Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Blakeman
Back to The Wiltshire’s. Westlake clearly states “Became a VB (without a change in title) of the Wiltshire Regiment in 1881”.
My interpretation of this is that that were never referred to as the 1st VB.
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I agree with that. It’s not that there was no Wiltshire battalion with the status of 1st VB, it’s just that there was a specific decision not to use that title, and to retain instead a RVC/VRC title. As mentioned earlier, there were several units that did this, most famously the 1st Surrey’s. In general the transition from RVC to VB was hugely controversial because it brought the hitherto semi-independent VF and its gentlemens’ club culture into the same orbit as the two, constitutional forces, the regular army and the militia. There was significant resistance to this in specific areas and the refusal to adopt VB titles was a manifestation of that stance.