21st Year.
In 1881 the Volunteer Force celebrated its coming of age, and Her Majesty marked the event by reviewing her “citizen soldiers.” The English Volunteers mustered in Windsor Great Park, on the 9th July, 1881, and marched past their Sovereign. A few weeks later the Queen proceeded to Scotland, and reviewed the Scottish Corps at Edinburgh.
The “Civil Service” decided to celebrate their arrival at maturity by a grand dinner of past and present members. The Prince of Wales graciously consented to preside on the occasion, and this necessitated delaying the festival until the following year. The dinner was ultimately held at Willis’s Rooms, on the 1st March, 1882. The demands for admission were many times in excess of the space available, and the process of balloting for tickets was resorted to in the case of past members.
A distinguished company of guests were invited to meet the Prince, who, as Chairman, made several speeches, in the course of which he warmly complimented the regiment, and expressed his wish to meet it at the Portsmouth Review the following Easter. This wish was carried out. The Prince was present at Portsmouth for some days, and appeared in public on each occasion in his uniform as Colonel of the Civil Service Corps. At the march past, on the day of the Review, he took command of the battalion, and marched past at its head.
Her Majesty further complimented the Volunteer Force in this year, by appointing, for the first time, certain of its commanding officers Aides-de-Camp to the Queen. Lord Bury was one of the six selected for this honour.
In 1884 Major Sandeman resigned, and the Honourable Arnold Keppel, the eldest son of Lord Bury, formerly of the Scots Guards, was appointed junior Major.