Records of the Ayrshire Militia from 1802 to 1883

This slim volume, privately printed in 1884, was based on hand-written records in a note-book kept in Ayr Barracks. It consists of a year-by-year account of the activities of the Ayrshire Militia from the time of its formation in 1802, along with tables showing the regimental strength at different periods, and some lists of officers. In particular it chronicles the regiment's Napoleonic War service in Scotland, England and Ireland from 1803 until 1816, using contemporary journal entries. |b This slim volume, privately printed in 1884, was based on hand-written records in a note-book kept in Ayr Barracks. It consists of a year-by-year account of the activities of the Ayrshire Militia from the time of its formation in 1802, along with tables showing the regimental strength at different periods, and some lists of officers. In particular it chronicles the regiment's Napoleonic War service in Scotland, England and Ireland from 1803 until 1816, using contemporary journal entries. During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars with France, which lasted almost continuously from 1793 until 1815, the British regular army found itself stretched to the limit at home and abroad. To assist in guarding against invasion and maintaining internal security a variety of auxiliary home-defence units were raised. There were many volunteer units of varying quality, but the militia - raised by selective conscription - constituted a better-organised national reserve force. In the late nineteenth century (by which time militia service had become voluntary) Ayrshire's militia became part of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, and it maintained a distinct identity within that regiment until 1919.