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The Volunteer Army was a citizen army of part-time rifle corps, created as a popular movement in the 19th. Century.
The British Army Following The Crimea
Following the Crimean War, it was painfully clear to the War Office that, with half of the British Army dispositioned around the Globe on garrison duty, it had insufficient forces available to quickly compose and despatch an effective expeditionary force to a new area of conflict, unless it was to reduce the British Isles' own defences. During the Crimea, the War Office had been forced to send Militia and Yeomanry to make up the shortfall in regular soldiers. Combatants United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Second French Empire, Ottoman Empire, Kingdom of Sardinia Imperial Russia Strength 250,000 British 400,000 French 10,000 Sardinian 1,200,000 Russian Casualties 17,500 British 90,000 French 35,000 Turkish 2,050 Sardinian killed, wounded and died of...
Old War Office Building, Whitehall, London - the former location of the War Office The War Office was a former department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1963, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence. ...
The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ...
In the 1790s, the threat of invasion of England was high, with the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. ...
What was painfully clear to the citizenry of those Isles, when there was a threat of invasion by the much larger French Army in 1858 (following an assassination attempt on Emperor Napoleon III), was that, even without sending a third of the Army to another Crimea, Britain's military defences had already been stretched invitingly then. This vulnerability to a potential European invasion continued to be underlined by subsequent events on the continent (The Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War of 1872), and by the development of steamships and repeater rifles. French soldiers of the IFOR in Mostar, 1995. ...
Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (April 20, 1808, Paris, France - January 9, 1873, Chislehurst, Kent, England) was a President of France, and later, Emperor of the French. ...
The Austro-Prussian War (also called the Seven Weeks War or the German Civil War) was a war fought between the Austrian Empire and Prussia in 1866 that resulted in Prussian dominance in Germany. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Creation of The Volunteer Army The response of the citizenry was to raise its own Volunteer Army. Overseen by a civilian body, this was composed of locally-organised units. The members served voluntarily, gathering in their spare time to practice drill and riflery. Members were unpaid, except when embodied for active service, or training in military camps, when they also became subject to Military Law. A volunteer was actually expected to pay for his own uniform and equipment, including his rifle. A volunteer could quit his corps at any time, by giving fourteen days notice, except while embodied on active service, or for training in a military camp. The Volunteer Army could be called up for active service by the Government when there was threat of invasion, but volunteers could not be sent overseas without their consent. The organisation and the orders of each of the corps required the approval of the War Office, but they varied widely in their efficiency at first. Officers received their commissions from county lieutenants, but few had any military training. Although the militia had become largelly moribund, and the yeomanry were unable to mount a useful military force, the Volunteer Army quickly became very popular, and, despite the initial reservations of professional officers, the War Office took an increasing interest in its organisation, equipment and training. With the British Army traditionally underfunded, to the benefit of the Royal Navy, the advantages of this large, but economical reserve of trained soldiery were inescapable to the generals. In time, the various small corps were collected into regionally organised battalions, and these into brigades. Retired officers filled the senior positions in these brigades, and serving Officers and NCOs assisted the companies with their training. Units wer embodied periodically to train along side the Regular Army in military camps. By these methods, the efficiency of the Volunteer Army was raised, and the training and methods of its units were standardised, with each other, and with the Regular Army. Old War Office Building, Whitehall, London - the former location of the War Office The War Office was a former department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1963, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence. ...
The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the British armed services being the oldest of its three branches. ...
The Territorial Army By 1907, when its civilian administration teetered on the brink of insolvency, the Volunteer Army had become indespensible to British defence planning, as well as an enabler of the Regular Army's drawing its own forces away from home defence stations. Consequently, the Government took over the Volunteer Army completely, re-organising it as the Territorial Army in 1908. In addition to the introduction of terms of service for volunteers, this meant that most of the units, themselves, lost their unique identities, becoming Territorial battalions of the local Regular Army regiment. At the same time, the remaining Militia and Yeomanry units were folded into the Territorial Army. In the United Kingdom the Territorial Army is a part of the British Army composed of reserve units, or part-time soldiers. ...
External Links - Research Press: The Volunteer Force 1859-1908. Rifle Corps Histories.
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