THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER, BOER WAR AND FIRST WORLD WAR CAMPAIGN GROUP TO MAJOR R.L. PAYNE, CONNAUGHT RANGERS, THE ACTING COMMANDING OFFICER IN JUNE 1920 OF THE DETACHMENT OF THE 1ST BATTALION CONNAUGHT RANGERS STATIONED AT SOLON, WHO PLAYED A LEADING ROLE IN THE INFAMOUS CONNAUGHT RANGERS MUTINY, MAJOR PAYNE'S MISHANDLING OF EVENTS TURNING WHAT BEGAN AS A PROTEST INTO A MUTINOUS CONFRONTATION DURING WHICH, AT ONE POINT, MAJOR PAYNE ORDERED THE EXECUTION OF SOME OF THE MUTINEERS BY FIRING SQUAD.
Six: Distinguished Service Order, George V; Queen's South Africa Medal, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith (officially named, impressed in plain upper and lower case capital letters: LIEUT. R.L. PAYNE, 1st. CONNAUGHT RANG:); King's South Africa Medal, 2 clasps (officially named, impressed in plain block capitals: LIEUT: R.L. PAYNE. CON: RANG:); 1914 Star and bar (officially named, impressed in plain block capitals: CAPT: R.L. PAYNE. CONN : RANG.); British War and Victory Medals (both officially named, impressed in plain block capitals: MAJOR. R.L. PAYNE.).
Generally Extremely Fine and virtually as struck, mounted court style for display.
With a matching set of miniature medals, these generally Almost Extremely Fine to Extremely Fine and mounted loose style, as worn.
Group accompanied by a superb archive of original documents and photographs, including an original commission warrant, dated 12th October 1899, appointing Payne 2nd Lieutenant, Connaught Rangers; an original commission warrant, dated 16th February 1915, appointing Payne Captain, Connaught Rangers, with printed signature of Kitchener as Secretary of State for War; an original "Mention in Dispatches" certificate, the then Captain Payne being mentioned in dispatches by Field Marshal French, 14/1/1915, with printed signature of Winston Churchil as Secretary of State for War; two large original half-length portrait photographs of Payne in the uniform of a Major in the Connaught Rangers, taken circa 1915, both 7.75 x 5 inches (vertical) approx.; an original portrait photograph, head and shoulders only, of Payne in Staff Officers uniform (Major) circa 1916, 6 x 4 inches (vertical) approx.; an original 3/4 length portrait photograph of Payne in Connaught Rangers frock coat uniform, circa 1915, by Lafayette, 7 x 4.5 inches (vertical) approx.; a large panoramic photograph of a battalion of soldiers on a parade ground (Connaught Rangers?) in white tropical uniforms, mounted officers in attendance, 11 x 8 inches (horizontal) approx; a large panoramic photograph of a battalion of soldiers (Connaught Rangers?) marching past on a parade ground in India, mounted officers taking the salue and a body of lancers in attendance,11 x8.5 inches (horizontal) approx; a large photograph of a Connaught Rangers colour party, two officers and three other ranks in service uniform, with the regimental colours, 11 x 9 inches (horizontal) approx, the officers and men wearing their WW1 medal ribbons, probably circa 1920; and an original half length portrait photograph of Major Payne's wife, Lilian Mary Payne, circa 1930, by Janet Jevons, New Bond St, London, 8 x 6 inches (vertical) approx.; an original copy of "The Statutes of the Distinguished Service Order", 6pp, original card cover; and an original, official "Brief History of the Connaught Rangers", 12pp, published circa 1902, as distributed to new recruits.
Group accompanied by biographical details, extract Who Was Who and extract "The Distinguished Service Order", giving details of Major Payne's services, extracts London Gazette and Army Lists of the period, and copied Medal Index card,
Robert Leslie Payne (1880-1942) was born in Cork on 7/5/1880, the son of Somers and Edith Payne. He was first commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 5th Battalion Connaught Rangers (Rosommon Militia), 9/6/1898, transferred from the Militia to the regular army in 1899, being appointed 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers on 18/10/1899. Payne was promoted Lieutenant, 17/9/1901, Captain, 8/2/1906, Major, 1/9/1915, and retired with the rank of Major on retired pay, 30/11/1921, subsequently being appointed Major, Reserve of Officers, 25/11/1922
Payne first saw active service with the 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers during the Boer War, seeing service with the Mounted Infantry in South Africa, during the Relief of Ladysmith, including actions at Colenso, the operations of 17-24 January 1900, action at Spion Kop, operations of 5-7 February 1900 and the actions at Vaal Krantz, the operations on the Tugela Heights 14-27 February 1900, the action at Pieter's Hill, operations in Natal, March-April 1900, Cape Colony, south of the Orange River, April 1900, in the Cape Colony north of the Orange River, April 1900, in the Orange River Colony, May-June 1901 and February-March 1902, and Cape Colony, February - May 1901 and June 1901 to 31st May 1902 (awarded Queen's South Africa Medal with 4 clasps and King's Medal with 2 clasps).
