A HISTORY OF SURREY 



who had composed the infantry volunteers ; for these dwindled to about 

 half their previous strength. As the regular militia reinforced the hne, 

 the local militia was intended to reinforce the regular militia. In 1 8 1 2 

 the local militia force was increased to five regiments of a nominal 

 strength of 5,344 men of all ranks, with headquarters at Guildford, 

 Kingston, Croydon, Putney and Clapham,' and in the following year the 

 infantry volunteers were all disbanded, except the Southwark volunteer 

 regiment, and the Rifle company, originally the Bermondsey company. 



In 1 8 14 the Surrey regular militia furnished a considerable number 

 of volunteers to a Provisional Militia Battalion for foreign service. They 

 sailed for the South of France, but arrived in the mouth of the Garonne 

 just after the news of Napoleon's abdication had been received. They 

 had the satisfaction of being fired on by the French, without loss (by 

 mistake the French officer afterwards declared), but saw no real service. 

 In 1 8 1 4 the regular militia was disembodied, and the local militia dis- 

 banded, the yeomanry cavalry however still remained. On the return of 

 Napoleon from Elba the regiments of regular militia were again called 

 out, and recruiting ordered, but they were;;disembodied after Waterloo. 

 The regiments were not called out for training again till 1820, again in 

 1 83 1, and after their disbandment another twenty years elapsed before 

 they were revived in 1852. In the disturbed times between 18 19 and 

 1832 the locks and bayonets of the militiamen's muskets were usually 

 kept at the Tower. The yeomanry, mostly composed of farmers' sons, 

 could be usually trusted to act for the Government, but it was by no 

 means certain that the militia could be equally depended on. Only the 

 permanent staff, officers and sergeants, were warned to be in readiness to 

 support the civil power during the riots of November 1830.' The regi- 

 ments were in a state of suspended animation, at the best. They had 

 probably no rank and file, and only superannuated officers and sergeants, 

 some of them veterans of the war. The yeomanry no longer formed a 

 separate regiment, but became a troop of the Hampshire regiment of 

 Hussars. The memory of Lord Leslie's squadron remains at Dorking in 

 the public-house sign of ' The Surrey Yeoman ' — a yeomanry trooper, not 

 a farmer. In 1 8 5 2 the militia was revived by the Act of Parliament," and 

 the present era of the life of the Surrey militia regiments set in. 



The Surrey Imperial Yeomanry was organized during the South 

 African War in 1900. The Hon. Henry Cubitt, M.P., is now in com- 

 mand of this corps. 



The present volunteer movement was started in the month of May 

 1859, when the policy of Napoleon III., who had just begun the war in 

 Lombardy with Austria, was exciting grave suspicions in England. In 

 that month meetmgs were held in Kingston, Richmond, Dorking 

 Reigate, Croydon and in the London suburbs. The volunteers who first 

 responded to the call included many men of good social standing ; in 



1 Stat. 52 Geo. III. cap. 38. 



' Home Office Letter Book, vii. 199 ; see y.C.H. Surr. i a 20 



» Stat. 15, 16 Vict. cap. 50. ' '" 



148 



