The 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve), historically known as The Artists Rifles is a regiment of the Army Reserve. Its name is abbreviated to 21 SAS(R).
Memorial to the 2003 men lost in the Artists Rifles, Royal Academy, London
The Place, Duke's Road, Camden, built 1888 as the headquarters of the 20th Middlesex (Artists') Rifle Volunteer Corps
Over The Top, 1918, oil on canvas, by John Nash
Player's cigarette card showing a soldier of the Artists Rifles in the new field service dress
The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire 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 Army Reserves Infantry, Artillery, Engineers and Signals units are directly descended from Volunteer Force units.
Officer of the Exeter & South Devon Volunteers in 1852
Thomas Heron Jones, 7th Viscount Ranelagh leading the Volunteer gathering in Brighton, 1863, depicted in the Illustrated London News
