page_title: 1st Surrey Rifles
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Surrey Rifles / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: personnel of the 1st Surrey Rifles in uniform, from an 1861 drawing
context_page_description: The 1st Surrey Rifles was a volunteer unit of the British Army from 1859 until 1993. It saw considerable service on the Western Front, at Salonika and in Palestine during World War I. It served as a searchlight unit and as a light anti-aircraft regiment during World War II.
context_section_description: An invasion scare in 1859 led to the creation of the Volunteer Force and huge enthusiasm for joining local Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs). The 1st Surrey RVC or South London Rifles was one of the first such units formed, being based on the existing Peckham Rifle Club and recruiting many other members from the Hanover Sports Club at Peckham. The first officers were commissioned into the unit on 14 June 1859, and the headquarters was established in Camberwell. The following year it absorbed the 3rd Surrey RVC (first commissions 26 August 1859), also based at Camberwell, which became No 2 Company. The 1st Surrey RVC was active in trying to take over other South London groups: in November 1859 it made an unsuccessful approach to a new sub-unit formed in Putney (which actually joined the 9th Surrey RVC in Richmond). By the end of 1860 the strength of the 1st Surrey (South London) RVC was eight companies, recruited across Camberwell, Peckham and Clapham, under the command of Lt-Col John Boucher, formerly of the 5th Dragoon Guards. In 1865 they opened a new headquarters and drill hall in Camberwell. The uniform was Rifle green with red facings. An affiliated Cadet Corps was formed at Dulwich College in 1878.
  Following the Childers Reforms the 1st Surrey RVC became the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment on 1 July 1881, but without changing its title. Under the Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 the battalion was assigned to the Surrey Volunteer Infantry Brigade, whose place of assembly in case of war was at Caterham to man the outer London Defence Positions. By 1907 the brigade had been split into separate East and West Surrey brigades, the 1st Surrey Rifles forming part of the East Surrey Brigade based at  Worplesdon. Volunteers from the unit served in the 2nd Boer War, earning the Battle honour South Africa 1900–02.
caption: Personnel of the 1st Surrey Rifles in uniform, from an 1861 drawing.
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