Musketry Instruction.
The arduous duties carried out by these Volunteer Musketry Instructors certainly entitle them to especial mention. At their head was Captain Du Plat Taylor, assisted by Ensign Campbell and Battalion Instructor Halliday. The first Company Instructors in the order of merit in which they passed their examination were:
| Sergeant | Rule. |
| “ | Powell. |
| “ | Bond. |
| “ | Lockhart. |
| “ | Crispin. |
| “ | Pitt. |
| Corporal | R. G. Hamilton. |
| “ | Churchill. |
| Sergeant | Plaskett. |
| “ | Trickett. |
| Corporal | Hamilton. |
| Sergeant | Cardin. |
| “ | Potter. |
| Corporal | Baker. |
| Sergeant | Pidcock. |
| “ | Jackson. |
Every available place in the neighbourhood of Somerset House was occupied nightly by squads practising “position” and “aiming” drill, and by August, Captain Du Plat Taylor was able to take his first squad to the Wimbledon range for ball practice. This was carried out in the strictest and most methodical manner, for even in those days, Captain Taylor began to earn for himself the character of the strict disciplinarian for which he has since been so noted. The following facts are gathered from the regulations laid down by him in Regimental Musketry Orders:
“All Target Practice to be performed in Uniform, in Full Marching Order.
“Members proceeding to Wimbledon for Firing Practice to fall in in Military Order at the station at Putney, and march to the range under the command of the senior present. On arrival at the range they would be delivered over to the Senior Musketry Instructor. The return to Putney to be conducted in the same manner. Strict silence to be maintained in the ranks throughout the whole of the proceedings.
“With the view of avoiding the heavy expenses incurred by the hire of Butt Markers, the duties to be undertaken by members of the Corps; three non-commissioned officers and three privates being previously detailed on each occasion.
“Should any member so detailed refuse or neglect to attend, he would be disqualified from competing for Regimental Prizes.”
However necessary these rules may have been at the time, it need scarcely be observed that before long they were found to be irksome. Rumour reports that on the occasion of a squad, on its return from the ranges in the dark, being marched into a ditch, open mutiny broke out with regard to the obnoxious rules, and that Captain Taylor was thereupon constrained to relax his discipline until he could find more tractable material to work upon than the “gentlemen of the Civil Service.”