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Queen Victoria's Armed Forces
1881-1902
NFANTRY OF THE LINE
UNIFORMS, ARMS & EQUIPMENT
In 1868 Lord Edward Cardwell, Secretary of State for War in the government of Ewart Gladstone, instituted a series of reforms that would send shockwaves throughout the British Army. This From this time the purchase of commissions was abolished and the rest of the army went into an overhaul that would take more than 10 years to be completed. We referred to the Cardwell reforms in the chapter on the Foot Guards, who unlike the rest of the infantry felt little of the upheaval. The Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny had required large numbers of soldiers to fight in those conflicts. The Zulu War and the 1st Boer War provided additional pressure on troop levels at home and abroad.
As an Island nation, Britain had less fear of an invasion, largely because it had the strongest navy in the world. The British Army was a long service system, with the responsibility of garrisoning the far-flung elements of the Empire. Unlike the conscripted armies of Europe, the British army relied on voluntary recruitment. The changes that came left the cavalry, artillery and engineers largely untouched.
In 1865, the Infantry had only 25 two battalion regiments with over 75 single battalion regiments and Cardwell’s first effort was to combine the seventy five regiments into two battalions each . This meant that a large number of famous regiments found themselves as 2nd battalions of county regiments. From then onwards the old numbered regiments were converted into titles, many of which most always involved a county where many regiments had never been connected with. In addition, the old Militia regiments became third and fourth battalions of the regular regiments. Finally the infantry volunteers which had first been raised in the 1850’s, became additional battalions of their county regiments. In 1881, the re-organizations had been completed.
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