I have found attestation records for several relatives from Nottingham who seemingly joined up either in the 1880s or 1890s, mostly at the age of about 18 years and who much later served in WWI – several of them died there and quite a few years ago I visited their graves or memorials in France and Belgium. One or two of these folk would have been in their late 40’s or early 50s when they went to war. I would like to know a little more about the MILITIA. Despite searching on the internet I am unable to find anything that answers my questions and I’m hoping someone with a much better understanding of military history of the times can answer these queries for me. Was the Militia like National Service in the 1950s? Was it compulsory? Were members of the Militia full time soldiers or did they live at home? For how long did they have to serve in the militia? Were they required to go to France or Belgium in 1914-18 if belonged to the Militia or had once been in the Militia? As I indicated above all of these folk joined the Militia in the 1880s or 90s and yet they still went to the war 20 - 30 years later. I have one relative who was clearly a bad lad and had numerous charges against him whilst in the Militia serving with the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regmt) and was eventually discharged in 1902 as medically unfit for further service at the age of about 21 years. If I am reading his papers correctly it looks as though he spent 3 years in Malta immediately before his discharge. What were the British doing in Malta at this time? His conduct and character whilst with the colours was described on his discharge papers as “Very Bad”. When war broke out however, he enlisted in the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) despite the fact that he was born and bred in Nottingham. Did he join up with the Cameronians because the Sherwood Foresters wouldn’t have him back or to disguise his past bad record with them? He died on 28 November 1917 at the Ypres Salient aged 36 and his name is on the Tyne Cot Memorial. Martyn Queensland, Australia

Hi Martyn In the period you speak of the Militia was purely voluntary, they did basic training but returned to their homes and took regular training sessions and a yearly camp, they were paid for their services and a retainer while not serving In the main the Militia was used as a training unit for the main Army, you will find many men join the militia and a year later sign up for a period in the Army proper Men could enlist up to the end of 1915, from Jan 1916 it was conscription only There were age limits for WW1 but little in the way of checks done so if they shaved a few years off no one was likely to query it, the Army would obviously want trained men who had been in the militia previously as they had some training under their belts For more on a timeline of Malta history and the British see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Malta But basically Malta was under British control Until the start of conscription enlistees had a choice to a degree as to the regiment they joined and reasons could be many, one was keeping a low profile as you suggest but equally he could have had a mate in the regiment or heard it was a better unit >From the start of conscription they were put where the Army wanted them If you found militia attestation papers its worth looking for Army service papers which may be separate but of course not all men served long enough to receive a pension so are not in those available online Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) >I have found attestation records for several relatives from Nottingham who > seemingly joined up either in the 1880s or 1890s, mostly at the age of about > 18 years and who much later served in WWI – several of them died there and > quite a few years ago I visited their graves or memorials in France and > Belgium. One or two of these folk would have been in their late 40’s or > early 50s when they went to war. I would like to know a little more about > the MILITIA. Despite searching on the internet I am unable to find anything > that answers my questions and I’m hoping someone with a much better > understanding of military history of the times can answer these queries for > me.

Hello Nivard, Thank you very much for your prompt reply to my query about the Militia and WWI service - much appreciated. I now have a much better understanding of the subject. The data that have on hand is from "findmypast" and most of it relates to the Militia attestations rather than service records for WWI. I have of course obtained burial records from the CWGC site and detailed war diaries relating to some of the men in question from a regimental historian but what I am missing is the service. Perhaps some are available from the National Archives records - they certainly aren't available on line. Martyn, Queensland, Australia -----Original Message----- From: Nivard Ovington Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 7:18 AM To: [email protected] ; [email protected] Subject: Re: [NTT] MILITIA Hi Martyn In the period you speak of the Militia was purely voluntary, they did basic training but returned to their homes and took regular training sessions and a yearly camp, they were paid for their services and a retainer while not serving In the main the Militia was used as a training unit for the main Army, you will find many men join the militia and a year later sign up for a period in the Army proper Men could enlist up to the end of 1915, from Jan 1916 it was conscription only There were age limits for WW1 but little in the way of checks done so if they shaved a few years off no one was likely to query it, the Army would obviously want trained men who had been in the militia previously as they had some training under their belts For more on a timeline of Malta history and the British see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Malta But basically Malta was under British control Until the start of conscription enlistees had a choice to a degree as to the regiment they joined and reasons could be many, one was keeping a low profile as you suggest but equally he could have had a mate in the regiment or heard it was a better unit >From the start of conscription they were put where the Army wanted them If you found militia attestation papers its worth looking for Army service papers which may be separate but of course not all men served long enough to receive a pension so are not in those available online Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) >I have found attestation records for several relatives from Nottingham who > seemingly joined up either in the 1880s or 1890s, mostly at the age of > about > 18 years and who much later served in WWI – several of them died there and > quite a few years ago I visited their graves or memorials in France and > Belgium. One or two of these folk would have been in their late 40’s or > early 50s when they went to war. I would like to know a little more about > the MILITIA. Despite searching on the internet I am unable to find > anything > that answers my questions and I’m hoping someone with a much better > understanding of military history of the times can answer these queries > for > me. ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1901 / Virus Database: 2109/4731 - Release Date: 01/08/12