During WW1 Payne initially saw service with the 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers in France, entering that theatre of operations on 28/9/1914 (the 1st Connaughts were stationed in India when WW1 broke out, embarked from Karachi for France on 28/8/1914, arriving at Marseille on 26/9/1914, having stopped over in Egypt 14-19 September, and disembarked at Marseille on 28/9/1914). In France, Payne subsequently saw service as Brigade Major, North Midland Division, 10 January to September 1916 and as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General, 4th Division, from 31 December 1916 to the cessation of hostilities (awarded DSO, 1914 Star and bar trio and mentioned in dispatches).
Major Payne's Distinguished Service Order was announced in the London Gazette of 25/3/1915 (page 2941),
"The Connaught Rangers, Captain Robert Leslie Payne"
The regimental history records that, when the 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers sailed for India in October 1919, Major Payne was in temporary command of the battalion. Later, in June 1920, Payne was Acting Commanding Officer of the company of the regiment stationed at Solon, and it was largely due to Major Payne's mishandling of the situation that what initially began on 1/6/1920 as a protest by men of the regiment turned into a full-blown mutiny.
THE CONNAUGHT RANGERS MUTINY
On 28 June 1920, a company of the Connaught Rangers stationed at Jullundur refused to perform their military duties as a protest against the activities of the British Army in Ireland. On the following day, the mutineers sent two emissaries to another company of Connaught Rangers, commanded by Major Payne, stationed at Solon, about twenty miles away in the foothills of the Himalayas. The soldiers there took up the protest as well and, like their counterparts at Jullundur, flew the tricolour of Ireland, wore ‘Sinn Féin’ rosettes on their British Army uniforms and sang rebel songs.
The protests were initially peaceful, but on the evening of 1st July around 30 members of the company at Solon, armed with bayonets, attempted to seize their rifles from the Cmpany magazine. The soldiers on guard opened fire, killing two men and wounding another. That incident effectively brought the mutiny to an end, and the mutineers at both Jullundur and Solon were placed under armed guard. Following the mutiny, 88 mutineers were court martialed and one man was sentenced to be shot by firing squad, Private James Daly, 77 men were sentenced to imprisonment and 10 were acquitted. Private Daly was shot by firing squad at Dagshai prison on 2/11/1920, the last member of the British armed forces to be executed for mutiny.
At one point during the mutiny, as events spiralled out of his control, Major Payne even went so far as to organise an impromptu firing-squad, ordering men from another regiment to execute some of the protesting Connaught Rangers, the execution only being prevented by the intervention of a Catholic priest. The following description of that attempt to execute the protesters has been extracted from Anthony Babbington' "The Devil to Pay, The Mutiny of the Connaught Rangers in India, July 1920" (Leo Cooper, London, 1991).
The mutineers were paraded at six o'clock that morning and Major Payne told them that they were going to be employed that day in building a road through the camp. As the necessary tools had not arrived, he said he was going to dismiss them for the time being but a fatigue party would be detailed to take down a marquee which at present was standing on the route the road would follow. Among the twenty men he Payne detailed for the fatigue were most of the recognised leaders of the mutiny, and thinking this was simply a stratagem to separate them from the others, they refused to fall in as a party. This angered Payne, and he went off to fetch a squad of armed guards from the South Wales Borderers. Then he marched the mutineers out of the camp to a compound a few hundred yards away, where he drew them up with their backs to a wall and formed the guard into a single line facing them. Again he order the fatigue party to step forward, and when no one moved he ordered the guard to drag them out forcibly. A scrimmage ensued with the guard getting the worst of it, at which point Payne ordered the South Wales Borderers to load their rifles and take aim. At that moment a Roman Catholic chaplain came running up and stood in front of the mutineers, imploring the guard not to fire. Moments later a superior officer to Payne, Colonel Jackson, a Staff Officer from the headquarters of the 16th Indian Division, to which the Connaught Rangers were attached, came on the scene and gave Payne the order not to fire.
With the exception of one man (who died in prison at Dagshai), by the middle of the following year all of the convicted mutineers had been transferred to prisons in England to serve out the remainder of their sentences. At the conclusion of the Irish War of Independence, following negotiations between the Irish Free State and the British government, the mutineers were released from prison, and returned to Ireland early in 1923.
In 1936, following a long campaign, the Irish government awarded pensions to the freed mutineers to compensate them for the pensions they had forfeited for having mutinied. Private Daly's body was repatriated from India to Ireland for re-burial in 1970.
For further details of the Connaught Ranger's mutiny see Leon Babbington's "The Devil to Pay, The Mutiny of the Connaught Rangers in India, July 1920".
