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VOLUNTEERS , a See also: general See also:term for soldiers who are not professionals nor permanently embodied under arms in See also:peace. Although it would be difficult to say when the principle of volunteer organization for See also:national See also:defence was first adopted in See also:England, it is certain that voluntary military See also:societies existed in various parts of the See also:country in the reign of See also:- HENRY
- HENRY (1129-1195)
- HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
- HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
- HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng. home, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
- HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
- HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
- HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
- HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
- HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
- HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
- HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
- HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
- HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)
Henry VIII., who in fact granted a See also:charter in 1537 to the " Fraternity or Guylde of See also:Saint See also:George: Maisters and Rulars of the said See also:Science of See also:Artillery as aforesaid rehearsed for See also:long-bowes Cros-bowes and See also:Hand-Gonnes." This See also:ancient See also:corps is now the See also:Honourable Artillery See also:Company of See also:London. Although the Honourable Artillery Company has always been a distinct association, it was at one See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time (notably during the See also:Great See also:Rebellion) a centre of instruction for the See also:City-trained bands, and in later times the H.A.C., divided into artillery and See also:infantry See also:units, has been assimilated as regards training and obligations to the Volunteer or Territorial Forces. Charters of a similar See also:kind were granted to a See also:Colchester society in 1619 and to one at See also:Bury St See also:Edmunds in 1628. In the 16th and 17th centuries also various temporary corps outside the See also:militia or trained-See also:band organization were called volunteers. At See also:Boston, See also:Massachusetts, there is established a corps bearing the name of the " Antient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts." This company was formed in 1638 after its London prototype.
The notion of a large organized Volunteer Force, however, seems to have originated in England at the time of the Militia See also:Bill of 1757, which was amended in 1758 so as to allow the militia captains to accept volunteers instead of the See also:ordinary militiamen who were compulsorily furnished See also:pro rata by each See also:parish. In 1778 the volunteers were still voluntary substitutes for militiamen, though formed in See also:separate companies of the militia unit, but volunteer corps soon began to See also:form themselves independently of the militia. In the meantime a large volunteer force had sprung up in See also:Ireland. In 1779, Ireland being threatened with See also:foreign invasion, a See also:levy of 20,000 Protestants was made by the gentry in the See also:north. The 20,000 Protestants had grown in 1782 to 100,000 of all arms and both See also:creeds, and they used their strength effectively for See also:political purposes. After the See also:establishment of the See also:parliament at See also:Dublin, and the general peace of 1783, attempts were made to use this See also:army for party purposes, andthe moderate men in parliament therefore hastened to disband it. But this military coup d'etat was not forgotten in England. Ireland indeed supplied 70,000 volunteers during the See also: Napoleonic See also:wars, practically in See also:place of her militia See also:quota. But the rebellion of 1798 kept alive the memory of 1782, and about 1804 the See also:government disarmed and disbanded them.
The See also:English and Scottish volunteers, disbanded in 1783, were promptly revived when the See also:French Revolutionary Wars produced a new and more formidable enemy. Volunteer corps, some dependent as companies upon the militia, others See also:independent units, were raised in 1794, volunteer service counting as militia service for the purposes of raising the See also:county, See also:town or parish quota. This was followed in 1798 by the formation, for purely See also:local defence, of the Armed Associations, the See also:equivalent of the See also:modern " See also:rifle clubs." At the peace of See also:Amiens the 340,000 volunteers then serving were nearly all disbanded, but one or two crops passed into the See also:regular army as entire regiments, and some others managed to avoid disbandment until the renewal of the See also:war revived the whole force. The danger of invasion was then at its height, and in a few months the force numbered 380,000 men, or 3-1% of a See also:population which already kept up a regular army and a militia. But the training of this See also:mass was very unequal; the See also:numbers See also:fell off as the likelihood of invasion decreased, and in the reaction from the first See also:enthusiasm it began to be questioned whether the volunteers could be of much value under the easy conditions of service prevailing. In 18o8, therefore, the Local Militia was formed, in which the terms of enlistment and training liabilities were both stricter and better defined. The treater See also:part of the volunteers transferred them-selves to the Local Militia, which by 1812 (aided by the See also:ballot) had reached a strength of 215,000 as against the 70,000 of the remaining volunteers. With the general peace of 1814 all these forces except the H.A.C. and the See also:Yeomanry (q.v.) disappeared.
