The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in England and its legal basis was updated by two acts of 1557 (4 & 5 Ph.

It was an important element in the country's defence at the time of the Spanish Armada in the 1580s, and control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between King Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War.

The Somerset Trained Bands were active in local skirmishes and sieges during the early part of the civil war, and later in controlling the country under the Commonwealth and Protectorate.

An adjutant and drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits.

While balloting was held in Somerset in November 1761 to replace the time-expired men in the ranks, the lieutenancy published advertisements in December seeking candidates for junior officers.

After serving in home defence for most of the war, the regiment was ordered to disembody on 30 December 1762, shortly before hostilities were ended by the Treaty of Paris.

On 24 February 1797 the 1st Somerset Militia sent a detachment of three officers, six sergeants, two drummer and 15 rank and file to Bath to train the supplementaries.

Both new regiments were embodied on 12 March 1798 and each was sent a cadre of 3 sergeants, 3 corporals and 6 'well-drilled privates' from the 1st Somersets to serve as non-commissioned officers.

[23][27] The French Revolutionary Wars saw a new phase for the English militia: they were embodied for a whole generation, and became regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in the British Isles), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits.

Both had detachments of selected Sharpshooters, and early in November the district commander, Maj-Gen Thomas Grosvenor, held a competition between them, the best marksmen to be awarded a red feather in their cap.

[30][c] From August to October 1804 the 1st and 2nd Somerset Militia were both stationed at Weymouth, Dorset, in a brigade commanded by Maj-Gen Lord Charles FitzRoy, while King George III was in residence at Gloucester Lodge.

[32] In August and September 1805, while Napoleon assembled an invasion force across the English Channel at Boulogne, the 1st and 2nd Somersets were again camped at Weymouth, brigaded with the 1st Royal Lancashire and the North Yorkshire Militia.

Early in 1815 Napoleon returned from Elba, sparking off the short Waterloo campaign, but it appears that the 2nd Somerset was not embodied during this crisis.

Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots were still held until 1831, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and the permanent staffs of sergeants and drummers were progressively reduced.

[38][39][40] After the death of Sir Thomas Lethbridge, William Pinney, MP for East Somerset, was appointed colonel on 18 January 1850.

Under the Act, militia units could be embodied by royal proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances:[41][42] The 2nd Somerset Militia was revived, with Col Pinney and Lt-Col Luttrell still the senior officers, joined by the Earl of Cavan, formerly of the 7th Dragoon Guards, appointed Major on 25 August 1852.

[40][43] War having broken out with Russia in 1854 and an expeditionary force sent to the Crimea, the militia began to be called out for home defence.

Unlike some other regiments it was not embodied during the Indian Mutiny[3] Thereafter, annual training (21 or 27 days) was carried out each year.

[47] The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war.

[43] Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the Cardwell Reforms of 1872, militia regiments were brigaded with their local regular and Volunteer battalions.

[3][12][15][14] On 3 April 1878 the Militia Reserve was called out to reinforce the Regular Army during the international crisis over the Russo-Turkish War.

[3][12][14][43] After arriving at East London on 2 April 1900, the battalion provided guards for the Line of communications between that city and Queenstown, with the Maxim gun detachments at Burgersdorp.

In December a detachment of 4 officers and 200 ORs went to join the Stormberg Garrison, while E Company went to Queenstown and Bowkers Park.

[3][14] Peace negotiations began in April 1902 and the battalion returned to the UK, having lost one officer and 22 other ranks killed or died of disease.

The Glengarry cap badge 1874–81 was a sword with a cross-hilt, point downwards, within a garter bearing the title, surmounted by a Saxon crown.

[15][59] After it became part of the SLI in 1881, the battalion wore the insignia of that regiment, including the cap badge of a light infantry bugle-horn beneath a Mural crown surmounted by a scroll bearing the Battle honour 'JELLALABAD'.

In 1833 the King drew the lots for individual regiments and the resulting list continued in force with minor amendments until the end of the militia.