Under The Lash (Part 2)

Read Part 1 for the background story of the book

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In 'Under The Lash,' the author 'Scott Claver' has compiled a detailed account of the brutal history of Corporal Punishment in the British Armed Forces and the long struggle of liberal thinkers to get it banned in the face of resolute opposition from the Officers who feared it would undermine their efforts to instil obedience, discipline and good order in their subordinates. 

There were many offences for which men could be punished, ranging from minor insubordination, drunkenness and theft to desertion (punishable by flogging and sometimes branding) and mutiny, which was generally punishable by death. A table of Navy punishments included in the book includes several entries of chilling interest to many readers of this article. In 1846, Seamen Sheep and Bass of HMS Calcutta were convicted of Gross Indecency and were given 48 lashes each whilst being drummed round the squadron (explained below), they were then imprisoned for a year before being discharged in disgrace.  In 1756, James Spencer, a Boatswain's Mate on HMS Nottingham, was given 20 lashes alongside each ship in Halifax Harbour for Sodomy. Finally, in 1757, Francis French, a midshipman on board HMS Defiance, also convicted of "sodomitical practices, uncleanliness and scandalous behaviour" was given 300 lashes whilst wearing a halter round his neck and rendered 'incapable of serving'. The last part of this punishment is not explained.

Although the author describes numerous ways in which delinquents were punished, to modern day eyes, flogging seems perhaps the most barbaric, with some astonishingly severe sentences, up to 1,900 lashes. Lesser amounts being meted out on a regular basis, often for trivial or unjust reasons. In the early 1800s flogging was the most common form of punishment in the Army. Something like 25% of the enlisted men in some Regiments were reported as having experienced it at some point in their careers and in pre-Victorian times, enlistment was sometimes for life. 

Floggings were generally inflicted with a 'cat', a multi-tailed whip similar to the modern, S&M flogger, but with tails of knotted cord rather than leather, which was more painful and more damaging. This instrument inflicted multiple lashes with a single stroke and the author spares no detail in describing the consequences for the victim's bodies, giving numerous examples of the worst cases. It's not an easy read.

Outcomes varied significantly from one man to another. Some could tolerate much more pain and also might suffer less physical trauma than others receiving the same punishment. Some almost seemed able to take the beatings in their stride, joking about it with the Officers and their comrades. But in other cases, men died from the wounds they sustained, occasionally while the punishment was still being inflicted. Offenders were usually hospitalised for weeks, sometimes months, some were never fit for service again. Thus, the man was lost from duty exactly as if he had been imprisoned. This was resented by his comrades, who had to carry out his duties instead.

A surgeon was generally in attendance to prevent excessive harm to the victim. The punishment could be halted if he or the Officer in charge thought it necessary. But it was usually resumed and completed once the offender had recovered enough to bear it. It then effectively became a double punishment, the second worse than the first, as old wounds quickly re-opened. Critics condemned the use of medical skill, not to heal men, but to determine the maximum punishment they could tolerate.

Offenders were frequently punished in front of all their comrades as an example of what might happen to them. The delivery of floggings were often accompanied by an elaborate, full-dress ceremonial ritual, with drummers beating time in the march to the scaffold and counting out the strokes. It was traumatic to watch for some, fainting and revulsion were common, although it was widely considered that the punishments were mostly well-deserved.

Being tied to the halberds, (long pikes tied together in a tripod) was a common style of flogging (see above). It was recreated by Royale in the set which I have tagged as  'Regency Punishment'. The youth of Clavering's model in these images is by no means untypical of the men who faced these appalling ordeals in real life, even those regarded as boys were not spared the cat.  

Floggings were usually directed at the back, but beatings on the bottom (or breech) were not unknown, although it was generally considered too degrading and too painful in significant amounts. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the enlisted men often meted out 'private' punishments themselves in this manner. This aspect of barracks life is covered in Royale's storyettes e.g. The Cheat.

Running The Gauntlet

'Running the Gauntlet' was a more organised form of group punishment awarded for some offences, such as theft from fellow soldiers. The offender was led past ranks of his comrades at a controlled, slow, walking pace and beaten by every one of them as he passed. I've not found this punishment reproduced in a Royale storyette, probably because it would require too large number of models.

 

The Wooden Horse

Clavering didn't deploy the Wooden Horse either. It would have required special construction and taken up precious space in his studio. However, he does show men being spanked whilst sitting astride a gym horse (e.g. in The Cheat). Not at all the same punishment, but the imagery creates a similar effect.

 The Wooden Horse is a familiar S&M punishment to readers of mitchmen blog, where a series of images by different artists have been published under the label, 'Riding The Wedge'.