After an See also:interval of nearly See also:half a See also:century the warlike attitude of See also:France caused See also:British citizens once more to See also:arm for the See also:protection of their country. The British army and See also: navy had declined in strength and efficiency; France, on the other hand, by the energetic development of her military and See also:naval See also:power and the See also:early application of See also:steam to See also:ships of war, brought the possibilities of the invasion of England in 1846 within measurable distance. England at this time was awakened to the gravity of the situation by the publication of a See also:letter from See also:Wellington to See also:Sir See also:John See also:Burgoyne,' followed by a well-timed pamphlet by Sir See also:Charles See also:Napier, entitled The Defence of
England by Volunteer Corps and Militia. The French danger,
in See also:abeyance during the See also:Crimean War, was revived in 1857,
when the See also:tone of the French See also:press became more and more
menacing. The war in See also:China, the See also:Indian See also:Mutiny and difficulties with the See also:United States taxed the regular army to the utmost; while at See also:home, besides the actual garrisons, there were barely 36,000 militia. This threatening See also:condition of affairs tended to aggravate, if not to produce, a serious commercial panic. It was then that the volunteer See also:movement began, and the See also:Orsini See also:episode and the openly expressed threats of French See also:officers were all that was necessary to See also:free the pent-up enthusiasm.
A few rifle clubs were already in existence, and two of these, working as military bodies from the outset (1852-53), became the two See also:senior volunteer battalions—1st V.B. (now 4th Bn.) See also:Devonshire Regt., and See also:Victoria Rifles (now 9th Bn. London Regt.). But it was not until the situation became acute that the War See also:- OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")
Office took the step of raising the " Volunteer Force." A circular letter, dated 12th May 1859, from the secretary foi war to the lords-See also:lieutenant of counties in Great See also:Britain authorized the formation of volunteer corps. The general enrolment took place at first under the old See also:statute (44 Geo. III.).
The See also: main provisions of that See also:act, however, were found inapplicable to the altered conditions under which invasion was now possible, and they failed also to provide for the See also:maintenance of the volunteer force on a permanent footing in peace. A new act (Volunteer Act 1863) was therefore passed, the most important See also:provision of which was that apprehended invasion should constitute a
1 See See also:Life and Letters of See also:- FIELD (a word common to many West German languages, cf. Ger. Feld, Dutch veld, possibly cognate with O.E. f olde, the earth, and ultimately with root of the Gr. irAaror, broad)
- FIELD, CYRUS WEST (1819-1892)
- FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY (18o5-1894)
- FIELD, EUGENE (1850-1895)
- FIELD, FREDERICK (18o1—1885)
- FIELD, HENRY MARTYN (1822-1907)
- FIELD, JOHN (1782—1837)
- FIELD, MARSHALL (183 1906)
- FIELD, NATHAN (1587—1633)
- FIELD, STEPHEN JOHNSON (1816-1899)
- FIELD, WILLIAM VENTRIS FIELD, BARON (1813-1907)
Field-See also:Marshal Sir John Burgoyne.
sufficient See also:reason for the See also:sovereign to See also:call out the volunteers, in lieu of the old condition which required the actual See also:appearance of the enemy. The volunteers were, when called out, See also:bound to serve in Great Britain until released by a See also:proclamation declaring the occasion to have passed. This was modified in 'goo during the See also:South See also:African War, a new enactment allowing the authorities to call them out at times of "imminent national danger and great emergency." In 1871 the volunteers were removed from the See also:control of the lords-lieutenant and placed under the War Office. In 1S81 the infantry battalions were affiliated to the various See also:line regiments.
