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A number of alien labour units were established in the British Army's Middlesex Regiment during the First World War.

Background

During the early part of the First World War aliens (ie. foreign nationals) of hostile states, such as the Central Powers, were relatively unaffected. The naturalised sons of some of these aliens volunteered, and were accepted, to serve in the British Army. The rise of anti-German sentiment after the 7 May 1915 Sinking of the RMS Lusitania saw the implementation of a general internment programme for aliens from hostile states.

The introduction of conscription from March 1916 provided a dilemma to the British government. The War Office was reluctant to take conscripted British citizens of enemy parentage into combat units but to exempt them from conscription was likely to lead to anger among other British citizens. Army Council Instruction 1209 of June 1916 attempted to provide a solution; a non-combatant labour unit was to be established to accept such citizens.

Establishment

The 30th (Works) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment was the first to be established in August 1916. It was soon filled and a second unit, the 31st (Works) Battalion, was also raised. Citizens liable to serve were only who had been born in Britain or brought there before the age of 10 and who had remained resident since that point. Existing citizens of this type who were already serving in the army were also transferred to the unit, though a later Army Council Instruction provided an exemption at the request of the combat unit's commanding officer. Those serving as non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were permitted to keep their ranks. Additional personnel were drawn from Western, Southern and Northern Commands, who were each asked to supply enough officers and NCOs to command one company of each battalion.

Men serving in the battalions were largely of German, Austrian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Turkish origin. The only exception made were for those of Czech origin whose parents had been exempted from internment. This was because Czechs were generally regarded as unwilling subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and because a Czech Legion was already fighting for the Entente. The War Office declined a Home Office suggestion that interned Czechs should be posted to the units, proposing instead that the Home Office form its own civilian units.

The two battalions were administered by the Labour Directorate but did not form part of that organisation's Labour Corps, by request of the War Office. The men of the Labour Corps were generally those considered unfit for combat duty while the 30th and 31st battalions were formed of fit men, indeed General E.C. Wace of the Labour Directorate described them as "excellent workers". The battalions initially provided labour to the Eastern and Southern Commands. The 30th battalion was based initially at Crawley, West Sussex, moving to Reading, Berkshire, in September 1916. The 31st battalion was first based at Mill Hill, London moving to Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1917 and Reigate, Surrey; Harpenden, Hertfordshire; and Croyden, London, in 1918.

The unit was the subject of an article in the London Evening Standard in September 1916. A journalist had come across one of the battalions after covering the case of a deserting soldier who had absconded after being posted there. The journalist described it as the "queerest battalion in the British Army". He noted that many serving soldiers were unaware of it and that the parent regiment did not want to be associated with what had been described as a "foreign legion" and nicknamed the "Kaiser's Own".

Service in France

By early 1917 the British Army was beginning to be hampered by a shortage of labour on the lines of communication leading to the Western Front. The Middlesex works battalions were called upon to provide manpower. Independent labour companies were formed within the regiment, the first of which was the 1st (Alien) Company of four officers and 493 other ranks, which arrived in France on 6 March 1917. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Companies, of similar size, were also sent in the following weeks. The 30th and 31st battalions remained as formed units in Britain to accommodate men who were unfit to serve abroad and to serve as collecting points for men to be posted to France.

The companies were organised and equipped on the same basis as the labour companies of the Non-Combatant Corps, but remained under the auspices of the Middlesex Regiment. Particular rules were applied to the alien labourcompanies; they were not permitted to remain for more than a few days at base depots, with drafts being sent onwards quickly to their destination and separated men prioritised for return to their units or to Britain. Men of the companies were not permitted to transfer to other units without permission of the War Office. The companies could also not be split into small detachments or deployed near sensitive areas. The men of the units were issued steel helmets on arrival in France. Because of their supposed split loyalties the unit was nicknamed "The Kaiser's Own" (the Middlesex Regiment was known as the "Duke of Cambridge's Own").

The decision to deploy the units in France was questioned in the British parliament on 8 March by the Liberal Party MP Joseph King and Philip Snowden of the Labour Party. King thought that the men had been promised they would not be deployed abroad "to fight their own kith and kin". The Under-Secretary of State for War, the Liberal Party's Ian Macpherson, replied that no such promise had been made and that the unit was non-combatant in nature. King raised the matter again on 15 March, claiming that the promise had been made by the the former Secretary of State for War Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener and, to the mother of at least one man, by the British Army's director of recruiting. King sated that the men in the units "think in German more than in English ... their conversation is largely carried on in German. They all have German names, they sing together German songs, and though I believe they are loyal subjects of the King and of our cause, undoubtedly they have strong German associations". He noted that many of the men's fathers were interned as enemy aliens and some had brothers or other relatives serving in the armies of the Central Powers. King feared that the men in the labour companies would be shot as traitors if captured in the field. He restated that he had been told the men had been promised they would serve only in Britain and that he had now heard that an NCO of the unit had lost his rank for protesting against their deployment. Macpherson declined to comment further, referring King to his statements made on 8 March. Macpherson separately noted that the 30th Battalion had been formed some days after Kitchener had drowned and that no record was found of any promise he made.

Following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 1918 which saw the Russian withdrawl form the war, Russians and aliens whom "it was not desirable to retain with fighting units" were taken out of armed service and sent to labour units. The non-Russians of this category were assigned to the labour companies, allowing additional companies to beformed.

the 5th and 6th Companies arrived in April 1918, 7th Companyh in July and 8th Company in December, after the 11 November armistice that ended the war.

In February 1919 Josiah Wedgwood raised in the HoC that the men in te battalions had been told they would be the last to be demobilised as they were sons of aliens. The Sec of War replied that they were treated the same as other men in the army for eligibiltity for demobilisation

One member, William Meller (born Wilhelm Moeller) of German and Swiss descent remained in France as a gardener for the CWGC. He was interned after the Battle of France and died while imprisoned for his British nationality in Nazi Germany in 1942.

See also

• Jewish Legion, combatant battalions of the Royal Fusiliers including Jewish alien volunteers

References

1. ^ Messenger, Charles (30 April 2015). Call to Arms: The British Army 1914-18. Orion. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-78022-759-7.
2. ^ Starling, John; Lee, Ivor (1 September 2014). No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War. The History Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-7509-5879-0.
3. ^ Starling, John; Lee, Ivor (1 September 2014). No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War. The History Press. pp. 113–114. ISBN 978-0-7509-5879-0.
4. ^ Bird, J. C. (3 June 2015). Control of Enemy Alien Civilians in Great Britain, 1914-1918 (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. pp. 312–313. ISBN 978-1-317-51316-2.
5. Emden, Richard van (15 August 2013). Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War. A&C Black. pp. 246–249. ISBN 978-1-4088-3981-2.
6. ^ Starling, John; Lee, Ivor (1 September 2014). No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War. The History Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-7509-5879-0.
7. ^ DeAngelis, Caitlin Galante (16 January 2024). The Caretakers: War Graves Gardeners and the Secret Battle to Rescue Allied Airmen in World War II. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-63388-900-2.
8. "Middlesex Regiment, 30th Battalion : Volume 91: debated on Thursday 8 March 1917". Hansard. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
9. "30th Battalion Middlesex Regiment : Volume 91: debated on Thursday 15 March 1917". Hansard. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
10. Messenger, Charles (30 April 2015). Call to Arms: The British Army 1914-18. Orion. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-78022-759-7.