Another punishment referenced obliquely in a Royale storyette is 'The Picket', where a soldier was forced to stand on one foot, placed on a pointed stake with one hand tied aloft. Royale's Soldier-Sailor storyette alludes to this punishment in images 20 and 21. 

 

The incarceration of Fred Collins and John Skilling, tied to each other, in Football Ballet 2 is a loose variation on the practice of attaching offenders to logs or iron balls with chains.

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In the book, conditions in the Royal Navy are considered separately to the Army. Discipline on ships was reputedly much stricter and punishments more severe, with instruments designed to be more painful. The harsh regime was partly due to the impossibility of summoning reinforcements if disorder or mutiny broke out. However, in the enclosed environment on board ship, bullying often flourished, with discipline subject to Officers' whims. Relatively junior Officers had the power to impose arbitrary punishments, those in command of smaller ships had lesser rank but the same power as the Captain of the flagship. 

 

Flogging in the Navy

The Navy had its own varied list of punishments, but flogging was much to the fore and the illustration above indicates that it was conducted with just as much panoply as the Army equivalent with the whole crew looking on. Here the errant seaman has been tied to a hatch covering instead of the Halberds, sometimes they were restrained in a gangway. This practice was re-created with Fred Collins as the victim in his Football sets. There's another, well known Royale/Hussar image that illustrates a further variation where the victim is flogged while tied to the ship's rigging.

 

There were numerous other variants such as 'starting' with a knotted rope (employed in Royale's Airman's Gym Punishment storyette) and 'cobbing' where the whole crew participated. More exotic torments involved the ship's structure as a replacement for a jail cell - such as prolonged sitting on masts and being tied to the rigging (as recreated in Hussar's lengthy list of Sailors in the Rigging sets). 

 

As far as I know, Royale didn't attempt to reproduce 'keel hauling' where offenders were dragged under the ship's hull, often resulting in death. Almost as fearsome was the practice of 'flogging round the fleet', when the offender was lashed to a wooden frame in a rowing boat and flogged over and over again alongside successive ships. The flogging sentence was shared between the ships involved, but they would send their own (fresh) representatives to carry out their portion. The delay as the boat was rowed from one ship to another prolonged the offender's misery and allowed feelings to return to his back, so it was much harder to endure and (survive).

 

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Attempts by Parliament to end the practice of corporal punishment were repeatedly thwarted by institutional opposition. When legal restraints were put in place, they were openly rejected by some senior officers and often ignored or circumvented by commanders in the field. Eventually though, in 1836, a Royal Commission was put in place to review the whole subject. They concluded that it was not possible to abolish the punishment altogether but recommended limits and measures to ensure that powers were not abused and alternatives made more effective. 

Caning of a Chindit in Burma (1943)

 Gradually the practice declined but didn't disappear altogether. The first picture in this article depicts an example in 1900 and two 'Chindit' privates were caned in Burma in the Second World War for falling asleep on guard duty behind enemy lines. The latter was a mutually agreed punishment and when questions were asked in Parliament, one of them protested that he hadn't complained about it. Whether it had made them any more vigilant we'll never know. Although such incidents continued, they were nothing like as widespread or as severe as a century earlier. We should remember that caning of boys in UK schools and service training establishments was still commonplace in the 50s and 60s

Such is the detail of this book that it eventually becomes quite tedious to read. The review of Army punishments (Chap 1) seems to get lost in an unorganised repetition of the pro and cons of flogging expressed by different sources. Eventually it becomes an unstructured list of offenders and their punishments, which continues for several pages. The Royal Commission too is discussed in enormous depth, from its detailed terms of reference, the Committee's methodology, numerous sample testimonies (unordered) and ending with the full text of the report itself. There's much detail and repetition without a clear path to the Committee's conclusions.

If John Barrington was hired by Clavering to edit the contents into shape (see Part 1), he was only partly successful. In truth, his credentials for this task were no better than his knowledge of the subject itself. His own biographer frankly speaks of the shoddy, badly printed magazines he produced well into the 1980s. According to him, Barrington worked sporadically on this book and it shows.

Despite this criticism, there is a core of easily read, informative text and this is supplemented by some interesting diversions:- A brief history of how the Royal Navy came into being. A fascinating account of how Navy ships entering ports were immediately besieged by prostitutes who made homes on the ships while entertaining the crew. Also and not least, an abridged version of 'The Soldiers Tale' a melodramatic account of a young man tricked into 'taking the King's shilling' by a landowner who covets his fiancée. After much bullying, he deserts and runs off with his girl on two occasions, only to be recaptured and in the end is executed, the King's pardon arriving minutes too late.

Read Part 1 (Background)

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'Under The Lash' is available from many booksellers for modest prices. 
A soft cover version came out as recently as 2010.