TOPIC:

With reference to a recent post on the forum. A question was raised regarding a photograph of a group of soldiers and the identity of the uniform. One of the soldiers who was possibly in the image and later served with the Somerset Imperial Yeomanry. In my haste, I assumed he served with a local militia Battalion. However, fellow forummer Pete, Aka Volunteer provided clarification that the image was of a Rifle Volunteer Battalion and not a militia unit. Having studied many attestation papers of regular soldiers and Imperial Yeomanry records in relation to medal collecting, section 10 & 11 can sometimes provide previous military affiliations. Militia and volunteer battalions are numerously mentioned. As I stated in my original post, my lack of knowledge pertaining to the differences between Militia and Volunteer Battalions became evident. So, I decided to brush up on my Militia / Volunteer knowledge.


History of the Militia
Ever since Anglo-Saxon times able and free-born men have been required to be a part of their local defence force because there was no regular standing army. King Alfred set up a better county-based system that was augmented in the Statute of Winchester of 1285 requiring all able-bodied men between the ages of 15 and 60 to equip themselves with armour and weapons according to their means. Those holding less than 40s (£2) worth of land had to provide scythes and knives, others bows and arrows, pikes, halberds, swords, helmets etc., up to a horse and armour for the richest men. The parish constable was responsible for drawing up lists, called assessments, of who was liable for service and what weapons he should provide. His records were passed up to the county officials such as the Commissioners of Array or the Lord Lieutenant. Military service was performed as their country needed them, and the forces were also used to quell riots and apprehend wrongdoers, when it was known as the Posse Comitatus. The Commissioners of Array also assessed land and goods in order to provide a tax base for financial support.

Owing to the divergence of opinion between King and Parliament after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, over who was to command the militia, it was decided to raise a regular standing army. The role of the militia thus changed and parishes formed Trained Bands for local use. The better soldier material, both for officers and men, was no doubt attracted to the regular army and thus the effectiveness of the militia declined. This became quite evident in 1685 when the Duke of Monmouth landed in Lyme Regis, Dorset and faced 4,000 militia men who proved no match for his band of 82 regular soldiers. Where a particular county’s militia were effective he just avoided going through that county, and they were restricted from mounting an attack outside their own county boundary, of-course. A period of dormancy for the militia ensued.

During the Seven Years War, (1756-63), most of the army was fighting in Europe and the militia system was re-established to provide civil defence in England and Wales by George II’s Militia Act of 1757. This was also the time leading up to the American and French revolutionary wars. In the last decade of the 18th century Napoleon’s plans to invade Britain resulted in the raising of the Volunteers, Fencibles and Yeomanry as well as the re-organization of the militia in Scotland in 1797. The Napoleonic Wars of 1797-1815 were a very active time for the military, and family historians often have their male ancestors disappearing from parish records into the army or militia. Half a century later there was another major disturbance in the form of the Crimean War that caused further activity for the militia.


A great variety of other, voluntary forces were also raised locally during the Napoleonic Wars, including the volunteer and fencible infantry units and the provisional, fencible and yeomanry cavalry units. All of these temporary groups were disbanded after the Battle of Waterloo (1815) and by 1816 the militia had returned to its peacetime status. They were called out when internal emergencies arose, such as it did with the agricultural riots and the Reform Bill in 1831. New groups, the Rifle Volunteers, were founded in 1859-1860, and during the Cardwell Reforms to the army in the 1870s, the militias became the 3rd, and the volunteer units the 4th battalions of the county regiments. It is interesting to note that the county affiliations of the militia groups, highly resented by the regular army, proved to sustain loyalty amongst men and officers, and this system was adopted by the army in their own reorganization by Cardwell.



The Militia was revived by the Militia Act 1852, enacted during a period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on a county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment (although conscription by means of the Militia Ballot might be used if the counties failed to meet their quotas). It was intended to be seen as an alternative to the army. Training was for 56 days on enlistment, then the recruits would return to civilian life but report for 21–28 days training per year. The full army pay during training and a financial retainer thereafter made a useful addition to the men's civilian wage. Of course, many saw the annual camp as the equivalent of a paid holiday. The militia thus appealed to agricultural labourers, colliers and the like, men in casual occupations, who could leave their civilian job and pick it up again. The militia was also a significant source of recruits for the Regular Army, where men had received a taste of army life. An officer's commission in the militia was often a 'back door' route to a Regular Army commission for young men who could not obtain one through purchase or gain entry to Sandhurst.
Under the Act, Militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time service in three circumstances:

'Whenever a state of war exists between Her Majesty and any foreign power'.

'In all cases of invasion or upon imminent danger thereof'.

