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Army Reserve (United Kingdom)

The Army Reserve is the active-duty volunteer reserve force of the British Army. It is separate from the Regular Reserve whose members are ex-Regular personnel who retain a statutory liability for service. The Army Reserve was known as the Territorial Force from 1908 to 1921, the Territorial Army (TA) from 1921 to 1967, the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve (TAVR) from 1967 to 1979, and again the Territorial Army (TA) from 1979 to 2014.

Army Reserve

1908–present

The Army Reserve was created as the Territorial Force in 1908 by the Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane, when the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 combined the previously civilian-administered Volunteer Force, with the mounted Yeomanry (at the same time the Militia was renamed the Special Reserve).


Haldane planned a volunteer "Territorial Force", to provide a second line for the six divisions of the Expeditionary Force which he was establishing as the centerpiece of the Regular Army. The Territorial Force was to be composed of fourteen divisions of infantry and fourteen brigades of cavalry, together with all the supporting arms and services needed for overseas war, including artillery, engineers commissariat and medical support. The new Special Reserve was to take over the depots of the militia, as an expanded reserve for the Regular Army. Under multiple political pressures, Haldane altered the public purpose of the Territorial Force in his Territorial and Reserve Forces Act to home defence, at the last moment but did not alter the planned structure. During the First World War, by the end of April 1915, six full Territorial divisions had been deployed into the fight.[1]


Between the wars the Territorial Army (as it was now called) was re-established to be the sole means of expansion in future wars, but it was smaller than before and poorly resourced. Yet eight TA divisions were deployed before the fall of France. After the Second World War, the TA was reconstituted with ten divisions, but then successively cut until rebuilding began in 1970, with numbers peaking at nearly 73,000. It was then run down again despite a major role in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations, bottoming at an estimated 14,000. From 2011 that trend was reversed and a new target of 30,000 trained manpower set with resourcing for training, equipment and the emphasis restored to roles for formed units and sub-units.


During periods of total war, the Army Reserve is incorporated by the royal prerogative into Regular Service under one code of Military Law for the duration of hostilities or until de-activation is decided upon. After the Second World War, for example, the Territorial Army, as it was known then, was not demobilised until 1947. Army Reservists normally have a full-time civilian job or career, which in some cases provides skills and expertise that are directly transferable to a specialist military role, such as NHS employees serving in Reservist Army Medical Services units. All Army Reserve personnel have their civilian jobs protected to a limited extent by law should they be compulsorily mobilised. There is, however, no legal protection against discrimination in employment for membership of the Army Reserve in the normal course of events (i.e. when not mobilised).

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

Before the creation of the Territorial force, there were three "auxiliary forces"—the Militia, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers. All militiamen over 19 could join the Militia Reserve, accepting the liability to serve overseas with the Regular Army in case of war if called on to do so. The second element of the auxiliary forces was the Yeomanry, 38 regiments of volunteer cavalry which had historically been used as a form of internal security police. The third arm was the Volunteers, There were 213 rifle corps and 66 corps of artillery,[2] though the latter were mostly coastal artillery or static "position batteries" and they did not constitute an organised field force.[3] There were some engineer and medical units, but no service corps.[4]


The Yeomen of the 18th century were cavalry-based units, which were often used to suppress riots (see the Peterloo Massacre). Several units that are now part of the Army Reserve bear the title "militia".[5]

List of Territorial Army units (2012)

Auxiliary Territorial Service

(1940–1944)

Auxiliary Units

(1940–1944)

Home Guard

(1982–1993)

Home Service Force

Reserve Forces and Cadets Association

Royal Auxiliary Air Force

Royal Marines Reserve

Royal Naval Reserve

Territorial Decoration

The Territorial Army (British Rail)

Volunteer Reserves Service Medal

(2015). Browned Off and Bloody-minded: The British Soldier Goes to War 1939–1945. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-17075-7.

Allport, Alan

Beckett, Ian F. W. Territorials: A Century of Service, first published April 2008 by DRA Printing of 14 Mary Seacole Road, The Millfields, Plymouth PL1 3JY on behalf of TA 100,  978-0-9557813-1-5

ISBN

Bell, P. M. H. (1997) [1986]. (2nd ed.). London: Pearson. ISBN 978-0-582-30470-3.

The Origins of the Second World War in Europe

Campbell, John (2020). Haldane: The Forgotten Statesman Who Shaped Modern Britain. London: Hurst & Co.

Dennis, Peter (1987). The Territorial Army. Woodbridge: The Royal Historical Society: Boydell Press.

Dunlop, John K (1938). The development of the British Army 1899–1914. London: Methuen.

Frederick, J. B. M. (1984). Lineage book of British land forces 1660-1978 : biographical outlines of cavalry, yeomanry, armour, artillery, infantry, marines and air force land troops of regular and reserve forces (Volume I). Wakefield: Microform Academic.  978-1-85117-007-4. OCLC 18072764.

ISBN

French, David (2001) [2000]. Raising Churchill's Army: The British Army and the War Against Germany 1919–1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  978-0-199-24630-4.

ISBN

(1976). Grand Strategy. History of the Second World War. Vol. I. London: HMSO. ISBN 978-0-116-30181-9.

Gibbs, N. H.

Gregory, Barry (2006). A History of the Artists Rifles 1859-1947. Barnsley: Pen and Sword.

Heyman, M. A. The Territorial Army – 1999 – An archive document of The TA in 1999 before the implementation of The Strategic Defence Review.

Joslen, H. F. (2003) [1960]. Orders of Battle: Second World War, 1939–1945. Uckfield, East Sussex: Naval and Military Press.  978-1-84342-474-1.

ISBN

(2006). Appeasement and Rearmament: Britain, 1936–1939. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-742-54537-3.

Levy, James P.

Kiszley, John (2017). Anatomy of a Campaign, The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Messenger, Charles (1994). For Love of Regiment 1915–1994. A History of British Infantry. Vol. II. London: Pen & Sword Books.  978-0-850-52422-2.

ISBN

Messenger, Charles (2005). Call to Arms: the British Army 1914–18. London: Cassell.  9780304367221.

ISBN

Miller, Russell (2013). Uncle Bill, The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Viscount Slim. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Perry, Frederick William (1988). The Commonwealth Armies: Manpower and Organisation in Two World Wars. War, Armed Forces and Society. Manchester: Manchester University Press.  978-0-7190-2595-2.

ISBN

Simkins, Peter (2007) [1988]. Kitchener's Army: The Raising of the New Armies 1914–1916. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military.  978-1-844-15585-9.

ISBN

Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh (2006). Dunkirk, Fight to the Last Man. New York: Viking.

Sheppard, Eric (1950). A short history of the British Army (4th ed.). London: Constable.

Stanley Simm Baldwin, Forward Everywhere: Her Majesty's Territorials / Stanley Simm Baldwin, London; New York; Brassey's, c1994.  0080407161 (hardback)

ISBN

Army Reserve

The Reserve Land Forces regulations 2016 (amendment number 3)

Army Reservist Support Service

– see their most recent report on the TA

The All-Party Parliamentary Reserve Forces Group

The Territorial Army 1967–2000 by Wienand Drenth