The Royal Marines & Eastney
by Capt Derek Oakley MBE RM

The closing down of the Royal Marines Barracks at Eastney ends yet another era of Corps history. Of the original three (later four) Grand Divisions, we have seen the closing of Woolwich Division in 1869 and the Chatham Division in 1950. The Portsmouth Division RMLI at Forton Barracks, Gosport closed in 1923 on amalgamation of the Light Infantry and Artillery elements of the Corps. Now only Plymouth remains.

 


An RMA battalion on parade at Eastney before marching to 
Southsea Common for an Inspection by General Travers in 1868

 
The first mention of Marines in the Portsmouth area was Captain Thomas Killigrew's Company in 1667, and in the 80 years there were often companies embarking and occasionally billeted in the area. But the first permanent garrison was set up in 1755, when an Order in Council of 5 April specified the raising of fifty companies of Marines for direct service under the Admiralty to be based at the main naval bases of the Fleet, Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth, and known as   Grand Divisions. 

The Portsmouth Division had an initial establishment of 2,200 men of whom two thirds were likely to be at sea at any one time. According to a contemporary report these men were to be 'quartered in Inns Livery Stables, Ale Houses, Victualling Houses and all Houses of persons selling brandy, strong waters, cyder or metheglin. It would have been difficult to devise a better system to encourage drunkenness, indiscipline and desertion'. Indeed Brigadier James Wolfe, of Quebec fame, whose first commission had been in the Marines, commented 'The condition of the troops that compose this garrison (or rather vagabonds that stroll about in dirty red clothes from one gin shop to another) exceeds all belief. They are dirty, drunken, insolent rascals not improved by the hellish nature of the place where every kind of corruption, immorality and looseness is carried to excess'. Not the most impressive or auspicious start to the Marines' presence in Portsmouth.

 By 1802, when the Corps was designated Royal Marines, their total strength was 30,000 men, most of whom were at sea. The Marines took up quarters in Clarence Barracks, Old Portsmouth which had appro­priately been built as the King's Cooperage and Brewery. The actual site was behind the present Naval Club between Pembroke Road and Penny Street. It has been suggested that Portsmouth was the first Division to have a band, formed possibly in 1765. Certainly in 1776, the Colonel Commandant applied to the Admiralty for leave to buy a pair of French Horns, 'ours being nearly worn out'. The Band then consisted of a mere six musicians, who each received sixpence a day in addition to his normal pay. The first mention of the Royal Marine Artillery in the vicinity of Eastney was an exercise at Fort Cumberland in 1817. The Fort, built by convict labour and completed in 1803, was part of the Duke of Richmond's plan for fortifying the coast. It soon became a focal point for the Royal Marines, and continued to be so for 150 years. In the early days many gruesome stories were told of prisoners trying to escape across the mud flats. On one occasion four escapees seized horses harnessed to the gravel carts. Two tried to swim across to Hayling Island, horses and men being drowned; one was thrown and recaptured; while the fourth forced his mount into the mud endeavoring to cross to Milton Common and the horse was slowly sucked under, the convict being rescued with the aid of ropes.

 


A Group[ of officers on the Mess steps in about 1865

 
By 1859 it had been decided that the Royal Marine Artillery should set up home in Fort Cumberland and 16 companies were estab­lished. It was also decided to build a permanent barracks for the Royal Marine Artillery and Eastney was the chosen site. A contemporary description says that 'the Barracks will stand on an extensive piece of ground, and its front have a strong defensive work in line with the sea beach with a Fort at each end  Eastney Fort East and Fort West, each containing two guns in cavalier bastions and seven guns in embrasures'. A critic of the time commenting on this new barracks which mounted guns of the largest calibre, said 'In case of attack, all shots missing the batteries will plump straight into the barracks!' Work on the new barracks started in 1862. A year later the first detachments moved into quarters.

The building of the Barracks took five years and included all the landmarks that have been so well known over the years: Eastney Terrace and the Commandant's Office, the Barracks Block, the Divisional Schools, Married Quarters, Drill Shed, Detention Quarters and the Officers' Stables. Eastney Terrace (familiarly known as 'Teapot Row') the Officers' Quarters overlooking the sea, had top floor flats usually allocated to junior officers on the staff, which went by the name of 'Scandal Alley'.

The building of the imposing Officers' Mess, which now houses the Royal Marines Museum, is a fine example of the archi­tecture of that period.

