recognizing the military potential of the Ulster Volunteers, wanted them for the new army. He sent for Colonel T E Hickman, MP for Wolverhampton South, a leading figure in the British League for the
Support of Ulster and the Union, and an Inspector-General of the UVF, on 7 August, and told him that he wanted the UVF.  Hickman very properly told Kitchener that he must see Carson and James Craig.

Carson's first meeting with Kitchener got off to a somewhat unsatisfactory start because of Kitchener's tactlessness in commencing the interview with the remark, 'Surely you're not going to hold out for Tyrone and Fermanagh?"  To this Carson quick-wittedly replied. "You're a damned clever fellow, telling me what I ought to be doing."

Kitchener also initially refused to countenance Carson and Craig's wish that the UVF should be kept together as a fighting unit and their suggestion that Ulster should feature in the name of the division they proposed to raise.  At a subsequent meeting, Carson and Craig saw Kitchener and offered unconditionally to put all the Ulster Volunteers at his disposal, assuring him that 35,000 of them were willing, if accepted, to enlist and go abroad. Kitchener responded by relenting on the question of the name and the exclusively Ulster composition of the division. James Craig, on leaving the War Office after securing agreement, took his famous taxi ride to the firm of Mess Brothers and ordered 10,000 complete uniforms. As a result, the Ulster Division, unlike most New Army formations, did not have to train initially in mufti or motley uniforms. Craig, a veteran of the Boer War and still on the reserve of officers, became a lieutenant-colonel and the new division's assistant adjutant and quarter-master-general. Craig's efforts on behalf of the division were to be confined to recruitment and equipment because poor health prevented him from passing a medical board on four separate occasions.

As the Northern Whig was to observe,

for months Colonel Craig labored unceasingly at the work of Liaising, equipping and organizing the Division, frequently spending 12 or 14 hours a day at this work.

His efforts undermined his health. Reluctantly, he had to resign his commission in April 1916, but that is to anticipate the future.

On 3 September 1914 Carson addressed the Ulster Unionist Council in the Ulster Hall and told delegates in terms not dissimilar to his letter of 7 August that England's difficulty was not Ulster's opportunity:

However we are treated, and however others act, let us act rightly. We do not seek to purchase terms by selling our patriotism.

Carson urged the men of the UVF to "go and help save their country and their Empire.  "They were to go and win 'honour for `Ulster and Ireland".  The UUC enthusiastically approved his arrangements with the War Office.

Carson reassured the council of a matter of great importance to the delegate:

On the question of Home Rule we stands where we all ways have been. It will never be law in our country.  We will postpone active measures in the interests of the country and the Empire, but when the country is more safe we will assert our powers as before ... I never had any doubt from the first moment that Ulster would most willingly come to the front in giving all the assistance that was possible to the United Kingdom in the waging of this war ...

Later that day Carson wrote to Miss Frewen, describing the meeting as "a wonderful success." He also confessed that he felt "a great emotion at the way the people have trusted me and looked to me for advice."

The honour of providing the first detachment of recruits was claimed by the South Belfast Regiment of the UVF. The special service battalion of that regiment paraded at Dunmore early on 4 September and was addressed by Carson. They then marched with Carson and Craig at their head to the Old Town Hall, which had become a recruiting depot.  The first man to pass the medical examination and become the first recruit was William Hanna of 43 Brussels Street, a veteran of the Boer War. On the opening day 600 men went before the doctors and only 40 were rejected. The following day, men from the East, South and West Belfast battalions and the Young Citizens Volunteers began enlisting. Outside Belfast, anticipating the formation of the Ulster Division, Ambrose Ricardo had raised two companies from the Tyrone UVF, which were to become the nucleus of the 9th Battalion of the Royal Irish Inniskilling Fusiliers.

Recruiting proceeded apace.  With characteristic energy Carson and his colleagues conducted a recruiting drive across Ulster.  James Craig being particularly active in County Down. Carson's message was that winning the war was the only consideration, whatever the government might do regarding the situation in Ireland. a reference to Asquith's decision to allow the Home Rule Bill to become law but accompanied by a bill to suspend its operation until the end of the war. Although Carson described this as "an act of unparalleled treachery and betrayal", the recruiting drive continued and Asquith in the House of Commons paid tribute to the patriotic spirit of the UVF, which had made the coercion of Ulster "unthinkable"

Despite mistrust of the government and its intentions, before the end of September 1914 Belfast had contributed 8,000 men and rural Ulster a further 20,000. It has been estimated that between the outbreak of war and the Armistice over 70,000 men voluntarily enlisted from Ulster. Belfast alone contributed over 46.000. Of course, not all these men joined the Ulster Division, nor were they all Unionists in political sympathy. However, with the exception of the divisional artillery, the Ulster Division, representing' the cream of the UVF, was overwhelmingly Unionist (and Protestant) in its composition. Before its dilution after 1916 with recruits front other areas of the British Isles it was a force that truly represented Ulster.

