[1][2] After the restoration of Charles II, the Scottish Parliament passed an Act in 1661, ratified in 1663, creating a militia of 20,000 infantry and 2000 horse, available for Crown service anywhere in Scotland, England or Ireland.

However, there were residual fears of Jacobitism in Scotland, so rather than embody the moribund militia, full-time regiments of 'Fencibles' were raised for the duration of the war by means of normal recruitment.

[12] The French Revolutionary Wars saw the militia embodied for long periods and they became regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in Great Britain), which the Regular Army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits.

They served in coast defences, manning garrisons, guarding prisoners of war, and carried out internal security duty.

The Forfar and Kincardine regiment had already been embodied at Montrose on 6 April 1803, and on 21 June its establishment strength was raised to 970 (reverting to 647 in 1805 after a new Act of Parliament encouraged militiamen in excess of the quota to volunteer for the Regular Army[16]).

[9][11][14] During the summer of 1805, when Napoleon was massing his 'Army of England' at Boulogne for a projected invasion, the Forfar and Kincardine Militia with 918 men in 10 companies under Lt-Col Robert W. Duff was quartered in Musselburgh, Fisherwick and Inveresk.

[11][14] In 1811 an 'Interchange Act' had been passed, allowing British militia units to volunteer for service in Ireland and vice versa.

Disembodiment of the militia was halted (and other regiments re-embodied) and units remained in service after the Battle of Waterloo while large numbers of Regular troops were retained on occupation duties in Continental Europe.

Their role was to man coastal defences and fortifications, relieving the Royal Artillery (RA) for active service.

The new quotas assigned were 649 gunners to be raised from Forfarshire and 127 from Kincardineshire, for a total of 868 all ranks, the headquarters remaining at Montrose.

[6][8][9][10][11][25] The outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854 and the despatch of an expeditionary force led to the militia being called out for home defence.

[29] The Forfar and Kincardine was one of a few artillery militia corps that were mobilised for home defence when an expeditionary force went to suppress the Indian Mutiny.

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

[8][9][10][11][23][43][44] By then recruiting was so good that with over 800 men enrolled in 8 batteries, and 32 permanent staff, the brigade was one of the largest militia artillery corps in the country.

[10][41][44][46] During the Second Boer War militia artillery units were embodied to replace regular troops sent to South Africa.

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.

They were amalgamated into the South-East Scotland Royal Field Reserve Artillery (originally the Berwickshire Militia) on 23 August 1908.

[6][11][14] The officers' shoulder belt plate of ca 1800 was a gilt oval engraved with the star of the Order of the Thistle with the title 'FORFARSHIRE' below.

The pipers' white metal badge consisted of a field gun within a crowned garter inscribed 'FORFAR AND KINCARDINE ARTILLERY', the whole surrounded by a wreath of thistles and worn on a black cloth backing.

The early pattern (ca 1854–74) officers' pouch has a while metal field gun on a blue backing within an embroidered oval inscribed 'FORFAR & KINCARDINE ARTILLERY' surrounded by a wreath of oak and laurel leaves.

Later a standard RA pouch was worn, with a scroll inscribed 'FORFAR & KINCARDINE ARTILLERY' beneath the royal arms and gun.

Similarly the officers' Home Service helmet bore the standard Scottish Division plate with the same lower scroll.

In 1803 a single militia precedence list was established by lot for counties in Great Britain, with Forfar coming 11th.

In 1833 King William IV himself drew the lots for a new list for individual militia regiments across the United Kingdom.