The Orange Navy

Foreword

When the First World War broke out the United Kingdom had the biggest navy in the world, but only a small army, at least by the standards of the other European powers. Britain’s policy had usually been, as in the Napoleonic Wars, to send a small army to the European mainland to co-operate with allied powers while using its powerful navy to dominate the seas and the trade routes. This enabled Britain to wage a very effective economic war and to project its power in virtually every part of the globe. Doubtless there were some in 1914 who expected that Britain’s role in the new war would follow this traditional pattern. Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, saw that this would be a war like no other, and he knew that Britain would need to raise the greatest army it had ever raised to defeat Kaiserine Germany.

Kitchener launched an appeal for volunteers, famously featuring on a recruitment poster himself. It was more successful than anyone had envisaged. The young men of Britain responded with the utmost enthusiasm. At this point of the War, conscription was clearly not needed.

The men of the Orange Order throughout the Empire responded at least as enthusiastically as anyone. The Grand Orange Lodge of England wanted to keep a record of who, amongst their membership, had stepped forward to answer their country’s call. Lodge Secretaries were asked to send to the Grand Secretary a list of the names of all those who had volunteered. As a result, the Grand Lodge Report and Directory for 1915 has a “Roll of Honour” bearing the names of 1,410 brethren, and one sister, who were in service at that time. This would have been far from an exhaustive list. Some lodge Secretaries submitted the information too late to be included in the Roll of Honour, and some may never have submitted the information at all. 168 lodges have members shown on the Roll of Honour, while the Lodge Directory for 1915 shows 305 adult male lodges in all. This is a response rate of only 55%, so 45% of lodges do not have their serving members shown on the Roll of Honour although we know that their members did step forward to volunteer.

Of the 1,411 names shown, 736 (52.16%) were in the Army, 424 (30.05%) were in the Royal Navy, 17 (1.20%) were in the “Royal Marine Light Infantry”, and 3 (0.21%) were in the Royal Flying Corps. Disappointingly, 231 (16.37%) names are shown without any unit being mentioned, so in addition to those who are not named on the Roll of Honour this is another large group of Orangemen about whom we know too little. Even for those for whom we do have some information, much of it is infuriatingly vague. Of the 736 in the Army some have their unit shown, (e.g. “2nd Regiment, King Edward’s Horse”), while with others we get merely vague descriptions such as “Territorials”. Of the 424 in the Royal Navy some are identified with a specific ship (e.g. HMS Defence), while with others we are told only that they were “Royal Navy”.

One thing that does stand out from the above figures, however, is the very large percentage of brethren who served in the Royal Navy. 30.05% is a far larger percentage than would have pertained to the general population. To some extent this figure is distorted by a few very large lodges that seem to have had a distinctly naval connection. Sons of William LOL 652, who met at the Foresters’ Hall in Gillingham, had 107 members in the Royal Navy; Ulster Scot LOL 287, described in 1915 as “on war service with the Fleet” but usually based at Devonport, had 91 members in the Royal Navy; and Royal Naval LOL 577, who met in Portsmouth, had 40 members in the Royal Navy. These three lodges alone had 238 members in the Royal Navy, 56% of the 424.