IX. Volunteers
On the 6th August, 1914, a letter appeared in The Times signed by Mr. Percy A. Harris, advocating the formation and training of Volunteer Corps. At the end of the month the War Office vetoed the raising of volunteer units, but gave sanction to organize Training Corps, and these sprang up all over the country and began to recruit for the oversea armies. The county was the unit of organization, and County Commandants were appointed. At the end of 1915 the revival of the Volunteer Act passed Parliament, which awarded military rank and status, and from this time on the Training Corps were termed Volunteer Corps, and if called up to repel invasion the officers and men were to become subject to military law. Only those men who were too old to serve abroad or whose indispensable business or employment absolutely prevented them doing so were enrolled.
So far as Kent was concerned Lord Harris, the County Commandant, took charge of the county force and called it “Kent Volunteer Fencibles,” but in August, 1916, the War Office, taking the matter more decidedly in hand, the several units were made into Volunteer Battalions of the county regiments.
In East Kent there were four of these:—
1st Volunteer Battalion was commanded by Br.-General W. Tylden; 2nd by Major J. C. Tattersall; 3rd Volunteer Battalion by Major-General C. F. Browne, C.B., D.S.O.; 4th Volunteer Battalion by Major H. E. T. W. Fiennes. General Brown retiring on the 16th December, the 3rd Battalion was taken over by Major H. T. Gullick, who had lost one son in the Buffs and had another still fighting with the regiment.