This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
607

calling in of the army reserve) in the expeditionary or regular forces, and to repair the losses of a campaign. It also acts as a feeder to the regular army. Its establishment and strength on the 1st of October 1909 were 90,664 and 69,954 respectively, without counting in the latter figure 6172 militia and militia reserve men not then absorbed into the new organization.

The war organization of the home establishment, with its general and special reserves, aimed at the mobilization and despatch overseas of 6 army divisions, each of 12 battalions in 3 brigades; 9 field batteries in 3 brigades, a brigade of 3 field howitzer batteries, and a heavy battery, each with the appropriate ammunition columns; 2 field companies and 1 telegraph company R.E.; 2 companies mounted infantry; and ambulances, columns and parks. In addition to these 6 divisions, there are “army troops” at the disposal of the commander-in-chief, consisting of two mixed “mounted brigades” (cavalry, mounted infantry, and horse artillery) serving as the “protective cavalry,” and of various technical troops, such as balloon companies and bridging train. The “strategical” cavalry is a division of 4 brigades (12 regiments or 36 squadrons), with 2 brigades (4 batteries) of horse artillery, 4 “field troops” and wireless company R.E., and ambulances and supply columns. The peace organization of the regular forces at home conforms to the prospective war organization. In addition to the field army itself, various lines of communication troops are sent abroad on mobilization. These number some 20,000 men, the field army about 135,000, with 492 field guns, 7561 other vehicles and 60,769 horses and mules.

But the first condition of employing all the home regulars abroad is perfect security at home. Thus the pivot of the Haldane system is the organization of the Territorial Force as a completely self-contained army. The higher organization—which the volunteers (q.v.) and yeomanry (q.v.) never possessed—varies only slightly from that in vogue in the regular army. The second line army consists of 14 mixed mounted brigades as protective cavalry and 14 army divisions of much the same combatant strength as the regular divisions, the only important variation being that the artillery consists of 4-gun instead of 6-gun batteries. In addition to the divisions and mounted brigades there are “army troops,” of which the most important component is the cyclist battalions, recruited in the different coast counties and specially organized as a first line of opposition to an invader. Affiliated to the territorial force are officers' training corps, cadets, “veteran reserves,” and some of the other organizations mentioned below, the Haldane scheme having as its express object the utilization of every sort of contribution to national defence, whether combatant or non-combatant, on a voluntary basis.

The conditions of enlistment and reserve in the territorial force are a four years' engagement (former yeomen and volunteers being however allowed to extend for one year at a time if they desire to do so), within each year a consecutive training in camp of 1418 days and a number of “drills” (attendances at company and battalion parades) that varies with the branch and the year of service. The minimum is practically always exceeded, and trebled or quadrupled in the case of the more enthusiastic men, and the chief difficulty with which the officers responsible for training have to contend is the fact that no man can be compelled to attend on any particular occasion. Attendance at the camp training, in so far as the claims of men's civil employment do not infringe upon it, is compulsory, and takes place at one time for all—generally the first half of August.

The army troops, divisions and mounted brigades consist of 56 regiments of yeomanry; 14 batteries and 14 ammunition columns R.H.A., 151 batteries and 55 ammunition columns R.F.A., 3 mountain batteries and ammunition column, and 14 heavy batteries and ammunition columns R.G.A.; 28 field companies, 29 telegraph companies, railway battalion, &c., R.E.; 204 battalions infantry (including 10 of cyclists, the Honourable Artillery Company, and certain corps of the Officers' Training Corps training as territorials); 60 units A.S.C.; 56 field ambulances, 23 general hospitals and 2 sanitary companies R.A.M.C. Told off to the defended seaports are 16 groups of garrison artillery companies and 58 fortress and electric light companies R.E.

Establishment and Strength (April 1, 1910)

Arm or Branch. Establishment. Strength.
   Officers  Men.   Officers  Men. 
 Yeomanry.... 1,345 24,766 1,193 24,219
 R.H. & F.A. .... 1,211 32,945 1,015 29,658
 R.G.A...... 450 11,455 406 9,356
 R.E.  ...... 571 14,660 525 12,896
 Infantry  ..... 5,679 195,297 5,064 173,670
 A.S.C...... 322 8,562 277 7,577
 R.A.M.C..... 1,438 13,664 1,151 11,849
 A.V.C...... 198 14 95
 Total.... 11,214 301,363 9,726[1] 269,225

The Territorial Force is enlisted to serve at home, but individuals and whole corps may volunteer for service abroad in war if called upon. A register is kept of those who accept this liability beforehand, and about 6000 officers and men had joined it in April 1910.

The force is trained, commanded and inspected exclusively by the military authorities, the regular army finding the higher commanders and staffs. But in accordance both with the growing tendency to separate command and administration and with the desire to enlist local sympathies and utilize local resources, “associations,” partly of civilian, partly of military members, were formed in every county and charged by statute with all matters relating to the enlistment, service and discharge of the county's quota in the force, finance (other than pay, &c. in camp), buildings, ownership of regimental property, &c. To these duties of county associations are added that of supervising and administering cadet corps of all sorts (other than officers' training corps), and that of providing the extra horses required on mobilization, not only by the territorial force, but by the expeditionary force as well.

There are several groups of more or less military character which are for various reasons outside war office control. These are: (a) boys' brigades—the Church Lads' Brigade, the London Diocesan Brigade, the Jewish Lads' Brigade, &c.; (b) the Legion of Frontiersmen, an organization intended to enroll for “irregular” service men with colonial or frontier experience; (c) rifle clubs, which exist solely for rifle practice, and have no military liabilities; (d) boy scouts, an organization founded in 1908 by Lieut.-General Sir R. S. S. Baden-Powell.

Command and Administration.—The secretary of state for war is the head of the army council, which comprises the heads of departments and is the chief executive authority. These departments (see Staff) are: the general staff; the adjutant general's department; the quartermaster-general's department; the department of the master-general of the ordnance; the civil member's department; and the finance member's department. In addition to these departments, whose heads form the army council itself, there is the very important department of the inspector-general of the forces, whose duties are to ensure by inspection the maintenance of military efficiency and an adequate standard of instruction, &c. This department is thus in the main a complement of the general staff branch. In 1910 the commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean was appointed inspector-general of the overseas forces other than those in India, and the inspector-general in London supervises therefore only the forces in the home establishment. There are, therefore, three single authorities of high rank for the great divisions of the army—the two inspectors-general and the commander-in-chief in India.

The United Kingdom is subdivided into 7 commands and 12 districts, the commands under a lieutenant-general or general as commander-in-chief and the districts under brigadier-generals. The commands are the eastern, southern, western, northern, Scottish, Irish and the Aldershot. London is organized as a separate district under a major-general. In the colonial establishment the principal commands are the Mediterranean (including Egypt) and the South African. Except in South Africa, there are no imperial troops quartered in the self-governing colonies.

Since 1904–1905 command and administration have been separated and general officers commanding in chief relieved of administrative details by the appointment to their staffs of major generals in charge of administration (see Staff and Officers).

Finance.—The army estimates for 1910–1911 show a total sum of £27,760,000 required for the home and colonial establishments, made up as follows (after deducting appropriations in aid):—

  1. Does not include unattached list of officers, 853, or 736 R.A.M.C. officers not available until mobilization.