After conversion to the Special Reserve (SR) under the Haldane Reforms it supplied reinforcements to the fighting battalions during World War I and carried out internal security duties in Ireland.

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 regiment may have assembled eight companies but it never reached full establishment and attempts to convert it into a permanent 5th Royal Lancashire Militia failed when the men refused to serve in Ireland.

[4][17][18][19] During the French wars, the militia 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.

They served in coast defences, manning garrisons, guarding prisoners of war, and for internal security, such as the time of the Luddite disturbances.

Under the Act, militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time service in three circumstances:[22][23][24] With the threat of war against Russia, the three Lancashire regiments were ordered to recruit up to their full establishment of 1200 men.

Additional infantry and artillery militia regiments were also formed in Lancashire at this time including the 5th Royal Lancashire Militia (5th RLM) raised at Burnley on 22 March 1853 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant Charles Towneley of Towneley Hall (commissioned on 16 March 1853), with his brother John as one of the majors.

[22][30][31] Charles Towneley retired from command of the 5th RLM on 23 March 1863, when he was appointed Honorary Colonel and his brother John succeeded him as Lt-Col.[32] Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the Cardwell Reforms of 1872, Militia regiments were brigaded with regular and Volunteer battalions in a regimental district sharing a permanent depot at a suitable county town.

Although often referred to as brigades, the regimental 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.

[22][31][36][37] 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, followed by many militia reservists as reinforcements.

Militia units were embodied to replace them for home defence and a number volunteered for active service or to garrison overseas stations.

[5][16][26] Having volunteered for overseas service, the battalion embarked for South Africa on 16 February 1900 with a strength of 26 officers and 674 other ranks (ORs) under the command of Maj Richard Milne-Redhead (later promoted with effect from that date).

Sickness had set in at De Aar and now many of the men were down with Enteric fever, while some casualties were suffered from Boer sniping during June.

[26][41] On 22 August Lt-Col Milne-Redhead resumed command and shortly afterwards the battalion was ordered to provide a company garrison at Eensgevonden and to send 200 men to reinforce that at Vet River.

On 21 April a post on the Winburg railway held by Lance-Sergeant T. Wilson with eight men was attacked for five hours before the Boers withdrew.

In June the battalion, with headquarters at Virginia, occupied a chain of blockhouses that had been built between Smaldeel and Riets Spruit, and the men were continuously in action against small parties of Boers trying either to cross or to damage the railway.

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

In October and November 1914 the 3rd Bn formed 10th (Reserve) Battalion, East Lancashires, at Plymouth from Kitchener's Army volunteers.

On 1 June 1917 the 3rd Bn moved for the summer to Saltburn-by-the-Sea and Marske-by-the-Sea in the Tees Garrison; it remained at Saltburn until the end of the war.

[5][16][47][48] However, after the Armistice with Germany the battalion went to Ireland and in 1919 it was stationed in Buttevant carrying out duties in support of the civil power during the Partition crisis.

[18] The badge of the 5th RLM formed in 1853 was the Red Rose of Lancaster ; on the buttons it was displayed beneath a crown and within a spray of palm leaves.