Étaples Mutiny
Encyclopedia
The Étaples Mutiny was a mutiny
by British
troops in France
in 1917, during the First World War
.
, about 15 miles (24.1 km) south of Boulogne-sur-Mer
, was at the time a small town with a thriving fishing industry and a fleet of sail powered wooden trawlers, a few miles up the river Canche. It attracted painters from the USA, Canada, and Australia before it became part of an enormous army complex that stretched all along the Channel coast. One of these artists left a collection of paintings of the Etaples camp: the Australian Iso Rae Whatever the picturesque value of the town, it did not impress the British ladies who came to do their duty in the YMCA huts: in the words of Lady Baden-Powell, "Etaples was a dirty, loathsome, smelly little town".
On the other side of the river was a smart beach resort known officially as Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, and unofficially as either Le Touquet or Paris-Plage. Le Touquet was in effect officers' territory, and pickets were stationed on the bridge over the Canche to enforce the separation.
Etaples
was a particularly notorious base camp for those on their way to the front. Under atrocious conditions, both raw recruits and battle-weary veterans were subjected to intensive training in gas warfare
and bayonet
drill, and long sessions of marching at the double across the dunes. After two weeks, many of the wounded would rather return to the front with unhealed wounds than remain at Étaples.
But the context cannot be better described than by poet/soldier Wilfred Owen
, resting in Etaples on his way to the line:
The officers and NCOs in charge of the training, the "canaries", also had a reputation of never having been at the front, which inevitably created a certain amount of tension and contempt, as expressed in Siegfried Sassoon
's poem "Base Details":
It appears that relations between personnel and authorities at the camp had deteriorated for some time. They came to a head on Sunday, September 9, 1917, after the arrest of Gunner A. J. Healy, a New Zealander belonging to No. 27 Infantry Base Depot. He and others bypassed the police picket
s patrolling the bridges that gave access to Le Touquet, which was out of bounds to troops. His son recalled:
A large crowd of angry men gathered near the "Pont des Trois Arches", heading towards town. They did not disperse, even when told the gunner had been released. It was clear that the protest over the arrest was only the tip of an iceberg and the atmosphere was tense. The arrival of military police only made matters worse and scuffles broke out. Suddenly the sound of shooting was heard. Private H. Reeve, a military policeman, had fired into the crowd, killing Corporal W. B. Wood of the 4th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, and injuring a French woman standing in the Rue de Huguet, Étaples. Thereafter, the police simply fled.
News of the shooting spread quickly. By 7:30 pm over a thousand angry men were pursuing the military police, who fled in the direction of the town.
The following morning measures were taken to prevent further outbreaks and police pickets were stationed on the bridges leading into the town. Nevertheless, by 4 pm men had broken through the pickets and were holding meetings in the town, followed by sporadic demonstrations around the camp.
On Tuesday, fearing further outbreaks, the Base Commandant requested reinforcements. Meanwhile, the demonstrations gathered momentum.
On Wednesday, 12 September, in spite of orders confining them to camp, over a thousand men broke out and marched through the town. Later that day, reinforcements of 400 officers and men of the Honourable Artillery Company
(HAC) arrived, armed with wooden staves. The HAC detachment was composed mainly of officers and was the one unit on which complete reliance could be placed. The HAC were supported by a section from the Machine Gun Corps
. The threat worked: only 300 men broke camp and were arrested at Etaples. The incident was now over and the reinforcements were dispersed.
Many men were charged with various military offences and Corporal Jesse Robert Short of the Northumberland Fusiliers
was condemned to death for attempted mutiny. He was found guilty of encouraging his men to put down their weapons and attack an officer, Captain EF Wilkinson of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Three other soldiers received 10 years' penal servitude. The sentences passed on the remainder involved 10 soldiers being jailed for up to a year's imprisonment with hard labour, 33 were sentenced to between seven and ninety days field punishment
and others were fined or reduced in rank. Short was executed by firing squad on 4 October 1917 at Boulogne where he is buried in the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.
was serving in the VAD at Etaples at the time of the mutiny, and in her book "Testament of Youth" describes the atmosphere of rumour and secrecy. Female personnel "were shut up in our hospitals to meditate on the effect of three years of war upon the splendid morale of our noble troops". Meanwhile "numerous drunken and delapidated warriors from the village battle were sent to spare beds..... for slight repairs". She says that it was mid-October before the Mutiny ended. In a subsequent footnote she concludes that, "the mutiny was due to repressive conditions......and was provoked by the military police".
and his involvement in the mutiny. It prompted questions in Parliament about the events of the Mutiny when it was first published, which led to the discovery that all the records of the Etaples Board of Enquiry had been destroyed long since. A BBC1 TV series also entitled The Monocled Mutineer
was adapted from the book, and caused some controversy at the time of its first transmission in 1986, being used by the press to attack the BBC for left-wing bias. Some advertising material issued to promote the series inadvisedly claimed that it was a "true-life story".
