Hi Pat, Many thanks for your reply to my question. I will try and obtain a copy of Ray Westlake's book, Thanks again for your assistance, Peter, Melbourne, Australia ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2013 22:23:59 +0100 From: "DPDorgan" <dpdorgan@newtelsurf.com> Subject: Re: [KENT-ENG] KENT VOLUNTEER RIFLES To: <kent-eng@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <!~!UENERkVCMDkAAQACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABgAAAAAAAAAOHJZRiW89E6s06q1MHfq58KAAAAQ AAAAdTa25B4nK0me2W7LZ2j6WgEAAAAA@newtelsurf.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi Peter Ray Westlake wrote a book first published 1982 entitled "The Rifle Volunteers". ISBN 0 902633 79 1. The book is purely on the formation of volunteer corps and although there are some b&w photographs of volunteers and their insignia; there are none of the Kent volunteers. The earliest photograph is 1876. Basically volunteers were the equivalent of a 'home guard', the Duke of Wellington probably being responsible for the formation of the Volunteer Force in 1859. Men were recruited locally and it isn't thought that volunteer forces served overseas. Mr Westlake includes information on the Kent Volunteer Rifles and uses the 5 corps of 1880 as a basis, listing a number of corps under each heading giving their formation and disbandment dates and places. There are 5 pages of information. It really depends on where your distant 3rd cousin lived and even his occupation as to where he served and which corps i.e. "76th Corps: Formed on 26 March 1860 26 March 1860 by men working in the wharves, stores, distilleries and saw-mills of Port Dundas." "72nd Corps: This corps was also known as the 'Fine Arts' and was raised by jewellers, silversmiths and watch and clockmakers. Formed 23 February 1860." Kind regards, Pat -----Original Message----- From: kent-eng-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:kent-eng-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Peter Ryan Sent: 09 August 2013 15:11 To: kent-eng@rootsweb.com Subject: [KENT-ENG] KENT VOLUNTEER RIFLES Hi All, I was wondering what information readers had on Kent Volunteer Rifles and coloured photos of their uniforms. Did they ever see service overseas? Or were they home guard? A distant 3rd cousin was a member for about 20 years (c1850s-1870s) Thanks for any information or web site details, Peter, Melbourne, Australia