Bantam (military)

A bantam, in British army usage, was a soldier of less-than-average height.

During the First World War, the British Army raised battalions in which the normal minimum height requirement for recruits was reduced from 5'3" to 5'. This enabled otherwise healthy young men to enlist.

Bantam units were drawn from industrial and mining areas where short stature was no sign of weakness. The name derives from the former town of Bantam in Indonesia, from which a bread small domestic fowl is thought to have originated.

The first bantam battalions were "raised" in Birkenhead, Cheshire, after Alfred Bigland MP heard of a group of miners who, rejected from every recruiting office, had made their way to the town. One of the miners, rejected on account of his size, offered to fight any man there, and six men were eventually called upon to remove him. These were men used to physicality and hard work, and Bigland, incensed at what he saw as the needless rejection of healthy men, petitioned the war office for permission to establish an undersized fighting unit.

When granted, news spread across the country and men previously denied the chance to fight made their way to Birkenhead, 3,000 in all being divided into two battalions in November 1914. The requirement for their chest size was one inch more than the army standard.

The men became local heroes, with the local newspaper, The Birkenhead News, honouring the men of the 1st and 2nd Birkenhead Battalions of the Cheshires with enamel badges - "BBB" - Bigland's Birkenhead Bantams. Soon renamed the 15th and 16th Cheshires, they undertook gruelling training and served in some of the most hard fought battles of the war. Eventually two whole divisions, the 35th and the 40th, were formed from 'Bantam' men, but conscription saw standards drop and they were finally consumed into the normal army.

Due to the extensive losses in the British army, the Bantam Brigade (getting its name from small chickens) was a sign of just how desperate the Government was, as the previous safety healthchecks went out of the window. The checks meant that men under 5ft 3" could not fight.

External links

*http://www.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.2872
*http://www.1914-1918.net/whatbantam.htm