moving overseas services

The Territorial Army (TA) is a part of the British Army, the land armed forces of the United Kingdom. It is composed of reserve units, or part-time soldiers. It was created in 1908, when the War Office took over and reorganised the previously civilian-administered Volunteer Army, folding its remaining Militia and Yeomanry units into it.

World War I and earlier

The Territorial Force was originally formed by the Secretary of State for War, Richard Burdon Haldane, following the passage of the "Territorial and Reserve Forces Bill" on August 2, 1907 and contained 14 infantry divisions, each administered by a County Association. There were also 14 mounted yeomanry brigades.

The use of the word territorial signified that the volunteers who served with the force were under no obligation to serve overseas — in 1910, when asked to nominate for Imperial Service overseas in the event of mobililzation, less than 10% of the Force chose to do so. In August 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, Territorial units were given the option of serving in France and by August 25 in excess of 70 battalions had volunteered. This question over the availability of Territorial divisions for overseas service was one of Lord Kitchener's motivations for raising the New Army separately.

The original divisions of the Territorial Army were:

The divisions were assigned numbers in April 1915 so that, for example, the 'East Anglian Division' became the 54th Division. Self Moving Quotes.