Introduction
Probably every major British passenger ship company has carried troops in wartime. For instance, passenger ships of the Cunard and P&O lines have been taken up from trade in both world wars and for emergencies, such as the Falklands War, for use as troopships. However, historically, there have been three British shipowning companies which for many years were closely associated with trooping in peacetime – the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, the British India Steam Navigation Company and the Bibby Steamship Company.

In the heyday of the British Empire the maintenance of overseas garrisons, in particular those in India, made heavy demands upon shipping, involving as it did the movement of both troops and supplies. In the aftermath of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, Edward Cardwell, the Secretary of State for War under Gladstone, instituted reforms of the British Army including a system under which infantry regiments would be linked in pairs and would have two regular battalions of which one would serve overseas while the other based at home would, in addition to its ordinary military role, undertake recruiting and the training of new entrants to the army to provide replacements for casualties and wastage in both battalions. Battalions alternated periods of service at home and overseas.

Bibby Troopship, the second LANCASHIRE, 1917.

The size of battalions varied. During World War I a typical infantry battalion might consist of eight companies, each of about 90 men, and the battalion would number 30 officers, 91 NCO’s and 975 other ranks for a total of around 1,096 officers and men. By 1943 a typical infantry battalion was smaller with a strength of 33 officers and 753 other ranks, some 800 in all. It seems that the size and carrying capacity of ships planned and built as troopships was related to the number of men in a battalion and the dependants who would be traveling with them on postings: a battalion going overseas or returning home would have the administrative and logistical advantages accruing from traveling together as a unit. By way of an example, Bibby’s troopship Lancashire (ii), rebuilt as a trooper in 1930, sailed from Southampton on 23^rd December 1931 with the 1^st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment aboard bound for a foreign posting.

HMT Lancashire, 1889.

Carriage overseas of an infantry division of 20,000 men was estimated to need 166,000 nett tons of shipping. ie more than forty ships of 4,000 tons or twenty ships of 8,000 tons would be required.

During the period between the two world wars the British Army was responsible for the defence and garrisoning of India and more than twenty other colonies and dependencies including Hong Kong, Egypt, Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Palestine and Trans-Jordan. In 1934 the total strength of the British Army was nearly 200,000 of whom some 110,000 were stationed in Britain, almost 55,000 were in India and 10,000 in Egypt. In addition the Indian Army numbered 260,000 of whom nearly 70,000 were British. The numbers of troops and the number and locations of garrisons cited make it clear that a substantial fleet of ships carrying supplies and equipment was needed to support the peacetime deployment of the British Army overseas during the 1930s. Trooping fell into three categories. First, His Majesty’s Transports, the large permanent troopships owned by Bibby, British India and P&O engaged exclusively on government service under time charter, which moved about 60,000 men annually. Next were freight ships, merchant ships in which space was booked for small drafts of troops, numbering about 8,000 a year. Thirdly, some 7,000 men a year travelled on leave or to join or rejoin units on passenger ships in ordinary commercial service. In addition to trooping, approximately 340,000 tons of stores had to be shipped annually to British garrisons abroad.

HMT Neuralia

Before and during the 1939-45 War the movement of troops between England and overseas garrisons was by sea. In 1962 it was decided that overseas trooping would be carried out by air, and the day of the troopship came to an end. Before the War the best known troopships in regular service were the British India Steam Navigations Company’s Dilwara, Dunera, Neuralia and Nevasa and the Bibby Line’s Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Lancashire and Somersetshire. They were all ships of rather more than 9,000 tons gross with a service speed of 15 knots, designed to carry a complete battalion and a number of drafts and individuals. It is interesting to compare their tonnage with the 25,000 ton cross-Channel steamers of today.

HMT Dorsetshire

The peace-time trooper had an attractive livery of a white hull with a broad blue band and a yellow funnel. The greater part of the pre-War trooping was to India, the voyage taking three weeks. In the Thirties the troops slept in hammocks, and the day at sea started with the call “Rouse up, there. Lash up and stow”. The hammocks had to be lashed up with the blankets inside them and stowed in the racks above the mess tables. Each man was supplied with a sea kit bag for every day use, and this too was kept in the hammock rack.

There was a ship’s military staff under a Lieutenant Colonel as OC Troops, a Ship’s RSM (generally heartily disliked by the troops) and an Orderly Room staff who contrived to broadcast innumerable messages throughout the day over the ship’s loudspeaker system. There was very little comfort in the troop decks where the soldiers ate, slept and spent their spare time. Every day Captain’s Rounds took place when the troop decks were thoroughly inspected. The occupants of the best kept mess deck were rewarded with the Captain’s Cake, though there was not much enthusiasm for this delicacy. After the daily parades and duties, as Kipling’s old soldier recalls;

‘The ship is swep, the day is done,
The bugle’s gone for smoke an’ play;
An’ black ag’in’ the setting sun
The Lascar sings, “Hum deckty hai”!

Although the trooping season was in the so-called Cold Weather, it was often very hot in the Red Sea, and the atmosphere in the ill-ventilated troopdecks became unspeakable. Some deck games, such as quoits and tug-o-war were played, but the most popular entertainment was Housey Housey. Day after day there was little to be seen on the voyage, but the call at Port Said and the slow passage down the Suez Canal attracted a good deal of interest.