The force thus brought into existence was composed of corps of See also:light See also:horse, mounted rifles, See also:garrison and heavy artillery, See also:engineers and rifle volunteers.' Later there existed also in connexion with the See also:admiralty a corps of "Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers" for the See also:coast defences. The terms of service and training liabilities underwent no alteration of principle during the See also:forty-eight years of the force's existence. The See also:property belonging to the corps was vested in the commanding officer and administered by a See also:committee of officers under the rules of the corps. These rules were in the first instance agreed on at a general See also:- MEETING (from " to meet," to come together, assemble, 0. Eng. metals ; cf. Du. moeten, Swed. mota, Goth. gamotjan, &c., derivatives of the Teut. word for a meeting, seen in O. Eng. Wit, moot, an assembly of the people; cf. witanagemot)
meeting of officers and men, and, having received the See also:queen's approval, became legal, and could be enforced. The commanding officer could dismiss a See also:man from the corps, and a volunteer not on actual service could terminate his engagement at fourteen days' See also:notice. But, as it became the almost universal practice for the government or the regimental See also:commander to issue clothing and equipment free, the volunteers contracted in return to serve for three, four or five years, and, if they exercised their statutory rights, were obliged to refund part of the cost. Further, when capitation grants were given for the maintenance of the corps, the volunteer had either to See also: earn this by continued service or repay the sum lost to the corps by his resignation. These conditions materially modified the statute See also:law in practice, and in fact the term of four years exacted from the Territorial to-See also:day differs in little more than name from the requirements of the former " corps rules." Military law was applicable to officers and men when training with regulars.
The formation of volunteer corps was so rapid that in the course of a few months in 1859-60 a force of 119,000 was created. More, however, remained to be done to put an end to the ever-recurring commercial panics. The government, which in the beginning had tolerated rather than encouraged the movement, and had required the volunteer to serve and to equip himself entirely at his own expense, now followed the See also:lead of public See also:opinion, and decided on maintaining the volunteer force as a part of the regular defensive See also:system. The personnel of the volunteer corps (with a few exceptions) thereupon underwent a See also:change. The wealthy and professional classes, who had at first joined the ranks in anticipation of war, cared no longer to See also:bear arms. Their places were taken by the See also:artisan class, which added materially to the number and permanence of the force. But, as contributions and subscriptions now flagged, it became evident that public grants would have to be voted for its maintenance, and a See also:scale of capitation allowances, subject to regulation, was fixed, on the recommendation of a Royal See also:Commission. This capitation See also:allowance per efficient volunteer was thenceforward the basis of all regimental See also:finance and See also:administration.
The turning-point in the See also:history of the volunteers was the South African War. In See also:January 1900, and on several subsequent occasions, the volunteers were invited to See also:supply service companies for South See also:Africa, to be incorporated in the regular battalions to which the volunteer battalions were affiliated. About one-third of the whole force volunteered for service in South Africa, and some 20,000 served in the volunteer companies with the line and in the " City Imperial Volunteers," besides a great number of volunteers whom the higher pay,
' The light horse and mounted rifles disappeared in the end, or else were converted into yeomanry. The " rifles " See also: title was maintained even after the infantry had been assimilated in See also:drill, See also:uniform and other respects to the line battalions. For this reason even See also:scarlet-clothed battalions had no See also:colours, pouch-belts instead of sashes, &c.easier conditions and better prospects of active employment in the mounted See also:guerrilla warfare tempted into the ranks of the yeomanry. The return of these companies infused into the force a See also:leaven of officers and men who had been through an experience of See also:constant small skirmishes and prolonged marching and bivouacking. Meantime the force as a whole had been subjected to a more See also:earnest and vigorous training than it had ever had before. The establishment was greatly increased, and 24 battalions were selected for See also:special training and included with the regular home army in the field force. Various partial reorganizations followed in 1902-5, and at last, in 1907-8, the whole force was re-See also:cast, re-enlisted upon somewhat different terms, and organized along with the yeomanry into the new Territorial Force (see UNITED See also:KINGDOM: Army).
End of Article: VOLUNTEERS
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