Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire

[colin 17]

When Hemel Hemptead is in Hertfordshire why is it the 2nd VB Bedfordshire?

Colin

[Sonofacqms]

Saffron Walden is in Essex yet the 17th Rifle Volunteers who were raised there in 1860 were included as 2nd Admin Btn Cambridge Rifle Volunteers these eventually became 3rd (Cambridgeshire) Volunteer Btn of The Suffolk Regt.

The history of Rifle Volunteers and Volunteer Btns is complex to say the least, Ray Westlake's excellent book "The Rifle Volunteers" is a must for anyone trying to unravel this difficult subject.

Rob

[Toby Purcell]

Originally Posted by colin 17

When Hemel Hemptead is in Hertfordshire why is it the 2nd VB Bedfordshire?

Colin

Like several Counties, e.g. Monmouthshire, Herefordshire, Cambridgeshire, the County of Hertfordshire was not allocated a regular infantry regiment in the Childers reforms of July 1881. Accordingly the RVC for those Counties had to be aligned with a nearby County that did have a regular regiment and in the case of Herts, that was Bedfordshire. As a result the Herts RVC became a VB of the Bedfordshire Regiment.

In 1908 the Territorial Force was created from the VBs and the Yeomanry, and the issue of unrepresented Counties was raised and resolved by creating some TF only infantry regiments, and Hertfordshire became one of these. However, Hertfordshire men continued to give excellent service as a part of the Bedfordshire Regiment throughout WW1 and so in recognition of this the Bedfordshire Regiment proposed a change of its title to Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment after the war (1919). Ironically this meant that the men of Hertfordshire could join TF battalions of whichever regiment that they preferred because the County had gone from not having any regiment affiliated to it to having two.

NB. Hertfordshire had previous to 1881 had a numbered line infantry regiment, the 49th, affiliated since 1782, but as with all other numbered regiments given a secondary County title in that year, it was wholly meaningless as the regiment had no permanent presence or meaningful association within the County boundary. In 1881, the 49th was aligned with Berkshire, together with the 66th.

[mike_vee]

Wikipedia has an entry covering Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment which covers a lot of the details of Toby's post.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedfor..._(1881_to_1919)

[49lassiepen]

Toby excellent /informative reply as always
David

[Sonofacqms]

Toby, a great explanation, I rambled over the borders into Essex and Cambridgeshire, but it's a habit of mine

Rob

[colin 17]

Thank you very much, most appreciated.