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.

[1][2][3][4] The Kent Trained Bands were on high alert during the Armada crisis in 1588 and saw some active service during the English Civil War.

From 1784 to 1792 the regiments were supposed to assemble for 28 days' annual training, even though to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually called out each year.

The East Kent was one of the militia regiments that volunteered to serve in Ireland but its offer was not accepted.

However, the Peace of Amiens was short-lived and the regiments, whose training commitment had been increased from 21 to 28 days a year, were embodied again in 1803.

[26] By 1 September that year the regiment (426 men in 10 Companies under Lt-Col William Pennell) had moved to Chelmsford Barracks, which it shared with the Royal Buckinghamshire Militia (King's Own) in Maj-Gen Duncan Campbell's brigade.

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

Under the Act, Militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances:[31][32][33][34] The position of colonel was abolished in militia regiments, the commanding officer in future holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel, although the regiment could appoint an honorary colonel.

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.

The East Kent Militia was embodied in 1854 and was stationed at Chichester by 9 June,[35][36][37] moving to Portsmouth by 8 September,[38][39] and was then at Woolwich from November to Marc 1855.

[13][15][6] The East Kents were among the small number of militia regiments embodied during the Indian Mutiny to relieve Regular troops.

[57][58][59][60] 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.

The East Kent Militia's assigned war station was in the Dover defences as part of the Garrison Army.

[13][15] After volunteering, 16 officers and 551 other ranks under the command of Lt-Col Theodore Brinckman sailed from Southampton to Cape Town on 10 March aboard the SS Moor.

The battalion then worked with 1st (Guards) Brigade of 11th Division and with 8th Division (commanded by the battalion's Honorary Colonel, Lt-Gen Sir Leslie Rundle) in the operations from 16 April to seize Dewetsdorp, 15 miles (24 km) south of Bloemfontein.

The column met considerable opposition, with two days' hard fighting at Doornkloof and Paardeplats, but succeeded in its object and entered the town on 27 June.

[6][62][67] Until 15 December the battalion was employed in guarding the railway, but Hunter requested it for Maj-Gen Hector MacDonald's march through the Springfontein area into Cape Colony to deal with a tBoer invasion.

It took part in engagements at Bethulie Bridge, Olive Siding and Colesberg, returning to Kroonstad on 30 December.

The weather had been extremely bad and the battalion was reduced by sickness to a strength of just three companies, which were used to garrison Kroonstad and Lindley.

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.

From its base at the Citadel, its role was to equip the Reservists and Special Reservists of the Buffs and send them as reinforcement drafts to the Regular battalions serving overseas (the 1st on the Western Front, the 2nd, after its return from India, also served briefly on the Western Front and then from November 1915 spent the rest of the war at Salonika).

In January 1917 it was given responsibility for training 'A4 Boys' (18-year-olds who were fit for service but too young to be sent overseas), which took the battalion to a strength of nearly 3000 with four additional companies.

Postwar it was converted into a service battalion on 8 February 1919, and it was finally absorbed into the 11th (Lambeth) Bn of the Queen's on 17 April 1919.

[13][15][57] As early as 1778 the Kent Militia regiments are reported to have worn red coats with grey facings,[16][17] but a 1780 source suggests this was light blue.

Another ballot for precedence took place at the start of the Napoleonic War, when Kent was 57th.This order continued until 1833.

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