The Morning Post handsomely acknowledged Ulster's magnificent rally to the col ours:

When it, is remembered that Ulster labours under a very heavy grievance and wrong, this response deserves the highest praise of all Englishmen of whatsoever party.

When the military authorities complained that recruiting was particularly bad in Ireland, Carson was able to reply that the Ulster figures were "unequalled by any other district in the United Kingdom."

The Ulster Division was authorised formally on 28 October but had begun to take shape quite some time before that date; its three constituent brigades being created in mid-September. The brigades' constituent battalions were based upon the UVF's own organisation and each was assigned to one of the three infantry regiments whose recruitment area was Ulster. The following is the structure of the Division as finally constituted:

107th lnfantry Brigade

8th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (East Belfast Volunteers)
91h Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (West Belfast Volunteers)
10th Battalion Royal Irish Rifies (South Belfast Volunteers)
15th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (North Belfast Volunteers)

108th Infantry Brigade

11th Battalion Royal Irish RiRes (South Antrim Volunteers)
121h Battallon Royal Irish Rifles (Mid Antrjm Volunteers)
131h Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (1st Co. Down Volunteers)
9th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers (Armagh, Monaghan and Cavan Volunteers)

109th Infantry Brigade

9th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiiiers (Tyrone Volunteers)
10th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Derry Volunteers)
11th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Donegal and Fermanagh Volunteers)
141h Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (Young Citizen Volunteers of Belfast)

Pioneer Battalion

16th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles 12nd Co. Down Volunteers)

Divisional Artillery

153rd Royal Field Artillery
154th Royal Field Artillery
172nd Royal Field Artillery
173rd Royal Field Artillery
Divisional Ammunition Column. Royal Field Artillery

Royal Engineers

121st Field Company Royal Engineers
122nd Field Company Royal Engineers
1501h Field Company Royal Engineers

Divisional Troops

Service Squadron, 61h Royal Inniskilling Dragoons
361h Divisional Signal Company Royal Engineers
Divisional Cyclist Company
Royal Army Medical Corps:

108th Fiefd Ambulance
109th Field Ambulance
110th Field Ambulance
76th Sanitary Section RAMC
Divisional Train, Royal Army Service Corps
48th Mobile Veterinary Section

Apart from the Divisional Artillery, the Division was almost exclusively raised in Ulster. The UVF had no artillery of its own and therefore had no partially trained force upon which to draw. Men still laboured under the happy illusion that the war would be brought to a rapid conclusion and that it was all-important to get to the front before it would be all over.

Believing that the raising and training of artillery might delay the Division's departure to the front by many months, it was decided to recruit the
Divisional Artillery from the London boroughs of Croydon, Norbury and
Sydenham.

In addition to the above units, six reserve battalions were formed to provide
drafts for the Division because active service would inevitably suit in fatalities casualties, it was comparatively easy to transform the Ulster Volunteers into an active fighting force because their training had had a wonderfully hardening effect on them physically, and had inculcated in them habits of discipline that made them adaptable to military routine and amenable to leadership.

As soldiers the Ulster Volunteers received their preliminary training at camps established at Clandeboye, Ballykinlar, Finner, and Randalstown. Major-General C H Powell, the Division's commanding officer, laid great stress on physical fitness achieved partly through long route marches:

Marching is the creator of toughness and endurance to meet the strain of
war.

As full equipment had not yet arrived the men marched with Alpine rucksacks on their backs full of stones, or nuts and bolts from the shipyards. Inspecting generals turned a blind eye to machine guns and rifles borrowed from the UVF for training purposes to supplement army issue.

The men of the Ulster Division endured tremendous hardship and misery during the winter of 1914-15. The army's bases in Ireland, for obvious reasons, were heavily concentrated in the South and, as a result, there was a grave shortage of military accommodation in Ulster.

The Ulster Division's camps consisted of tented accommodation. The winter of 1914-15 was particularly severe, being especialiy cold and wet. The ground around the tents was turned into quagmires.

