Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907
The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the auxiliary forces of the British Army by transferring existing Volunteer and Yeomanry units into a new Territorial Force (TF); and disbanding the Militia to form a new Special Reserve of the Regular Army. This reorganisation formed a major part of the Haldane Reforms, named after the creator of the Act, Richard Haldane.
Portrait of Edward Cardwell, driving force behind the Cardwell Reforms, by George Richmond, 1871
Erskine Childers whilst serving with an Honourable Artillery Company battery in the City Imperial Volunteers
Hugh Arnold-Forster, photographed outside the Palace of Westminster in 1899.
Sir Richard Haldane
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