The Robin Hood Battalion was a unit of the Volunteer Force of the British Army and Territorial Force, later the Territorial Army. The battalion served as infantry during the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin and then served on the Western Front during World War I. In the 1930s it re-roled as an anti-aircraft unit and served in World War II, including North-western Europe from June 1944 to May 1945.
Plaque on the terrace of Nottingham Castle commemorating the raising of the Robin Hood Rifles in 1859
Uniform of the Robin Hood Rifles depicted on a 1939 cigarette card
The Robin Hoods' drill hall in Derby Road, Nottingham.
King George V, escorted by Lieutenant Colonel Reginald B. Rickman and Captain W. Foster MC, talking to Private Denny and the remainder of the 7th (Robin Hood) Battalion, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment (Sherwood Foresters), 59th Division, at Hermin, after the Battle of Bullecourt, 30th March 1918.
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