Toplis has been shown to have been in India in 1917 and to have contracted malaria
not long before the Étaples Mutiny. It is hence quite unlikely that he could have returned to Europe in time to participate in it.
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
troops in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1917, during the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Background
ÉtaplesÉtaples
Étaples or Étaples-sur-Mer is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river.There is a separate commune named Staple, Nord.-History:...
, about 15 miles (24.1 km) south of Boulogne-sur-Mer
Boulogne-sur-Mer
-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....
, was at the time a small town with a thriving fishing industry and a fleet of sail powered wooden trawlers, a few miles up the river Canche. It attracted painters from the USA, Canada, and Australia before it became part of an enormous army complex that stretched all along the Channel coast. One of these artists left a collection of paintings of the Etaples camp: the Australian Iso Rae Whatever the picturesque value of the town, it did not impress the British ladies who came to do their duty in the YMCA huts: in the words of Lady Baden-Powell, "Etaples was a dirty, loathsome, smelly little town".
On the other side of the river was a smart beach resort known officially as Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, and unofficially as either Le Touquet or Paris-Plage. Le Touquet was in effect officers' territory, and pickets were stationed on the bridge over the Canche to enforce the separation.
Etaples
Étaples
Étaples or Étaples-sur-Mer is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river.There is a separate commune named Staple, Nord.-History:...
was a particularly notorious base camp for those on their way to the front. Under atrocious conditions, both raw recruits and battle-weary veterans were subjected to intensive training in gas warfare
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
and bayonet
Bayonet
A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...
drill, and long sessions of marching at the double across the dunes. After two weeks, many of the wounded would rather return to the front with unhealed wounds than remain at Étaples.
But the context cannot be better described than by poet/soldier Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War...
, resting in Etaples on his way to the line:
- ”I thought of the very strange look on all the faces in that camp; an incomprehensible look, which a man will never see in England; nor can it be seen in any battle but only in Etaples. It was not despair, or terror, it was more terrible than terror, for it was a blindfold look and without expression, like a dead rabbit’s.”
The officers and NCOs in charge of the training, the "canaries", also had a reputation of never having been at the front, which inevitably created a certain amount of tension and contempt, as expressed in Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
's poem "Base Details":
If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. ‘Poor young chap,’
I’d say—‘I used to know his father well;
Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.’
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I’d toddle safely home and die—in bed.
The mutiny
It appears that relations between personnel and authorities at the camp had deteriorated for some time. They came to a head on Sunday, September 9, 1917, after the arrest of Gunner A. J. Healy, a New Zealander belonging to No. 27 Infantry Base Depot. He and others bypassed the police picket
Picket (military)
In military terminology, a picket refers to soldiers or troops placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance. It can also refer to any unit performing a similar function...
s patrolling the bridges that gave access to Le Touquet, which was out of bounds to troops. His son recalled:
- It was the practice for those who wished to visit the township to walk across the estuary or river mouth at low tide, do their thing and return accordingly. However in my father's case the tide came in, in the interval and to avoid being charged as a deserter, he returned across the bridge and was apprehended as a deserter by the "Red CapsRoyal Military PoliceThe Royal Military Police is the corps of the British Army responsible for the policing of service personnel, and for providing a military police presence both in the UK, and whilst service personnel are deployed overseas on operations and exercises.Members of the RMP are generally known as...
" and placed in an adjoining cell or lock up. When news of this action reached the NZNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
garrison, the troops left in a mass and proceeded to the lock up.
A large crowd of angry men gathered near the "Pont des Trois Arches", heading towards town. They did not disperse, even when told the gunner had been released. It was clear that the protest over the arrest was only the tip of an iceberg and the atmosphere was tense. The arrival of military police only made matters worse and scuffles broke out. Suddenly the sound of shooting was heard. Private H. Reeve, a military policeman, had fired into the crowd, killing Corporal W. B. Wood of the 4th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, and injuring a French woman standing in the Rue de Huguet, Étaples. Thereafter, the police simply fled.
