Britain's part-time soldiers, dismissed by Kitchener, held the line in 1914
When war broke out in August 1914, Lord Kitchener sneered that the Territorials were young men led by middle-aged professionals playing at soldiers. Within months these part-timers were plugging gaps in France, and their members went on to earn 71 Victoria Crosses before the fighting ended.
Today's Army Reserve, the volunteer backup to Britain's regulars, traces its origins to Richard Haldane, the war secretary who merged the old Volunteers with the mounted Yeomanry under a 1907 act. The resulting Territorial Force formed on 1 April 1908, with fourteen infantry divisions, fourteen yeomanry brigades and about 269,000 people. Haldane intended it to back up a six-division expeditionary force overseas, but political pressure made him relabel its official purpose as home defence at the last minute.
The push for reform came from the South African War, which began in 1899. By January 1900, seven regular divisions had sailed, leaving Britain almost bare of trained troops, and nobody had planned to send volunteers abroad as complete units. Improvised formations filled the gap, such as the City Imperial Volunteers, a 1,300-strong London battalion that Lord Roberts praised highly, and the new mounted Imperial Yeomanry. Across the empire, around half a million soldiers took part.
In 1914 volunteering for foreign service began hesitantly, since many men had families and good jobs, but within two weeks 70 infantry battalions had signed up for France. Their timing mattered: of 90,000 regulars who crossed in August, four in five were killed or wounded by Christmas. By the end of April 1915 six whole Territorial divisions were in action, and Sir John French wrote that the line could not have held without them.
Renamed the Territorial Army in 1921, the force expanded and shrank repeatedly. Rebuilding from 1970 pushed numbers close to 73,000 before cuts left about 14,000, and in 2011 a goal of 30,000 trained reservists was set. Most members keep civilian careers, and some, such as health service staff, bring those skills straight into specialist units. It took its present name in 2014.
Source: Army Reserve (United Kingdom)