'In all cases of rebellion or insurrection'.




Until 1852 the militia were an entirely infantry force, but the 1852 Act introduced Militia Artillery units whose role was to man coastal defences and fortifications, relieving the Royal Artillery for active service. Some of these units were converted from existing infantry militia regiments, others were newly raised.  In 1877 the militia of Anglesey and Monmouthshire were converted to Royal Engineers.

Under the reforms introduced by Secretary of State for War Hugh Childers in 1881, the remaining militia infantry regiments were redesignated as numbered battalions of regiments of the line, ranking after the two regular battalions. Typically, an English, Welsh or Scottish regiment would have two militia battalions (the 3rd and 4th) and Irish regiments three (numbered 3rd – 5th).




The militia must not be confused with the volunteer units created in a wave of enthusiasm in the second half of the nineteenth century. In contrast with the Volunteer Force, and the similar Yeomanry Cavalry, they were considered rather plebeian. ( Plebeian / Pleb was a Roman term which described common folk and people of a lower social status).

 Volunteer units appealed to better-off recruits as, unlike the Militia which engaged a recruit for a term of service, a volunteer could quit his corps with fourteen days notice, except while embodied for war or training with the regular forces. Volunteer Corps required recruits to fund their own equipment, however, effectively barring those with low incomes.



Volunteer Battalions.

On 12 May 1859, the Secretary of State for War, Jonathan Peel issued a circular letter to lieutenants of counties in England, Wales and Scotland, authorising the formation of volunteer rifle corps (VRC, a.k.a. corps of rifle volunteers and rifle volunteer corps), and of artillery corps in defended coastal towns Volunteer corps were to be raised under the provisions of the Volunteer Act 1804 (44 Geo. 3. c. 54) which had been used to form local defence forces during the Napoleonic Wars. Alfred Tennyson captured the spirit of the time by publishing his poem Riflemen Form in The Times on 9 May 1859. As a basis for the units, many communities had rifle clubs for the enjoyment of the sport of shooting.



Corps were only to be formed on the recommendation of the county's lord-lieutenant.

Officers were to hold their commissions from the lord-lieutenant

Members of the corps were to swear an oath of allegiance before a justice of the peace, deputy lieutenant or commissioned officer of the corps.

The force was liable to be called out "in case of actual invasion, or of appearance of an enemy in force on the coast, or in case of rebellion arising in either of these emergencies."

While under arms, volunteers were subject to military law and were entitled to be billeted and to receive regular army pay.

Members were not permitted to quit the force during actual military service, and at other times had to give fourteen days notice before being permitted to leave the corps.

Members were to be returned as "effective" if they had attended eight days drill and exercise in four months, or 24 days within a year.

The members of the corps were to provide their own arms and equipment, and were to defray all costs except when assembled for actual service.

Volunteers were also permitted to choose the design of their uniforms, subject to the lord-lieutenant's approval.

Although volunteers were to pay for their own firearms, they were to be provided under the superintendence of the War Office, so as to ensure uniformity of gauge.

The number of officers and private men in each county and corps was to be settled by the War Office, based on the lord-lieutenant's recommendation.

Originally corps were to consist of approximately 100 all ranks under the command of a captain, with some localities having subdivisions of thirty men under a lieutenant. The purpose of the rifle corps was to harass the invading enemy's flanks, while artillery corps were to man coastal guns and forts.  Although not mentioned in the circular letter, engineer corps were also formed, principally to place underwater mines for port defence. Stretcher-bearers attached to the rifle corps subsequently formed volunteer medical detachments affiliated to the Army Medical Corps. In a handful of counties, units of light horse or mounted rifles were formed.


In 1872, under the provisions of the Regulation of the Forces Act 1871, jurisdiction over the volunteers was removed from the county lord-lieutenants and placed under the Secretary of State for War. Volunteer units became increasingly integrated with the Regular Army. This culminated in the Childers Reforms of 1881 which nominated rifle volunteer corps as volunteer battalions of the new "county" infantry regiments, which also consisted of regular and militia battalions within a defined regimental district. Over the next few years many of the rifle volunteer corps adopted the "volunteer battalion" designation and the uniform of their parent regiment. This was far from universal, however, with some corps retaining their original names and distinctive dress until 1908.

The artillery volunteers were similarly remodelled as reserve formations of the Royal Artillery, eventually being redesignated as Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) in 1902, while the Engineer Volunteers became Royal Engineers (Volunteers).


The volunteers finally saw active service during the Second Boer War, when the prolonged campaign necessitated an increase in the size of British forces in South Africa. Volunteer Battalions formed Volunteer Active Service Companies that joined the regular battalions of their county regiments. Following the war, the battle honour "South Africa 1900–02" was awarded to the volunteer units that provided detachments for the campaign.




