Hugh Cunningham - The Volunteer Force: A Social and Political History 1859-1908

Originally published in 1975, The Volunteer Force is a study of the part-time military force which came into being to meet the mid-nineteenth century fear of French invasion. It survived and grew for fifty years until in 1908 it was renamed and remodelled as the Territorial Force. Composed initially of middle-class and often middle-aged gentlemen who elected their own officers and paid for their own equipment, the Volunteer Force soon became youthful and working-class, with appointed middle-class officers, a Government subsidy, and a minor military role as an adjunct to the Regular Army. This book examines the origins of the Force, the transformation in its social composition, the difficulties in finding officers who were 'gentlemen', the ambiguous status, of the Force both in the local community and in the Regular Army, and the political influence which the Force exerted in the early twentieth century. Above all it is concerned with the reasons for and the implications of enrolment; publicists argued that the Force was the embodiment of patriotism, and an indication of working-class loyalty to established institutions.

A Social and Political History 1859-1908

by Hugh Cunningham

First published in 1975
by Croom Helm Ltd

This edition first published in 2018 by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1975 Hugh Cunningham

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A Library of Congress record exists under LCCN: 75022126

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-23320-4 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-0-429-27967-6 (ebk)

THE VOLUNTEER FORCE

A Social and Political History 1859-1908

HUGH CUNNINGHAM

ARCHON BOOKS HAMDEN CONNECTICUT

Published in the United States of America and Canada by Archon Books, an imprint of The Shoe String Press 995 Sherman Avenue, Hamden, Connecticut

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Cunningham, Hugh.
The volunteer force: a social and political history, 1859-1908.

Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Great Britain. Army. Volunteers-History. I. Title.

UA661.C86 355.35 75-22126
ISBN 0-208-01569-8

1975 Hugh Cunningham

When I first became interested in the Volunteer Force some six years ago, I had the heady feeling that I had struck some rich vein of Victorian life, totally and unjustifiably neglected by the experts. It remains true that the Volunteers scarcely feature in general accounts of nineteenth-century Britain. Yet the more I worked, the more I discovered that other historians had an interest in and often a fund of knowledge about the Volunteers; and moreover were willing to share that knowledge. I have benefited from discussions and correspondence with the authors of two theses on the Volunteers which have been in progress while I have been writing: I.F.W. Beckett of King's College, London, and Mrs Patricia Morton of Ontario. Other scholars have helped me on particular points, especially Michael Allison, Alan Armstrong, Brian Bond, Gerald Flint-Shipman, Robbie Gray, Brian Harrison, Patrick Joyce, Richard Price, Raphael Samuel, and John Springhall. Ian Shiell and H.P. Dawton have kindly shared with me their reminiscences of the Force, John Pell drew the graph, and John Bevan and Eileen Mitchelhill have instructed and helped me in some elementary statistics. None of these, least of all the latter, bears any responsibility for the final outcome. Nor indeed does my wife, Diane, despite the considerable help she has given me both in the collection of archival material and in bringing to bear on the text the critical mind of a sociologist. She has also put up with my habit of disappearing into archives when supposedly on holiday. To all these my thanks.

Photocopies of material from the Royal Archives were made available by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen. I am grateful, too, to the many Librarians and Archivists who have made my life easier, and to the owners of private papers who have allowed me access to and given me permission to quote material in their possession, in particular W.F. Deedes Esq., Lord Esher, the Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of Wharncliffe.

I am indebted to the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Kent which has met part of my research and travel costs.

The sources of the illustrations are: Plate 1, Military Museum, Dorchester; Plate 2, Illustrated London News, 27 August 1881; Plate 3, Illustrated London News, 14 April 1866; Plate 4, Punch, 28 May 1859; Hate 5, A. Larking, History of the 4th VB East Surrey Regiment (London, 1912), p. 17; Plate 6, Punch, 28 April 1860; Plate 7 [J.L. Roget], A Volunteer's Scrap-Book (London, 1860), p. 1; Plate 8, Graphic, 8 July 1899; Plate 9, Illustrated London News, 6 August 1864.

On 23 June 1860 21,000 members of the newly-created Volunteer Force, were present in Hyde Park to be reviewed by the Queen. 'It was enough', wrote the Earl of Malmesbury, 'to make an Englishman proud of his country to see this wonderful demonstration of patriotism and loyalty.' Each man was there, as the Annual Register described it, 'at his own free will, and clothed and trained at his own expense.' The Volunteers assembled in Hyde Park without difficulty 'The whole operation one requiring the keenest exercise of one of the rarest military faculties was performed with unerring precision and perfect ease, by the intelligent zeal of the men and the clear heads of the officers.' The Queen arrived at four o'clock and 'for an hour and a half corps after corps stepped before their Sovereign, offering the spontaneous devotion of noble and patriotic hearts.' It had been, as the Annual Register remarked, a scene 'worthy of note in a nation's history.' London had arranged 'a "general holiday" ' for this 'national spectacle', and 'to a late hour the streets were thronged with multitudes parading under the banners that floated from the houses.'