Musketry

                     Hythe School of Musketry 

                         

This page will be devoted to the School of Musketry in Hythe. Later renamed the Small Arms School, this training school for British and Empire soldiers was, between 1853 and 1968, a centre of excellence.

The ability of the Welsh Borderers with their Martini Henrys to fight off repeated attacks by vastly superior numbers of Zulu warriors at Rorke’s Drift, and of the British soldiers in their retreat from Mons in 1914, with their rapid fire from Lee Enfiled rifles, to hold off the mass of the German army, which the Germans believed was machine gun fire, was due to the discipline and training instilled at Hythe.

We begin with a short history of the School, which is my article first published in the SASC magazine ‘Man at Arms’ in 2008. Click here

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A few more images of the SOM

And the Musketry Bridge today:

Very little evidence remains of the SOM site. Now occupied by housing and a brand new Sainsburys, here is a picture of one of the gate posts at the London Road entrance to the School.

Every course at the SOM finished with a class photograph, some of which I will be posting. On the reverse of the photo was printed a list of students and the officers in command at the School. Notice below that the adjutant in 1900 was Captain F Bourne of the South Wales Borderers. He is better known to history as Colour Sergeant Frank Bourne who helped to fight off the Zulu attacks at Rorkes Drift in 1879. It is said that he turned down a Victoria Cross in preference for a Commission.

Stationery was embossed with the School’s crest:

                    

Images will be constantly added to this page, so you might like to bookmark it.

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A course at the School of Musketry and later the SASC at Hythe was known as a Party, and each party was divided into two groups, the left and right Wing. Each wing was then broken down into Sections with a Musketry Instructor, usually a Sergeant or QMS in charge.

Below are the photos for the 166th Party in May 1893, together with a list of the names of all the officers who attended, and their regiments.

If you would like a clearer copy of these pics, email me at michael@coastofconflict.com and I will be glad to send them to you.

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August 2011

The following set of images show the School in about 1893

                          The Lecture Room

This very early photo shows the original SOM Instructors. Note the clock behind them. When the School closed in 1968, and was ddemolished, the clock was handed to Hythe town and now appears in the small museum adjacent to the library.