1st Surrey Rifles
The 1st Surrey Rifles (often spelled out in full as First Surrey Rifles and abbreviated as FSR) was a volunteer unit of the British Army from 1859 until 1993. It saw considerable service on the Western Front, at Salonika and in Palestine during World War I. It served as a searchlight unit and as a light anti-aircraft regiment during World War II. Origins An invasion scare in 1859 led to the creation of the Volunteer Force and huge enthusiasm for joining local Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs). The 1st Surrey RVC or South London Rifles was one of the first such units formed, being based on the existing Peckham Rifle Club and recruiting many other members from the Hanover Sports Club at Peckham. The first officers were commissioned into the unit on 14 June 1859, and the headquarters was established in Camberwell. The following year it absorbed the 3rd Surrey RVC (first commissions 26 August 1859), also based at Camberwell, which became No 2 Company. The 1st Surrey RVC was active in trying to take over other South London groups: in November 1859 it made an unsuccessful approach to a new sub-unit formed in Putney (which actually joined the 9th Surrey RVC in Richmond). By the end of 1860 the strength of the 1st Surrey (South London) RVC was eight companies, recruited across Camberwell, Peckham and Clapham, under the command of Lt-Col John Boucher, formerly of the 5th Dragoon Guards. In 1865 they opened a new headquarters and drill hall in Camberwell. The uniform was Rifle green with red facings. An affiliated Cadet Corps was formed at Dulwich College in 1878. Following the Childers Reforms the 1st Surrey RVC became the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment on 1 July 1881, but without changing its title. Under the Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 the battalion was assigned to the Surrey Volunteer Infantry Brigade, whose place of assembly in case of war was at Caterham to man the outer London Defence Positions. By 1907 the brigade had been split into separate East and West Surrey brigades, the 1st Surrey Rifles forming part of the East Surrey Brigade based at Worplesdon. Volunteers from the unit served in the 2nd Boer War, earning the Battle honour South Africa 1900–02. Territorial Force Under the Haldane Reforms, the former Volunteers were subsumed into the Territorial Force (TF) in 1908. The newly created London Regiment consisted entirely of TF infantry battalions, with no Regular component. The 1st Surreys' recruiting area of South London had been incorporated into the new County of London since 1889, and so it became the 21st (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (1st Surrey Rifles) (TF) and formed part of 6th London Brigade in the 2nd London Division. Its headquarters and all eight companies were located at Flodden Road, off Camberwell New Road. World War I Mobilisation The battalion had just arrived at Perham Down on Salisbury Plain on 2 August 1914 for its annual training when the order to