6th Royal Lancashire Militia

Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the Cardwell Reforms of 1872, Militia regiments were brigaded with regular and Volunteer battalions in a regimental district sharing a permanent depot at a suitable county town. Seven double-battalion or paired single-battalion regular regiments were assigned to Lancashire, and each was linked with one of the militia regiments. The militia now came under the War Office rather than their county lords lieutenant, and officers' commissions were signed by the Queen.[24][25][26]

The 6th RLM was linked with the 63rd (West Suffolk) and 96th Regiments of Foot in Sub-District No 16 (Lancashire), with the depot at Wellington Barracks, Ashton-under-Lyne; the 6th RLM returned to Ashton from Salford by 1880. In line with these arrangements, the 6th RLM formed a 2nd Battalion on 20 September 1876, although the cadre around which it was formed was actually provided by the 1st RLM. Although often referred to as brigades, the regimental districts were purely administrative organisations, but in a continuation of the Cardwell Reforms a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the Army List from December 1875. This assigned regular and militia units to places in an order of battle of corps, divisions and brigades for the 'Active Army', even though these formations were entirely theoretical, with no staff or services assigned. The 5th, 6th and 7th Royal Lancashire Militia formed 2nd Brigade of 3rd Division, VIII Corps at Melrose, Scottish Borders.[16][18]

After the disasters of Black Week at the start of the Second Boer War in December 1899, most of the regular army was sent to South Africa. Militia units were embodied to replace them for home defence and a number volunteered for active service or to garrison overseas stations.[27][28][29] Both regular battalions of the Manchesters were deployed to South Africa and the militia reservists went out as reinforcements. In February 1900 the Manchesters formed two additional regular battalions, which took the 3rd and 4th places, causing the militia to be renumbered 5th and 6th Battalions.[5][18][20]

The 5th Bn was embodied on 3 May 1900 and served at Aldershot until 20 October when it returned to Ashton to be disembodied. It was embodied again from 6 May 1901 and having volunteered for overseas service it went to Aldershot again to complete its training. It embarked from Southampton on 17 June aboard the Bavarian with a strength of 26 officers and 780 other ranks (ORs) under the command of Lt-Col Henry Crosbie.[5][18][20]

During the voyage the battalion exchanged its scarlet uniforms for Khaki. It landed at Cape Town on 10 July 1901 and proceeded to Winburg in the Orange River Colony, where it was employed to defend the town (A, B, C, D, G and H Companies) and the railway towards Smaldeel (E Company). The Boers were being pursued by British columns and the battalion repulsed Boer attempts to cross the line. On 8 April 1902 the defences were reorganised and the battalion took over defence of the railway line towards Kroonstad, with D Company at Brandfort. The battalion remained in the Smaldeel area until the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902. On 9 July it boarded the SS Briton at Cape Town and arrived back at the depot at Ashton to disembody on 31 July. During its service the battalion lost one officer and 21 ORs killed or died of disease.[5][18]

The 6th Bn had also been embodied for duty at home from 4 May to 18 October 1900. It was re-embodied for service in South Africa on 6 January 1902, embarking for Cape Town on 13 February with a strength of 20 officers and 645 ORs under Col Charles Leyden. After arrival it entrained on 6 March for Norvalspont and took over the blockhouse line between Jagersfontein and Achterlong stations, a distance of 36 miles (58 km), together with the chain of forts and sangars round the bridge at Norvalspont. On 14 April the battalion extended to take over the line as far as Tweedale, and provided a garrison at Colesberg to guard and escort Boer prisoners. The battalion returned home on 4 September to be disembodied on 30 September 1902, having lost 8 ORs.[5][18][20]

The battalions were both awarded Battle Honours: South Africa 1901–02 for 5th Bn and South Africa 1902 for 6th Bn. The participants received the Queen's South Africa Medal with clasps for 'Cape Colony', 'Orange Free State' and 'South Africa' 1901 and 1902 as appropriate.[20][16]

Wellington Barracks at Ashton was renamed Ladysmith Barracks after the Boer War. In 1906 the regular 3rd and 4th Manchesters were disbanded and the 5th and 6th militia battalions reverted to their former numbers.[5][16]

The Special Reserve was embodied on the outbreak of World War I on 4 August 1914 and the 3rd and 4th Manchesters proceeded from Ashton to their war station in the Humber Garrison. By October the 3rd was stationed at Cleethorpes and the 4th at Riby. They carried out the dual tasks of garrison duties and preparing reinforcement drafts of regular reservists, special reservists, recruits and returning wounded for the two regular battalions, the 1st serving in Mesopotamia and Palestine, the 2nd on the Western Front. The two reserve battalions remained on the Lincolnshire coast in the Humber Defences for the rest of the war, the 3rd Bn at Cleethorpes while the 4th was at Riby, Tetney and Grimsby.[18][35][36] During a raid by the German Zeppelin LZ 64 on the night of 31 March/1 April 1916, 29 soldiers of the 3rd Manchesters were killed and 53 were wounded when a bomb hit a chapel at Cleethorpes being used as a billet.[37][lower-alpha 2] After the war the 4th Bn was disembodied on 16 April 1919, and the 3rd Bn on 10 July 1919 after the remaining personnel had been drafted to the 1st Bn.[18]

The SR resumed its old title of Militia in 1921 and then became the Supplementary Reserve in 1924, but almost all militia battalions remained in abeyance after World War I. Until 1939 they continued to appear in the Army List, but they were not activated during World War II and were all formally disbanded in April 1953.[5][18][33]

The uniform of the Royal Lancashire Militia was scarlet with the blue facings appropriate to 'Royal' regiments.[19][21][16]

The badge of the 6th RLM was the Red Rose of Lancaster: on the buttons of the original coatee it was displayed beneath a crown and above the numeral 'VI', with the title 'Royal Lancashire' round the edge. When the tunic replaced the coatee after the Crimean War the 'VI' was changed to 'Sixth'. The officers' shako plate of 1869–78 and helmet plate of 1878–81 used the rose, in red and green enamel, as the centre badge. The officers' waistbelt plate of 1855–81 was of the universal pattern with the Royal cypher ('VR') and crown within a circle inscribed '6th Royal Lancashire Militia'.[21]

When the 6th RLM joined the Manchesters in 1881, it adopted that regiment's white facings and insignia.[16]

There is a brass memorial plaque in St Michael and All Angels' Church, Ashton-under-Lyne, listing the 31 NCOs and men of 3rd Bn Manchesters killed in the Zeppelin raid on Cleethorpes on 1 April 1916. It was unveiled on 13 October 1918.[39]