British Colonial Auxiliary Forces

The British Colonial Auxiliary Forces were the various military forces (each composed of one or more units or corps) of Britain's colonial empire which were not considered part of the British military proper.

1939 Army List, Dominion and Colonial Regiments index

1945 Army List, Order of Precedence of the British Army, with most colonial units omitted

Whether a British military unit or corps was considered part of the British Army was ultimately decided by whether it received Army funds from the War Office. Within and without the British Isles, the British military, (referring to land, rather than naval, armed forces) by the end of the Napoleonic Wars (by which time the Kingdom of Ireland had been absorbed into the Kingdom of Great Britain, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Irish military forces had been absorbed into those of Great Britain), included two regular forces (employed in the garrisoning and defence of the British Isles, other parts of the British Empire, and deploying to foreign countries as required), the Ordnance Military Corps (including the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and Royal Sappers and Miners), administered and funded under the Board of Ordnance, and the British Army (mostly composed of cavalry and infantry regiments), administered and funded under the War Office. Most were Home corps and units (ie, those depoted and recruited in the British Isles, wherever they might be deployed) though some were raised in colonies. The regular forces also included at various times, usually in particular locations, invalid, fencible, and other units, utilised primarily for garrison or defensive duties. Some regular forces raised in colonies were funded by the Colonial Office or local Governments and therefore not considered part of the British Army. Additional to the Regular military forces, the British Military also included various Reserve Forces. The main ones by the Napoleonic Wars included the Militia (or Constitutional Force, composed of infantry regiments), mounted Yeomanry, and the Volunteer Force, although there were various others at different times and places. The Militia system was duplicated in many colonies, many of which would also raise volunteer units. These Reserve Forces were under the control of local authorities (the Lords Lieutenant of counties in the British Isles, and Governors in their separate offices of Commanders-in-Chief of colonies; Normally, neither Lords Lieutenant nor colonial Governments had any authority over regular forces in their territories), and locally funded. After the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of 1812, the British Government slashed defence spending, down-sizing the regular forces, including disbanding the fencibles (most of which units had been raised in Scotland due to the lack of Militia there in the 18th Century as a result of fears of rebellion), disbanding the Volunteer Force in the British Isles, and allowing the Militia there to become a paper tiger. The Yeomanry was maintained as a back-up to the constabulary in maintaining law and order.

In the 1850s, the Crimean War highlighted the problems of British military organisation, leading to the abolishment of the Board of Ordnance, with its military corps and various previously civilian transportation, stores, and other departments absorbed by the British Army. The Indian Mutiny led to the abolishment of the East India Company, with the India Office taking over administration of India. The company's military forces were split, with the white units absorbed into the British Army and the native ones composing the Indian Army. The British Army saw significant change through the latter half of the century, with the British Army Rgular Reserve formed in the 1850s, following which, to avoid confusion, the Reserve Forces were generally referred to as the Auxiliary Forces (ie, auxiliary to, but not part of, the British Army), or as the Local Forces (as they were originally all for home defence). With the threat of invasion by France, the Reserve Forces in the British Isles were also re-organised throughout the latter half of the 19th Century, into the first decade of the 20th Century. The Militia was re-organised as a voluntary force from the 1850s, and the Volunteer Force restored as a permanent part of the peacetime military establishment. Both now included units other than infantry. These changes were copied to some degree in the colonial Reserve Forces. From the 1870s, administration and funding of the Auxiliary Forces in the British Isles passed from the Lords Lieutenant to the War Office and their units were increasingly integrated into British Army units (new infantry regiments, by example, being formed to include two regular battalions, with one or more Militia battalions and one or more Volunteer Force battalions, all bearing the same regimental name). Although the Auxiliary forces remained organised as, and nominally, separate forces (until the Territorial Army was renamed the British Army Reserve in 2014), their being funded by the War Office meant they were also considered parts of the British Army. Outside the British Isles, the funding of auxiliary forces remained largely with the local governments.[1][2]

The first colonial units established in the British Empire were militia formations in England's American colonies (specifically, in the Colony of Virginia, settled in 1607, and Bermuda, which was settled by shipwreck of the Sea Venture in 1609, becoming an extension of Virginia in 1612) a century before the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland unified to create the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 (at which point the English Empire became the British Empire). By the Victorian era, the colonial auxiliary military forces were generally followed the pattern of the auxiliary military forces of the British Isles. There were also British military units, separate from those of the British Army (such as the West India Regiments and the Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry) that were raised and recruited in colonies, such as the Permanent Active Militia of the Province of Canada. These units consisted of professional soldiers. They supplied a reserve force either to be called up in war time to reinforce regular British Army garrisons for home defence, or in some cases were entirely responsible for home defence. Many units, however, took part in active campaigns outside of the role of home defence in various conflicts the British Empire was involved in, including the two world wars.

Some of the reserve colonial units, especially in the strategically important imperial fortress colonies (consisting of Halifax, Gibraltar, Bermuda and Malta), were funded by the War Department out of Army Funds and considered part of the British Army (by example, the Bermuda Militia Artillery was grouped with the Royal Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers with the Royal Engineers in the official Army Lists, which also listed the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps and Bermuda Militia Infantry officers as part of the British Army, whereas most colonial units were listed separately or did not appear at all), whereas others that did not receive Army Funds were considered auxiliaries (British military units, but not part of the British Army). This had originally been true of various other military forces in the United Kingdom before the mid-Nineteenth Century, following which the Board of Ordnance was abolished and its military corps (the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and Royal Sappers and Miners) and previously civilian Commissariat, stores and transport departments were all absorbed by the British Army and the Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteer Forces were more closely integrated with the British Army through a succession of military reforms.

Many colonial units started out as auxiliaries and later became regular units and forerunners to the current militaries of those colonies which have become politically independent. While most of the units listed here were army units, colonial marines were raised at various times, as were colonial naval and air force reserve units. Today, only four British Overseas Territories regiments remain (not including cadet corps): the Royal Bermuda Regiment; the Royal Gibraltar Regiment; the Falkland Islands Defence Force; and the Royal Montserrat Defence Force. The British Government is currently (2020) working with the local governments of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands to raise reserve military units in those territories, also, with recruitment for the new Cayman Islands Regiment starting in January, 2020.[3][4][5]