The Volunteer Infantry of the British Army

The Consolidation of the Rifle Volunteers in 1880

In the years 1859-1861 Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVC) were created all over Britain. They were of different sizes and were soon combined in Administrative Battalions (numbered within their county) to administer them. Some, mostly in urban areas, were large enough (several companies, battalion size) to administer themselves (and often a few smaller RVCs in the neighbourhood). The first column shows the Administrative Battalions of Rifle Volunteers (and the Rifle Volunteer Corps that were part of them) and the independent Rifle Volunteer Corps as at the begin of 1880.

Counties got a precedence number in the sequence of the date of acceptance of the first RVC in a county. The corps were numbered inside each county in the sequence they were accepted.

In the begin of 1880 all remaining Administrative Battalions were consolidated into single Rifle Volunteer Corps (with the old corps as companies) that got the title (number and county name) of the lowest numbered corps in the Administrative Battalion. These are shown in the second column.

Later in 1880, the gaps in this numbering were filled by moving the numbers down. These are the Rifle Volunteer Corps as shown in the third column.

In 1881 all Rifle Volunteer Corps were transferred to the new, territorialy organised, regular infantry regiments as their volunteer battalions. This was done without change of title (this was to happen later). A few were later transferred to other regiments.