Living under canvas in such adverse conditions inevitably lead to much illness and there was an alarming number of deaths for a division "at home" (i.e. in the British Isles). Nevertheless, the morale of the Division remained high--a truly remarkable tribute to the Division's esprit de corps. Craig's persistent efforts secured the construction of semi-permanent camps but unfortunately they were not completed until the early summer of 1915.

By the spring of 1915 the Division had completed its preliminary training and the Division was brought together for a parade in Belfast on 8 May before departing Ulster's shores.

At 12.30 p.m., 17,000 troops of the Division were called to attention and inspected at Malone by Major-General Sir Hugh McCalmont. Then the Division marched to the City Centre through streets bedecked with flags and bunting, greeted by friends and relatives brought in from all over Ulster by special trains. At the City Hall the Division marched past the Lord Mayor, Lady Mayoress and Carson. It took the Division one hour and
forty minutes to pass the City Hall.

Early in July the Division was shipped across the Irish Sea to continue training at Seaford in Sussex where the emphasis was on tactics and maneuvers on the South Downs. At the end of the month the Division
was visited and inspected by Kitchener.  He told Major-General Powell that he was relieved to find he had under his hand a division ready for the front at a moment's notice. He also decided that some of the mounted personnel of the Field Ambulances were "too fine for RAMC" and insisted 200 of them ought to be transferred to the artillery. Shortly afterwards
he told Carson, "Your Division of Ulstermen is the finest I have yet seen."

Carson, now Attorney-General in the Coalition Government, and his wife visited the Division in August.  He wrote to James Craig of the occasion and relayed to Craig Kitchener's high opinion of the Division:

We went to see the Ulster Division on Thursday... and on Friday the whole
Division went out on the Downs and I went round the ranks. The men
seemed very pleased and I felt sad to think of all they have before them.
They have won golden opinions for their conduct at Seaford, which is a
bright spot in all the clouds. I dined with Lord Kitchener one evening and
he was for him quite expressful of his appreciation, and especially of the
younger officers ...

In September the Division was then moved to Bordon and Bramshott for official musketry and machine-gun training. The former was to prove disappointing because unsatisfactory American ammunition was used. Men who could fire huge bullets from a UVF rifle into the bull's-eye would miss the target with the defective American ammunition.

As the Division approached the completion of its training in England, it acquired a new commanding officer, Major-General O S W Nugent, an Ulsterman from Co. Cavan who had commanded a brigade in France
and had recent experience of the war on the Western Front. Major-General Nugent was to remain with the Division until 6 May 1918. Major-General Powell received a KCB in recognition of his services in training the Division.

On 30 September the Division was inspected by King George V, who gave immense pleasure to all ranks in his message in which he said:

Your prompt and patriotic answer to the nation's call will never be forgotten. The keen exertions of all ranks during the period of training have brought you to a state of efficiency not unworthy of my regular army. I am confident that in the field you will nobly uphold the traditions of the fine regiments whose names you bear.  Ever since your enrolment I have closely watched the growth and steady progress of all units. I shall continue to follow with interest the fortunes of your Division. In bidding you farewell I pray that God may bless your undertakings.

As the King left, the men broke into wild cheering, an unrehearsed and spontaneous exhibition of loyalty.

In early October the Division was transported over to France, disembarking at Le Havre and Boulogne. In France, prior to assuming front-line responsibilities, the Division received further training in the art of bombing (hurling mills bombs or hand grenades) and coping with the novel horror of
gas warfare.

A bombing instructor, a man who was clearly sarcastic rather than sadistic, observed "that the national sport of Ulstermen, throwing kidney-stones in street riots, was an admirable preparation for
bombing."

The Division found anti-gas training much less congenial, some of the instructors being somewhat sadistic:

Passing through a gas chamber in these bags was unpleasant, though accepted as a necessity, but "doubling" and marching in them, as ordered by some more zealous instructors, was purgatory.

In the early spring of 1916 the Ulster Division assumed responsibility for what had been hitherto the quietest part of the British front line: a sector in the Somme department.

The people of Ulster had invested much money, pride and effort in their division.  Much was expected of it. James Craig was not alone in wanting it to be "out and out the finest that leaves these shores."  Kitchener's remarks to Carson in July 1915 that it was the finest division in the New
Army that he had yet seen must have been the source of great satisfaction to Ulster people.

The Division was also  expected to cover itself with glory in battle. Dorothea Gough, wife of Sir Hubert (of Curragh "Mutiny" fame) was sure it would 'render a great account of itself."   Lady- Cough and the people of Ulster were not to be disappointed on this score.