|
The 6th Battalion, Essex Regiment was a volunteer unit of Britain's Territorial Army. First formed in the docks of East London in 1860, it served as infantry at Gallipoli and in Palestine during World War I. It later formed searchlight units of the Royal Artillery (RA), serving during the Blitz. ==Origin== An invasion scare in 1859 led to the creation of the Volunteer Force and huge enthusiasm for joining local Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs).〔Beckett.〕 The 5th (Plaistow and Victoria Docks) Essex Rifle Volunteer Corps was one such unit, formed on 30 January 1860 at Plaistow, mainly from employees of the Victoria Dock (later Royal Victoria Dock), which had opened in 1855 on Plaistow Marshes. The first commanding officer was the dock manager Charles Capper.〔Westlake, ''Rifle Volunteers'', p. 84.〕〔Beckett, p. 67 (where Capper is called 'Cooper') and Appendix VII.〕〔Charles Capper wrote ''The Port and Trade of London, historical, statistical, local and general'', London: Smith, Elder, 1862.〕〔''Army Lists''.〕 The four-company unit was included with the nearby 9th (Silvertown) Essex RVC in the 2nd Administrative Battalion of Essex RVCs (under Capper's command) until 1866 when two two units were large enough to become independent. The 5th was renumbered as the 3rd Essex RVC in 1880, and designated the 3rd Volunteer Battalion of the Essex Regiment in 1883 following the Childers Reforms. The Battalion headquarters moved to West Ham in 1885. By 1900, the battalion had increased to a strength of 13 companies, with a cadet corps affiliated from 1907. The uniform was Rifle green with facings of the same colour, changing to the scarlet with white facings of the Essex Regiment in 1895.〔〔 Under the Stanhope Memorandum of 1888 the four Volunteer Battalions of the Essex Regiment were constituted as the Essex Brigade, with its headquarters at Warley Barracks, later at Epping Place, Epping. In time of war, it was intended that the brigade would mobilise at an entrenched camp at Warley. In peacetime the brigade provided a structure for collective training.〔Beckett, pp. 135, 185–6.〕〔''Quarterly Army List''〕 A detachment from the Essex Brigade volunteered for service with the City Imperial Volunteers in the 2nd Boer War. In addition, the four Essex Volunteer Battalions together provided a 112-strong Special Service Company to serve alongside the Regulars of the 1st Battalion Essex Regiment in the first part of the war, replaced by a second company of 101 men in 1901–02. These volunteers gained the Battle Honour South Africa 1900–02 for the battalion.〔Burrows, pp. 12–14, 23.〕〔Leslie〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「6th Battalion, Essex Regiment」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|