volunteers
volunteers. Since from time immemorial it had been regarded as the duty of citizens and free men to defend their country, governments could scarcely object if, in moments of crisis, volunteers came forward to offer their services. Yet they were not necessarily very efficient, often tiresome in their personal demands, and, as the case of the Irish volunteers suggests, a potential political threat. Henry Fox in 1745 doubted whether one should trust a man to raise a regiment who could not raise half a crown and Hanbury Williams wrote of the duke of Bolton that ‘he much dislikes both guns and pikes, but relishes the clothing’. Volunteer corps were raised by private donations, reinforced by public appeals, but, as weapons of war grew more sophisticated and expensive, governments had to find substantial assistance. A number of corps were raised in 1690 to deal with a threat of French invasion, again in 1715 and 1745 to cope with the Jacobite risings, and again in 1779 during the American War of Independence. But the biggest response was during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, and again in 1859 when there was yet another threat of war with France. By 1901 there were 230,000 volunteers, augmented by the Royal Navy and Royal Artillery Volunteers, the militia and the yeomanry. Haldane's reforms of 1907 reorganized them into the Territorial Force, later the Territorial Army.
J. A. Cannon
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