It took some moral courage to appear in the street in Volunteer uniform: members of the 1st Northumberland RVC were sneered at as 'noodles'.

However, the movement continued to grow: in February 1860 the 1st absorbed the 2nd Northumberland RVC of three companies, also formed at Tynemouth on 4 January that year.

While the sub-districts were referred to as 'brigades', they were purely administrative organisations and the Volunteers were excluded from the 'mobilisation' part of the Cardwell system, though they carried out joint manoeuvres.

[5][9] Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson retired in 1875 and was appointed Honorary Colonel of the battalion; he was succeeded in command by Henry Swan who ran the Walker shipyard of Charles Mitchell and later Armstrong Whitworth.

[5][10] When the RVCs were consolidated nationwide on 3 September 1880, the 8th RVC was re-numbered as the 2nd Northumberland Rifle Volunteer Corps with companies designated as 'A' to 'F'.

[3][5] The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 proposed a more comprehensive Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war.

[7][13][14] In 1907, Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane announced a series of Army reforms, which would affect mostly the Volunteers and Yeomanry.

When German forces crossed into Belgium, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany and later the rest of the Central Powers.

On 15 August the War Office (WO) issued instructions to separate those men who had signed up for Home Service only, and form these into reserve units.

This new battalion joined the 188th (2/1st Northumberland) Brigade in the newly formed 2nd line 63rd (2nd Northumbrian) Division in January 1915.

[6][21][27] When the Territorial Force was disembodied after the end of the First World War, the army was left with just the regulars, most of which were under-strength or just at cadre size.

On 7 February 1920 the TF and most of its units were reconstituted, including the 5th Battalion, The Northumberland Fusiliers at Walker-on-Tyne with 'A', 'B', 'C', and 'D' Companies.

[6][7][27] In the late 1930s the increasing need for anti-aircraft (AA) defence for Britain's cities was addressed by converting a number of TA infantry battalions into searchlight (S/L) units, which accelerated after the Munich Crisis.

The cluster system was an attempt to improve the chances of picking up enemy bombers and keeping them illuminated for engagement by AA guns or Royal Air Force (RAF) Night fighters.

2 AA Group was responsible for defending the 'Overlord' assembly camps, depots and embarkation ports and was planning for the expected onslaught of V-1 flying bombs against London.

Meanwhile, the group had to deal with a sharp increase in Luftwaffe air raids trying to reach London, which continued until May.

[55][57][41] On 13 June, a week after the Overlord fleets had left to launch D Day, the first V-1s appeared over southern England.

After infantry training, including a short period attached to 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division, the brigade was moved into the War Office Reserve, and shipped to Norway, landing on 7 June 1945 and joining Norway Command following the liberation of that country (Operation Doomsday).

[6][37][48][39][61][62][63][64][65] On 1 September 1950 the regiment was converted back to infantry and simultaneously merged with the 4th Btn to form the 4th/5th Battalion, The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.

The Northumberland TA successors are currently part of 'X' and 'Z' companies in the 5th (Volunteer) Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.