The 1st Garrison Battalion, Essex Regiment, was a unit formed from older or unfit men for line of communication duties during World War I. It served at Gallipoli, carrying out a multitude of tasks both at the bases and under fire on the beaches. The battalion continued serving at the bases in Egypt and at Salonika until after the end of the war.
Origin
The unit was formed as a provisional battalion on 21 July 1915 from drafts of officers and men who were unfit for active service on account of age, infirmities, or from wounds received on the Western Front. These drafts were drawn from Special Reserve battalions garrisoning seaports in Eastern Command. (The Special Reserve was the former Militia, whose wartime role was to train reinforcements for the Regular Army):
Harwich
3rd Bn, Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn, Bedfordshire Regiment
3rd Bn, Norfolk Regiment
3rd Bn, Suffolk Regiment
3rd Bn, Essex Regiment
Chatham
3rd Bn, Royal West Surrey Regiment
5th Bn, Middlesex Regiment
6th Bn, Middlesex Regiment
3rd Bn, Royal West Kent Regiment
3rd Bn, Northamptonshire Regiment
Dover
3rd Bn East Surrey Regiment
5th Bn, Royal Fusiliers
6th Bn, Royal Fusiliers
3rd Bn, East Kent Regiment
3rd Bn, Sussex Regiment
The battalion formed at Denham Camp in Buckinghamshire with a strength of 15 officers and 1144 other ranks, organised into four double companies. It was inspected by Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Rundle, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, on 27 July and two days later its status was changed from a Provisional Battalion to 1st Garrison Battalion, Essex Regiment and all the men were transferred to that regiment. Lieutenant-Colonel William Tankerville Monypenny Reeve, CMG, of the 2nd Bn, Leinster Regiment, was appointed Commanding Officer (CO) in August. He had lost his left forearm at the Battle of Armentières in 1914. One of the company commanders was Captain Sir Capel Charles Wolseley, 9th Baronet, of the 3rd Bn, East Surrey Regiment, a former British Vice consul at Archangel, Russia. Additional officers transferred from Special Reserve and New Army battalions brought the unit up to full establishment.
Gallipoli campaign
The new battalion was destined for the Gallipoli Campaign. On 24 August it entrained for Devonport, where it boarded HM Transport Z36 (the RMS Empress of Britain). It disembarked at Mudros, Lemnos, on 6 September, and went into camp at Turks' Head Peninsula.
The men were medically examined on arrival and classified as: A Class: fit for work on the Gallipoli beaches, all of whom were posted to D Company B Class: fit for guard duties etc on the Lines of Communication C Class: fit only for sedentary work.
The duties carried out by the men were wide-ranging: a large number were employed at the hospitals, others with the Sanitary Section, the Egyptian Labour Corps, the Machine Gun School and the Remount Depot. Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) acted as drill instructors and as camp staff, other ranks (ORs) as cooks, waiters and orderlies, servants to chaplains, cemetery attendants, storemen, platelayers with the Royal Engineers' railway troops, and as motor cycle despatch riders, signallers and telephonists. The battalion provided picquets and guards for various key points such as the water condenser, for Turkish prisoners of war (PoWs) in camp and on board ships in Mudros harbour, and camp patrols to prevent illicit sale of alcohol and theft of stores. The battalion turned out Guards of Honour for dignitaries visiting Lemnos, including the commander-in-chief of the French fleet, and on 10 November for the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener.
The battalion of unfit men suffered a good deal from the sickness endemic throughout the campaign, and by the middle of November three officers and 113 men had been invalided to the base or sent home. Lieutenant-Colonel Reeve contracted dysentery at Lemnos and was evacuated home aboard the hospital ship Aquitania. He died at Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital at Millbank on 28 September 1915 and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. Major Stuart Goode (4th Bn, Bedfordshire Regiment) took over as CO, and was confirmed in the rank of temporary Lt-Col on 15 October. The battalion was reinforced by men and boys from the Royal Naval Division, and later by a party attached from 1/7th Bn, Royal Welch Fusiliers, and by Australian troops, so that two additional companies were formed as Nos 1 and 2 Detail Companies.