Royal Mounted Marines of the 1800s
Horse Marines in the Kings Royal Navy
The British Royal Navy used mounted marines in expeditionary warfare off and on in the 19th century.
The first known use of a “Royal Mounted Marines” corps was in 1802, when the British Royal Navy organized a few hundred men from the newly titled Royal Marines who could pass a riding test. These men were mustered aboard units of the Royal Navy in small detachments. While issued horses on a 1: 1 ratio in barracks ashore, when these horse marines took to the ocean they only brought one horse for every three men. It was thought that the unit would seize local mounts as they moved inland. These forces were meant to be used for coastal raids as far as fifty miles inland. This was the basis of the modern naval theory of from-the-sea expeditionary warfare power projection. It was thought that the force could be employed in the Peninsular campaign against Napoleon’s army in Spain but no confirmed actions exist in the campaign.
The only documented case of the Royal Mounted Marines seeing service on horseback was in 1811. A detachment was landed on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) from the HMS Lion. At the time the Dutch were an ally of Napoleon and these marines brought the war to the pacific with their raid. The horse marines, numbering some 190 men, captured French General Jamelle who was transiting through the area and disarmed over 500 Dutch troops with few losses of their own. They later escorted Rear Admiral Robert Stopford, commander of the task force, when he received the surrender of the French forces at Sourabaya on September 22, 1811.
The official disbanding date of the Royal Mounted Marines has been lost to history but it is known that no other histories mention such a force after the Napoleonic wars. The Royal Marines also saw service on Camels during the Egyptian campaign. There, two officers ands 102 marines served in the Guards Camel Corps, riding dromedaries. This unit, completely separate from the above horse marines, served 1884-85. These men served under the overall command of Royal Marine Major JW Scott, shown below with the Mameluke sword he was presented during the campaign.
The British horse marines experiment came to a close by the end of the 19th century. Their greatest legacy to military doctrine was the concept of expeditionary warfare that was picked up by the United States Marine Corps only a generation later. In British popular culture the horse marines are remembered solely from The 1868 Song Sheet Captin' Jinks of the Horse Marines which was based loosely on this organization and several vaudeville acts, operas and other pieces of theatre evolved from this simple ditty:
“I’m Capt. Jinks of the Horse Marines, I feed my horse corn and beans. I teach my horses how to prance, and I teach young ladies how to dance.”
Sources
Horse Marines Did Exist NYT April 27, 1913
Vivian, E Charles The Royal Marines; A corps of Great Traditions The Mexborough & Swinton Times, August 21st 1915
Nicholas Tracy The Naval Chronicle: The Contemporary Record of the Royal Navy at War Stackpole books, 1999
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