Antigua & Barbuda Defence Force - History
The first volunteer unit in Antigua and Barbuda dates at least as far back as 1690, when a 400-man force was raised to wrest St. Kitts from French control. Subsequent efforts to raise volunteer units in Antigua waxed and waned according to perceived military requirements in the 18th and 19th Centuries, reaching a peak at the end of the Napoleonic period at almost 1,000 members.
The Antigua Defence Force created by an 1897 act and a subsequent ordinance in 1912, which comprised an infantry company, is the ABDF’s direct lineal ancestor, and existed in various forms up to the establishment of the current ABDF. For most of its existence War Office records indicate that the Antigua Defence Force’s strength varied between about 40 and 90 soldiers, with a mission set similar to the ABDF’s today, if less complex in those simpler times: defence of the island, response to emergencies, and aid to civil powers.
The Antigua Defence Force, though small for much of its existence, produced no less than three distinct badge designs, two featuring the pineapple still worn on ABDF collar badges, and one recalled in the cap badge of today’s cadets.
The history of regular soldiering in Antigua and Barbuda dates to 1795, when the first eight West India Regiments were raised. Expanded by a further four regiments in 1798, and titled 1st West India through 12th West India Regiment, these units saw action throughout the Caribbean against French and Dutch forces during the Napoleonic Period, and against the Americans in the War of 1812. Following the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, and the settling of colonial relationships among the islands by that same time, the regiments were reduced to just two by 1825.
In the mid-19th Century, events far from the West Indies conspired to create a new, unexpected mission for the West India Regiments. Britain’s expansion into the West African region required troops for garrisons and for active service, and the first units sent from Great Britain suffered unsustainable casualty rates – often topping 50 percent – not from combat, but disease.
The troops of the West India Regiments, it was found, retained residual immunity from the tropical diseases common to the region. This genetic bequest of their forebears, along with a well-established reputation for strong fighting qualities, made the West Indians an ideal answer to Britain’s West African requirements. For most of the rest of the 19th Century, soldiers from Antigua and Barbuda, along with their West Indian brothers-in-arms, served in often savage campaigns in the present-day nations of Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the Gambia, earning battle honours for the Ashanti War and several West African campaign seasons, as well as two awards of the Victoria Cross.
Following service in the East African campaign in the First World War, the 1st and 2nd West India Regiments, combined as 1st and 2nd Battalions of the West India Regiment, were disbanded, sadly, in 1927, their colours laid up in St. George’s Chapel of Windsor Castle. When the Federation of the West Indies was created in 1959, with high hopes for a single Commonwealth West Indian nation, the West India Regiment was resurrected as its defence force. The unit adopted its old badges for its brief existence, which ended with the dream of the Federation in 1962.
The demands of two world wars in the 20th Century inspired a response from the British Caribbean beyond mobilization of the local volunteers. The First World War saw the raising of The British West Indies Regiment in 1915, an all-volunteer unit which eventually fielded a remarkable 12 battalions of some 16,000 troops from every island in the West Indies. Battalions of the BWI Regiment served throughout the Western Front and the Middle East. Perhaps the regiment’s greatest contribution to the war effort was service with Allenby’s expedition against the Turks through Palestine to Damascus. In this campaign, soldiers of Antigua and Barbuda witnessed the last cavalry charge in British history, an action by the Australian Light Horse to secure fresh water wells at Beersheba on 31 October 1917, and participated in the capture of Jerusalem in November and December of 1917, which led in turn to the Balfour Declaration and, eventually, to the establishment of the modern state of Israel.
Once again, the Second World War saw the volunteer units of the region contribute to a broad-based unit raised for war service specifically. This formation, titled The Caribbean Regiment in recognition of the contributions of regional colonies (British Honduras and British Guiana) not technically part of the West Indies, was similar in organizational design to the BWI Regiment of the previous conflict. The Leeward Islands, with Antigua as the leading contributor of soldiers, formed a battalion of the regiment with its own badge and shoulder title. After training at Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia, the unit shipped to Egypt in October of 1944, where it guarded Axis prisoners of war until after victory in Europe in May of 1945.
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