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Crime and the Soldier Identifying a Soldier-Specific Experience Of Crime and the Soldier Identifying a Soldier-Specific Experience of Crime in the British Army, 1740-1830 Danielle Sarah Eleana Coombs Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of History January 2015 2 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Danielle Sarah Eleana Coombs to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2015 The University of Leeds and Danielle Sarah Eleana Coombs 3 Acknowledgements My thanks must go, first and foremost to my supervisor, Kevin Linch, without whose support, guidance, encouragement and patience this thesis would not have been possible. Financial support has been generously provided by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, for which I am very grateful. I would also like to thank the staff at the various archives which I have visited during the course of my research, in particular the staff at the National Archives and the staff at the National Army Museum for their help on several research trips across the last few years. Thanks also to the staff of the School of History, both academic and support, whose help and kindness have been invaluable; and to the school’s postgraduate community, with whom I have shared some of this journey and quite a few laughs. Last but not least, thanks to my family and friends, who’ve kept me going, especially Mum - my rock and my best friend. 4 Abstract Using the extensive military justice records held at the National Archives, in Kew, this thesis offers a survey of soldier offending and identifies and delineates a soldier-specific experience of crime in the British Army, both as perpetrator and victim, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Through a detailed statistical analysis of records from three levels of military court martial, and drawing on a wide range of supporting materials, this thesis will demonstrate the ways in which the soldier experience of crime both overlapped with and differed from that of his civilian counterpart, how it was shaped and contextualised by military service and regimental life, as well as how that soldier-specific experience was itself differentiated and transformed by rank, for those soldiers who achieved non- commissioned officer status. In considering this experience, this thesis will explore what crime can tell us about soldiers’ sense of identity as soldiers, and their relationships with authority, their service, each other and the wider civilian world. It will also show that at the meeting point between military and civilian worlds, as well as within regimental communities, there operated a thriving black market in stolen and military goods. 5 Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... 3 Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 4 List of Tables ............................................................................................................ 8 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ 8 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 10 Thesis structure ................................................................................................... 20 Chapter One: Definitions and Sources .................................................................... 22 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 22 ‘Defining Soldiers’ .............................................................................................. 23 Military justice in context and definitions of crime ............................................ 26 Introduction to key sources ................................................................................. 34 Registers of General Regimental Courts Martial, 1812 to 1829 ......................... 36 Testing the method .............................................................................................. 37 Overview of GRCM sampling exercise .............................................................. 39 Overview of GCM register sample: 1818-1819 .............................................. 44 Case Study: Three Regiments ............................................................................. 46 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 50 Chapter Two: Military Offences Part 1 - Desertion and Related Offences ........... 51 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 51 Defining desertion ............................................................................................... 52 Desertion in context – military and civilian attitudes ......................................... 53 Desertion as Contract Breaking .......................................................................... 61 Desertion in the GCM, GRCM and RCM samples ............................................. 64 Related offences – suicide and self-harm ........................................................... 69 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 80 Chapter Three: Military Offences Part 2 - Disorder and Regulatory Offences ...... 82 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 82 Defining regulatory offences .............................................................................. 82 Regulatory offences in the GRCM, GCM and RCM samples ............................ 84 6 Key features of disorder and regulatory offences ............................................... 85 Resisting authority .......................................................................................... 85 Riotous behaviour ........................................................................................... 93 Drunkenness .................................................................................................... 96 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 105 Chapter Four: Violent Crime ................................................................................ 107 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 107 Violent Crime in Context .................................................................................. 107 ‘The Ultimate Crime’ ........................................................................................ 112 Violent Crime in the GCM, GRCM and RCM samples ................................... 116 Soldiers and Civilians ....................................................................................... 122 Rape and sexual assaults ................................................................................... 126 Army responses to violence against civilians ................................................... 131 Civilian violence against soldiers ..................................................................... 131 Violence in the Ranks ....................................................................................... 132 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 144 Chapter Five: Property Crime and Offences of Dishonesty .................................. 147 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 147 Theft and fraud in context ................................................................................. 148 Theft and Fraud in the GRCM, GCM and RCM Samples ................................ 150 Key Features of Theft Crimes ........................................................................... 157 Burglary and Housebreaking ........................................................................ 157 Theft with Violence ...................................................................................... 160 Common items of theft ................................................................................. 165 Soldiers and Civilians ....................................................................................... 171 Desertion and Theft ........................................................................................... 174 Key Features of Fraud and Embezzlement ....................................................... 175 ‘Bounty Jumping’ ............................................................................................. 178 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 183 Chapter Six: Opportunity and Risk - The NCO Experience of Crime .................. 185 7 Introduction ......................................................................................................
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