North Irish Horse

Courts Martial

In his 1912 Army Review article, The North Irish Horse, Captain E. M. Dorman discussed the discipline of the regiment at its annual camps. He noted that while "certain minor offences have to be dealt with rather leniently from a Regular soldier's point of view, ... on the whole, there is very little difficulty as regards discipline. Up to the present a court martial has never had to be held on any member of the corps, and it is to be sincerely hoped that the convening of such a court will never be found to be necessary."

That may have been true in peacetime, but the pressures of wartime required a much stricter level of discipline. From 1914 to 1919 one officer and 68 other ranks of the North Irish Horse were tried by court martial, seven of them more than once.

Although these numbers appear high, it actually reveals a very good level of military discipline when compared to other regiments.

Note: This list does not include courts martial of former North Irish Horseman who had transferred to other regiments.

1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

1919

According to military law, field punishments 1 & 2 comprised the following:

RULES FOR FIELD PUNISHMENT MADE UNDER s. 44 OF THE ARMY ACT.

1. A court-martial, or a commanding officer, may award field punishment for any offence committed on active service, and may sentence an offender for a period not exceeding, in the case of a court-martial three months, and in the case of a commanding officer twenty-eight days, to one of the following field punishments, namely:

(a) Field punishment No. 1.
(b) Field punishment No. 2.

2. Where an offender is sentenced to field punishment No. 1, he may, during the continuance of his sentence, unless the court-martial or the commanding officer otherwise directs, be punished as follows:--

(a) He may be kept in irons, i.e., in fetters or handcuffs, or both fetters and handcuffs; and may be secured so as to prevent his escape.
(b) When in irons he may be attached for a period or periods not exceeding two hours in any one day to a fixed object, but he must not be so attached during more than three out of any four consecutive days, nor during more than twenty-one days in all.
(c) Straps or ropes may be used for the purpose of these rules in lieu of irons.
(d) He may be subjected to the like labour, employment, and restraint, and dealt with in like manner as if he were under a sentence of imprisonment with hard labour.

3. Where an offender is sentenced to field punishment No. 2, the foregoing rule with respect to field punishment No. 1 shall apply to him, except that he shall not be liable to be attached to a fixed object as provided by paragraph (b) of Rule 2.

4. Every portion of a field punishment shall be inflicted in such a manner as is calculated not to cause injury or to leave any permanent mark on the offender; and a portion of a field punishment must be discontinued upon a report by a responsible medical officer that the continuance of that portion would be prejudicial to the offender's health.

5. Field punishment will be carried out regimentally when the unit to which the offender belongs or is attached is actually on the move, but when the unit is halted at any place where there is a provost marshal, or an assistant provost marshal, the punishment will be carried out under that officer.

6. When the unit to which the offender belongs or is attached is actually on the move, an offender awarded field punishment No. 1 shall be exempt from the operation of Rule (2)(b), but all offenders awarded field punishment shall march with their unit, carry their arms and accoutrements, perform all their military duties as well as extra fatigue duties, and be treated as defaulters.