Volunteer Force ( Great Britain ) The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part - time rifle , artillery and engineer corps , created as a popular movement in 1859 . Originally highly autonomous , the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated with the British Army after the Childers Reforms in 1881 , before forming part of the Territorial Force in 1908 . Most of the regiments of the present Territorial Army Infantry , Artillery , Engineers and Signals units are directly descended from Volunteer Force units . 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 Empire 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 Crimean War , the War Office had been forced to send militia and yeomanry to make up the shortfall in regular soldiers . The situation had been complicated by the fact that both auxiliary forces were under the control of the Home Office until 1855 . Tensions rose between the United Kingdom and France following an assassination attempt on Emperor Napoleon III on 14 January 1858 . It emerged that the would - be assassin , Felice Orsini had travelled to England to have the bombs used in the attack manufactured in Birmingham . The perceived threat of invasion by the much larger French Army was such that , even without sending a third of the army to another Crimea , Britain ' s military defences had already been stretched invitingly thin . On 29 April 1859 war broke out between France and the Austrian Empire ( the Second Italian War of Independence ) , and there were fears that Britain might be caught up in a wider European conflict . Creation of the Volunteer Force . 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 . Many communities had rifle clubs for the enjoyment of the sport of shooting . 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 . Two volunteer units whose services had been accepted by Queen Victoria during the early 1850s became the two senior rifle corps of the new force . These were the 1st Rifle Volunteer Corps who became the 1st Devonshire Rifle Volunteers and the Victoria Rifles ( descended from the Duke of Cumberland ' s Sharpshooters , formed in 1803 ) who became the 1st Middlesex Rifle Volunteers . An order of precedence was established for ninety - two other counties , depending upon the date of establishment of the first corps in the county . The most senior artillery corps was the 1st Northumberland formed at Tynemouth on August 2 , 1859 . Initially there were attempts at class distinction with the middle class seeing the formation of rifle units as a contrast with the strict class divide between the officers of the gentry and the other ranks of the working class and farm labourers of the militia and the standing army . Some also compared the initiative , small unit tactics and marksmanship principles of rifle regiment s of the Napoleonic Wars compared with the linear tactics of the standing army . Many units initially favoured green and grey rifleman uniforms as opposed to the scarlet of the army and militia . In turn , the army was glad not to have amateur volunteers wear the scarlet of the regulars . The provisions of the volunteers having to purchase their own rifles and uniforms was felt by some to exclude the lower classes . Unlike regular rifle regiments , the volunteer units had colours often made and presented by the women of the community . Consolidation . The large number of small independent corps proved difficult to administer , and , by 1861 , most had been formed into battalion - sized units , either by “ consolidation ” : increasing an existing corps to battalion size ( usually in large urban areas ) , or by forming administrative battalions or brigades by the grouping of smaller corps ( in rural areas ) . An official book of Drill and Rifle Instructions for the Corps of Rifle Volunteers and Volunteer Regulations were published in 1859 and 1861 respectively . Royal Commission of 1862 . In 1862 , a royal commission chaired by Viscount Eversley was appointed “ to inquire into the condition of the volunteer force in Great Britain and into the probability of its continuance at its existing strength ” . According to the report , as of 1 April 1862 , the Volunteer Force had a strength of 162 , 681 consisting of : Their report made a number of recommendations and observations on funding and training : Volunteer Act 1863 . In order to carry into effect the recommendations of the commission , and to replace the 1804 legislation , the Volunteer Act 1863 ( 26 & 27 Vict . C . 65 ) was passed . Part I of the Act dealt with the organisation of the Volunteer Force . It became lawful for “ Her Majesty to accept the services of persons desiring to be formed under the Act into a Volunteer Corps , and offering their services to her Majesty through the Lieutenant of a County ” . On acceptance , the corps would be deemed lawfully formed . Existing corps were to continue under the new Act , although the power was given to the crown to disband any corps . The constitution of a permanent staff consisting of an adjutant and serjeant instructors was permitted for each corps . The grouping of two or more corps into administrative regiments was recognised , and a permanent staff could be provided for the grouping . However the individual corps were to continue to exist . As in the earlier legislation , a volunteer could resign with fourteen days notice , with the addition that if a commanding officer refused to remove a volunteer from the roll of the corps , then he could appeal to two justices of the peace of the county . An annual inspection by an officer of the regular army was instituted , and efficiency standards were to be set by order in council , as were regulations for governing the Force . The lord - lieutenant of a county , or the commanding officer of a corps or administrative regiment was empowered to appoint a court of inquiry into any corps , officer , non - commissioned officer or volunteer . Part II of the Act dealt with “ Actual Military Service ” . The terms for calling out of the force were altered : this would now happen in “ the case of actual or apprehended invasion of any part of the United Kingdom ( the occasion being first communicated to both Houses of Parliament if parliament is sitting , or declared in council and notified by proclamation if parliament is not sitting . ) ” As well as being entitled to pay and billets , relief was also to be given to the wives and families of volunteers . A bounty of one guinea was to be paid to volunteers on release from actual military service , such release being notified in order by writing by the lord - lieutenant . If disabled on service , officers and volunteers were to receive a pension . Part III dealt with discipline and part IV with the rules and property of the corps . Part V dealt with the process of acquiring land for shooting ranges . Apart from the corps taking ownership of the land , a municipal corporation or private company could grant a licence to the volunteers to use their land for the purpose . Justices of the peace were given the power to close rights of way adjacent to ranges . The Act concluded by defining the counties to which the corps were to belong : for the purposes of the Act the Isle of Wight , the Tower Hamlets and the Cinque Ports were separate counties , with the Governor of the Isle of Wight , the Constable of the Tower of London and the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports commissioning officers in place of the lord - lieutenant . The Isle of Man was also to dealt with as if it were a county of England , with the Lieutenant - Governor performing the same role as a county lieutenant . Integration . In 1872 , under the provisions of the Regulation of the Forces Act 1871 , jurisdiction over the volunteers was removed from the county 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 ) . Second Boer War . 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 . The Territorial Force . By 1907 , when its civilian administration teetered on the brink of insolvency , the Volunteer Force had become indispensable 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 passed the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 , which merged the Volunteer Force with the yeomanry to form the Territorial Force in 1908 . The total cost of the TF was to be met in future by central government . In addition to the introduction of terms of service for volunteers , most of the units lost their unique identities , becoming numbered territorial battalions of the local army regiment , albeit with distinctive badges or dress distinctions . The 1907 act did not extend to the Isle of Man , and consequently the 7th ( Isle of Man ) Volunteer Battalion of the The King ' s ( Liverpool Regiment ) continued to serve as the only remaining unit of the Volunteer Force until disbandment in 1920 . Strength . According to the " Territorial Year Book 1909 " , the Volunteer Force had the following strength over its existence :