This legislation placed selected men, the 'trained bands', under the command of a Lord Lieutenant appointed by the monarch; this is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England.

After training on Fulwood Moor, near Preston, the Lancashire brigade, commanded by the Earl of Derby's brother, Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon James Stanley (1st Foot Guards), sailed with the army from Wallasey and landed at Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690.

Hoghton and his men reached the top of the barricade but were driven back by heavy musketry fire from the neighbouring houses, having suffered serious casualties; Honywood ordered them to withdraw.

Orders to embody the militia were issued to the lord lieutenant, Edward Stanley, 11th Earl of Derby, on 26 September after the government's forces had been defeated at the Battle of Prestonpans.

Derby complained that although there were sufficient weapons (though of poor quality), the three regiments of foot and three troops of horse had not been called out for training in the 30 years since the Battle of Preston.

These moves were carried out next day, regimental headquarters (HQ) was established at the Talbot Hotel in Liverpool, and the Earl handed over command to Maj Ffarington.

The commander of the government forces, Field Marshal George Wade, advised the militia to operate in small bodies to harry the advancing rebel army, firing from hedges and preventing it from sending out plundering parties.

The delaying action (the Clifton Moor Skirmish) was well handled by the Jacobite commander, Lord George Murray, who led a counter-charge of Highlanders, and Oglethorpe was blamed for the heavy losses suffered by his dragoons in their dismounted attack.

Cumberland marched into Scotland on 4 January 1746 (finally defeating the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden on 16 April) while the Liverpool Blues escorted the prisoners from Carlisle (including those of the Manchester Regiment) to Lancashire for trial.

[4][15][38][40][44][47][48] While at Liverpool a large number of unfit and time-expired men were discharged and a new ballot held to refill the ranks, necessitating a great deal of training.

The Earl of Derby then resigned the colonelcy to concentrate on his parliamentary duties; he nominated a distant kinsman, Thomas Stanley of Cross Hill, MP, to succeed him.

Although recruitment of such large numbers became difficult, the 1st Royal Lancashire Supplementary Militia was raised on 1 March 1797 at Liverpool under the personal command of the 13th Earl of Derby as lord lieutenant.

[16][4][38][35][60][67] With the end of the Irish Rebellion the government encouraged militiamen to volunteer for the regular army: the 1st RLM was one of a number of regiments that offered to serve abroad as a complete unit.

Meanwhile, the trials of the rebels were continuing, and in May 1799 the militia brigade at Clonmel was put on alert to march at short notice in case of trouble, or of another French landing.

After establishing a depot at Lancaster to train the newly balloted men the 1st RLM marched on 23 May to join the encampment at Danbury, Essex, under the command of Lt-Col John Plumbe, Col Stanley being unwell.

In August and September 1805, while Napoleon assembled an invasion force across the English Channel at Boulogne, the 1st RLM were camped at Weymouth, Dorset, where the royal family was in residence.

[16][73][74] The militia had become one of the biggest sources of recruits to the regular army, and the 1st RLM was expected to supply a quota of 100 volunteers each year, rising to a draft or 244 men in February 1814.

The staff NCOs and the few experienced officers had their hands full when the special trains brought the 500 undisciplined recruits from Bolton and Manchester, but had made good progress after three weeks' drilling on Giant Axe Field.

[84] In May 1853, in view of the worsening international situation, the government ordered the lord lieutenant (the Earl of Sefton) to recruit the three Lancashire militia regiments up to their full strengths of 1200 each.

The Grenadier Company at Santa Maura had been unaffected by cholera, and was chosen to go to the Crimea to reinforce the army for its projected operations following the fall of Sevastopol in September 1855 (the only militia unit accepted).

[89][94][95][96] Although often referred to as brigades, the sub-districts were purely administrative organisations, but in a continuation of the Cardwell Reforms a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the Army List from December 1875.

[89] The Hon Frederick Stanley, MP, formerly captain in the Grenadier Guards, was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant of the regiment (later of the 1st Battalion) on 23 June 1874, the rank of colonel in the militia having been abolished.

Both battalions entrained for Preston on 31 July, and went to Fulwood Barracks, which were grossly overcrowded by the arrival of their 12 companies in addition to the reservists of the regular regiment stationed there.

[4][38][99][109] After the disasters of Black Week at the start of the Second Boer War in December 1899, most of the regular army was sent to South Africa, and many militia units were embodied to replace them for home defence and to garrison certain overseas stations.

It proceeded to the advanced base at Naauwpoort and was employed on the lines of communication with detachments guarding towns, bridges and culverts between Norvalspont and Port Elizabeth, Graaff-Reinet and Hanover Road.

On 30 December the Boers attacked and burned a train at the 'Gates of Hell' about 16 miles (26 km) from Naauwpoort: two companies of the battalion only arrived in time to exchange a few shots with the retiring enemy.

On 7 March Capt Worsley Taylor with 40 men of the 4th Bn and about 60 Mounted infantry (MI) was attacked by a superior force while repairing the Colesberg–Philippolis telegraph line.

There were moves to reform the Auxiliary Forces (Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers) to take their place in the six Army Corps proposed by the Secretary of State for War, St John Brodrick.

The regimental colour presented in 1761 was blue and bore the coat of arms of the Duchy of Lancaster (on a shield gules, three lions of England (passant gardant) or, in chief a label azure of three points, each charged with three fleur-de-lis of France).

[44][125][62][126][127] The regimental colour presented by Queen Charlotte at Weymouth in 1806 simply carried the words 'FIRST ROYAL LANCASHIRE MILITIA' surrounded by a wreath of roses, thistles and shamrocks.