Best wishes

Dave.....

The Royal South Down Militia embodied for the Crimean War between 4 January 1855 and 4 August 1856 and for the Indian Mutiny between 21 September 1857 and 18 May 1858. In 1857 the regiment was restyled the Royal South Down Light Infantry but with the Childers Reforms of 1881 became the 5th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, formed by the amalgamation of the 83rd (County of Dublin) and 86th (Royal County Down) Regiments. It seems that the regiment’s original precedence as the 8th on the Irish Militia Roll was ignored as the Royal North Downs, the one-time 24th, became the 3rd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.


( Royal South Down militia recruits parading in Downpatrick, County Down, Ireland in 1879.)

When the Second South African, or Boer, War broke out in 1899, the struggle against the Boers proved to be a major test for the Regular Army and it became necessary to reinforce the troops sent to South Africa with units from the Dominions and reserve forces from the UK. Among the latter was the 5th Royal Irish Rifles, the former South Down Militia.



Eleven officers and 424 other ranks (ORs) of the battalion volunteered for service in South Africa, together with four officers and 110 ORs of the 3rd Battalion and three officers and 107 ORs of the 4th Battalion. The composite battalion, commanded by the CO of the 5th Battalion, Colonel R.H. Wallace, arrived in Cape Town on 28 April 1901. By then the war had moved into a new phase with the Boers adopting a policy of guerrilla warfare, striking at targets such as railways, storage depots, telegraphs and military columns.

To counter the Boers’ small commando groups, which operated in their home areas where they could expect support, a scorched-earth policy was implemented. Boer farms were destroyed and civilians concentrated into camps while lines of blockhouses, or strongpoints, were created, radiating out from the main towns and linked by barbed-wire fences. In total, about 8,000 blockhouses were built. Each blockhouse was manned by six to eight soldiers and they proved their value as not a single vital point defended by a blockhouse was destroyed by the Boers.


The role assigned to 5th Royal Irish Rifles was to man such blockhouses, although initially they had mounted patrols to counter Boer operations. On 17 May one such patrol fought off a Boer commando of 100 men for 45 minutes until the Rifles’ ammunition was exhausted and three men had been killed or wounded severely. Six Boers had been killed and five wounded. The patrol was then forced to surrender but was mentioned by the GOC in District Orders and Corporal Heron was promoted to sergeant. On the same night another Rifles’ patrol prevented the blowing up of a railway line. Thereafter the Rifles took over some of the newly-built blockhouses. Although blockhouses manned by the Rifles came under frequent and often heavy attack, none was ever taken and in only one instance did a Boer party infiltrate past the Rifles under cover of darkness. There were several successes for the Rifles, including the capture of 168 remount horses for Kemp’s Commando, and the battalion was congratulated by senior officers for its service.

There were casualties with 33 officers and ORs killed or dying from disease while six officers and ORs were Mentioned in Despatches; these included Colonel Wallace, who was also appointed CB, while Captain C.G. Cole-Hamilton received the DSO and Sergeant Major Gardiner and Private Anderson were awarded the DCM, second only to the VC as a gallantry award for other ranks. The battalion received the battle honour South Africa, 1901-02. Mobilisation for South Africa began on 10 May 1900 and lasted until 24 July 1902.

Above information and images.
Courtesy of the Royal Irish Virtual Gallery
Words by Richard Doherty

herefordshirelightinfantrymuseum.com/his...he-rifle-volunteers/

Enclosed link for more information on the criteria and structure of militia and Volunteer battalions.

The 2nd (Regular) Battalion Kings Shropshire light Infantry served throughout the 1899-1902 Boer War. The battalion was supported by two Shropshire Volunteer Service Companies of about 120 men each for one year because of the requirement for large amounts of soldiers during the campaign. The 1st Volunteer Service Company served 1900-1901 and the 2nd Volunteer Service Company served 1901-02.
2nd battalion served with 9th Division in the 19th Brigade. They took part in the British offensive of 1900 including the capture of Pretoria.
Volunteers from the Shropshire Yeomanry formed the 13th (Shropshire) Company of the 5th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry. Three contingents of 13/5 served in South Africa, earning the first Shropshire Yeomanry battle-honour, South Africa 1900-1902.

These are truly excellent posts Dave, thoroughly researched and therefore hugely informative and with well chosen images. Thank you for sharing your research with the forum. I have personally found these very interesting indeed.

Regards

Ian

Ian
Many thanks for those kind words, very much appreciated.


Regards

Dave.