[1] Over the course of the following five decades, a large number of volunteer corps were raised and disbanded in Canterbury.
The longest continuously serving corps of the Canterbury district was the Southern Volunteer Rifles, formed in 1860.
[5] Men from the North Canterbury Battalion served in South Africa during the Second Boer War as part of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Contingents.
[10] At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the decision was made to form a New Zealand infantry brigade of four battalions from the existing territorial regiments.
The Canterbury Infantry Regiment would see action on the western front, engaging in the battles of the Somme, Messines, Broodseinde, Passchendaele, German Spring Offensive and the Hundred Days' Offensive.
[12] In 1920 Major General Sir Edward Chaytor was appointed as Honorary Colonel of the regiment.