The interior is particularly impressive, reputed to be the work of Italian craftsmen, and the mouldings, though periodically renovated, retain their original characteristics. It would seem that the Admiralty was unusually generous in the allocation of money for the building. one story suggests that an extra nought was added to the original estimate by an oversight on the part of some civil servant before being transmitted to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for ap­proval. The mistake passed unnoticed and their Lordships were not subsequently prepared to admit their error, so the money had to be spent! in all events the Royal Marines were, and are still, the ones who gained.

Visitors to the Museum may have noticed a number of chips in the stone steps leading to the entrance. These are the result of after dinner escapades on Guest Nights, when two small field guns, which stood in the hall until the early 1950s, were rolled down the steps by enthusiastic, but well oiled, young officers in a race resembling the Field Gun Competition at the Royal Tournament. When they reached the lawn, lighted thunder-flashes were slid down the barrel and the muzzle stuffed with toilet paper. This created a spectacular display, though the officers' mess bills suffered when they were charged for the chipped steps!

 


Inspection of the RMA by HRH Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, £0 Aug 1880

 

The Water Tower was built in 1871 with the clocks being added later. The tower was originally built to provide the necessary head of water for the fire mains. The clock, which was made in 1784, was formerly the Wool­wich Dockyard Clock. An early photograph shows a different time displayed on two adjacent faces, a situation that often pertains today! During the next twenty years, several amenities were added, such as the 600 yards rifle range; the drill fields, now the sports fields, an area of 33 acres that formerly belonged to Farmer Joliffe. The fields were only just above sea level and 40 tons of chalk was brought down from Paulsgrove to be laid under the centre of the cricket square. Squash courts were built, and on some spare ground at Fort Cumberland a nine hole golf course was laid out, the greens being described as 'never very good'. This had disappeared by 1903.

On 22 July of that year, the Royal Naval School of Music was established at Eastney, this in addition to the Royal Marine Artillery Divisional Band. 34 musicians from the band of HMS Impregnable marched into Eastney to play at the opening ceremony and then become the first band of the Royal Naval School of Music. They were under the direction of Bandmaster H E Lidiard, known affectionately as the 'Father of the Band Service' and whose name is perpetuated in Licliard Crescent a housing development of the 1970s on the original site of the school. The following year (1904) King Edward VII agreed to the appointment of the Royal Marine Artillery Band as the permanent Royal Yacht Band, a situation that continues today, although the Band has changed its title more than once since.

In 1855 the Crinoline Church had been the main garrison church situated just west of where Teapot Row was to be built later. it had originally been built as a hospital for the Crimean War and was subsequently bought by the Admiralty and erected at Eastney, holding a congregation of 800. On 16 March 1904, the Prince of Wales, later King George V, inspected the Royal Marine Artillery on parade in the morning. After lunch, the Princess of Wales laid the foundation stone of the new St. Andrew's Church, similar to others of that era and known as 'Admiralty Pattern Churches'. This was dedicated at a service on 17 November 1905 by the Lord Bishop of Winchester. As far as is known, the church was never consecrated.

With rumblings of war with Germany ap­proaching, it is ironic that when the Kaiser visited Eastney in 1890, he made the prophetic remark 'I consider the British Royal Marine is the best all round fighting man in the world.' He visited again in 1907, on 11 November, a date which surely was to con­jure up a more permanent reminder in the years to come.

 

 
The Crinoline Church.                                                St Andrew's Church Dedicated on 17 Nov 1905 by the Lord Bishop of Winchester

 

The Globe Theatre was built in 1899 and plays, smoking concerts and band concerts were a regular feature of barracks life. The plays were mostly performed by the officers and their wives, other ranks only being included to make up shortages and provide backstage support.

On general mobilisation in August 1914, the Royal Marine Brigade was formed with battalions from each of the Divisions including the Royal Marine Light Infantry at Forton and the RMA. A fortnight later the Brigade was in Ostend, but was brought home in a week. A month later the RMA formed an Anti‑Aircraft Brigade with two­pounder pom pom guns mounted on ar­moured cars and these were soon in action in northern France and Belgium. At this time most of the Marines, RMA and RMLI, were at sea in ships of the Grand Fleet, then the prime task of the Corps. However Portsmouth Marines started serving in larger numbers ashore as part of the Royal Naval Division, which in 1915 took part in the ill­fated expedition to Gallipoli and later spent more than three years on the Western Front.

The strength of the Corps rose from 18,000 in 1914 to 55,000 in 1918, and over 12,000 men were either killed or wounded.

 


The Barracks from the Main Gate in about 1900

 

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