William Hacket Pain - First World War

First World War

Ulster Volunteers preparations for civil war were short-cut by the outbreak of the First World War. Hacket Pain re-enlisted in the British Army, and raised the 108th Infantry Brigade (part of the 36th (Ulster) Division) by recruiting the Ulster Volunteers. The Army welcomed the fact that the Volunteers were trained and armed, and Hacket Pain was appointed on 4 September to command the 108th Infantry Brigade in France. After two years he transferred back to Ireland to command the Northern Ireland district, where he served for three years.

As Chief Military Officer he faced the opening of the Irish War of Independence; in August 1919 he prohibited an Irish Nationalist procession from marching on the city walls of Derry, fearing that grave disorders would occur. However Hacket Pain sometimes resisted pressure. In January 1919 Dawson Bates wrote to Sir James Craig telling him that Hacket Pain was reluctant to bring out troops against Sinn Féin-inspired strikes in Belfast, or to do anything that might make the workers think they were being intimidated, despite pressure from people Bates described as "scare-mongers".