Following conversion to the Special Reserve (SR) under the Haldane Reforms it supplied reinforcements to the fighting battalions during World War I.

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.

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.

However, in the years of the long peace after the Battle of Waterloo the militia was allowed to decline again, the ballot and annual training being suspended.

Under the Act, militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time service in three circumstances:[13][14][15] With the threat of war against Russia, the three Lancashire regiments were ordered to recruit up to their full establishments of 1200 men.

When war broke out in 1854 an expeditionary force was sent to the Crimea and the militia were embodied for home defence and service in overseas garrisons.

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.

The 5th, 6th and 7th Royal Lancashire Militia formed 2nd Brigade of 3rd Division, VIII Corps at Melrose, Scottish Borders.

[16][18] The Childers Reforms completed the Cardwell process by incorporating the militia battalions into the expanded county regiments.

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

It embarked from Southampton on 17 June aboard the Bavarian with a strength of 26 officers and 780 other ranks (ORs) under the command of Lt-Col Henry Crosbie.

It was re-embodied for service in South Africa on 6 January 1902, embarking for Cape Town on 13 February with a strength of 20 officers and 645 ORs under Col Charles Leyden.

On 14 April the battalion extended to take over the line as far as Tweedale, and provided a garrison at Colesberg to guard and escort Boer prisoners.

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.

[18][35][36][37][38][39][40] The two SR battalions remained on the Lincolnshire coast in the Humber Defences for the rest of the war, the 3rd Bn at Cleethorpes while the 4th was at Riby, Tetney and Grimsby.

[35][36] During a raid by the German Zeppelin LZ 64 on the night of 31 March/1 April 1916, 29 soldiers of the 3rd Manchesters were killed and 53 were wounded when a bomb hit a chapel at Cleethorpes being used as a billet.

After the war it was converted into 52nd (Service) Bn of the Sherwood Foresters on 8 February 1919 and was eventually disbanded at Dollymount in Ireland on 31 March 1920.

[19][21][16] The badge of the 6th RLM was the Red Rose of Lancaster: on the buttons of the original coatee it was displayed beneath a crown and above the numeral 'VI', with the title 'Royal Lancashire' round the edge.

[16] There is a brass memorial plaque in St Michael and All Angels' Church, Ashton-under-Lyne, listing the 31 NCOs and men of 3rd Bn Manchesters killed in the Zeppelin raid on Cleethorpes on 1 April 1916.