News of the shooting spread quickly. By 7:30 pm over a thousand angry men were pursuing the military police, who fled in the direction of the town.
The following morning measures were taken to prevent further outbreaks and police pickets were stationed on the bridges leading into the town. Nevertheless, by 4 pm men had broken through the pickets and were holding meetings in the town, followed by sporadic demonstrations around the camp.
On Tuesday, fearing further outbreaks, the Base Commandant requested reinforcements. Meanwhile, the demonstrations gathered momentum.
On Wednesday, 12 September, in spite of orders confining them to camp, over a thousand men broke out and marched through the town. Later that day, reinforcements of 400 officers and men of the Honourable Artillery Company
Honourable Artillery Company
The Honourable Artillery Company was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII. Today it is a Registered Charity whose purpose is to attend to the “better defence of the realm"...
(HAC) arrived, armed with wooden staves. The HAC detachment was composed mainly of officers and was the one unit on which complete reliance could be placed. The HAC were supported by a section from the Machine Gun Corps
Machine Gun Corps
The Machine Gun Corps was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in World War I. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks in combat, and the branch was subsequently turned into the Tank...
. The threat worked: only 300 men broke camp and were arrested at Etaples. The incident was now over and the reinforcements were dispersed.
Many men were charged with various military offences and Corporal Jesse Robert Short of the Northumberland Fusiliers
Royal Northumberland Fusiliers
The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Originally raised in 1674, the regiment was amalgamated with three other fusilier regiments in 1968 to form the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.-Origins:...
was condemned to death for attempted mutiny. He was found guilty of encouraging his men to put down their weapons and attack an officer, Captain EF Wilkinson of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Three other soldiers received 10 years' penal servitude. The sentences passed on the remainder involved 10 soldiers being jailed for up to a year's imprisonment with hard labour, 33 were sentenced to between seven and ninety days field punishment
Field punishment
Field punishment was a military punishment formerly used in the British Army and other armies of the British Empire. It could be awarded only to soldiers on "active service", meaning during war time, in a country occupied by the enemy. It was introduced in 1881 following the abolition of flogging,...
and others were fined or reduced in rank. Short was executed by firing squad on 4 October 1917 at Boulogne where he is buried in the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.
"Testament of Youth"
The writer Vera BrittainVera Brittain
Vera Mary Brittain was a British writer, feminist and pacifist, best remembered as the author of the best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth, recounting her experiences during World War I and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism.-Life:Born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Brittain was the...
was serving in the VAD at Etaples at the time of the mutiny, and in her book "Testament of Youth" describes the atmosphere of rumour and secrecy. Female personnel "were shut up in our hospitals to meditate on the effect of three years of war upon the splendid morale of our noble troops". Meanwhile "numerous drunken and delapidated warriors from the village battle were sent to spare beds..... for slight repairs". She says that it was mid-October before the Mutiny ended. In a subsequent footnote she concludes that, "the mutiny was due to repressive conditions......and was provoked by the military police".
The Monocled Mutineer
William Allison and John Fairley's 1978 book The Monocled Mutineer gave a very imaginative account of the life and death of Percy ToplisPercy Toplis
Francis Percy Toplis was a British criminal and imposter active during the First World War. He is sometimes claimed to have taken a major part in the Étaples Mutiny, as "The Monocled Mutineer", during the war, although there is some dispute as to whether he was actually present.Toplis was born in...
and his involvement in the mutiny. It prompted questions in Parliament about the events of the Mutiny when it was first published, which led to the discovery that all the records of the Etaples Board of Enquiry had been destroyed long since. A BBC1 TV series also entitled The Monocled Mutineer
The Monocled Mutineer
The Monocled Mutineer is a British television series made by the BBC in 1986, and shown on BBC1, the first episode being transmitted on 31 August 1986, intended to head BBC1's autumn season of drama...
was adapted from the book, and caused some controversy at the time of its first transmission in 1986, being used by the press to attack the BBC for left-wing bias. Some advertising material issued to promote the series inadvisedly claimed that it was a "true-life story".
Toplis has been shown to have been in India in 1917 and to have contracted malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
not long before the Étaples Mutiny. It is hence quite unlikely that he could have returned to Europe in time to participate in it.