From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1558 until their final service as coastal artillery, the Militia regiments of the island served in home defence in all of Britain's major wars until 1909.

The English militia was descended from the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd, the military force raised from the freemen of the shires under command of their Sheriff.

[8] When the South Coast of England was raided by a French and Castilian force in 1377 the island's levies were still organised into nine companies of 100 men each, reinforced from Hampshire and London.

The French landed and burned Yarmouth and Newtown, and the islanders took refuge at Carisbrooke, which was defended by the constable, Sir Hugh Tyrell.

However, the Governor, Sir George Carey, ordered special musters of the Isle of Wight companies in spring and summer to ensure that sick and dead men were replaced, and that training was kept up.

The 1572 defence plan for Hampshire was updated: while the coastal districts were made responsible for guarding the coastline, inland villages in the west and north-west of the county were to send 2339 reinforcements across to the Isle of Wight, recognised as the most likely place for an invasion.

[1][11][18][19] With invasion threatened in 1588, Sir John Norreys was appointed in April to oversee the defences of the maritime counties and the lords-lieutenant were instructed to carry out his orders in relation to rallying-points for the coast defenders if they were driven inland by invaders.

The Armada's orders were not to land in Southern England, but to sail to the Spanish Netherlands and pick up an army under the Duke of Parma to invade up the Thames Estuary.

The Royal Navy continued its attacks, and during this Battle of the Isle of Wight Carey offered to send some of his musketeers from the island to reinforce the English fleet.

[1] When the Hampshire TBs were mobilised to protect Portsmouth on 8 August Paulet reported that the men were slow to arrive, were poorly equipped and showed little enthusiasm.

When the Dutch raided the Medway in 1667, the Berkshire and Wiltshire Militia were each ordered to send three companies and a troop of horse to reinforce the IoWM.

[7][38][39] Admiral Sir Robert Holmes, MP for Newport, was Governor of the Isle of Wight and commander of an independent militia company 1669–87.

[40] The Isle of Wight Militia do not appear to have been involved after the landing in the West Country of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685 and they took no part in the Sedgemoor Campaign.

King James II distrusted the militia under its county landed gentry, and after Sedgemoor he neglected it in favour of a greatly increased regular army.

However, when William of Orange landed in the West Country in 1688 he was virtually unopposed by the regulars or the militia, and was able to depose James II in the Glorious Revolution.

An adjutant and drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits.

Although mainland Hampshire raised its militia quickly, and the two regiments served in home defence until the end of the Seven Years' War, this was not the case for the Isle of Wight.

The company was ordered on 15 July 1778 to garrison Ryde and Brading, while the North Hampshire Militia manned Carisbrooke Castle, Newport and Cowes.

The company took over a consignment of old muskets left at Brighstone by the East Kent Militia when they finished a previous deployment to the island, and these were sent for safekeeping in Newport Church belfry.

[6][58][62] During the summer of 1805, when Napoleon was massing his 'Army of England' at Boulogne for a projected invasion, the 71 men of the IoWM under Capt Delgarno were in Grange Chine Barracks as part of Maj-Gen Sir John Whitelocke's force.

Percy Scott, a half-pay lieutenant in the 98th Foot who had served in the Peninsular War and transferred to the IoWM in 1828, was appointed captain-commandant of the disembodied unit on 20 July 1832.

Under the act, Militia units could be embodied by royal proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances:[65][66][67] The Isle of Wight Light Infantry was revived in October 1852 as a company of 80 men, still commanded by Capt Percy Scott, and the enrolled volunteers undertook training in two detachments in November and December.

[65][69][76] In 1881 the Fenian troubles led to a permanent guard of staff sergeants being placed on the stores at Carisbrooke Castle, and later the arms and ammunition were sent to secure armouries at Parkhurst and Sandown.

The number of men transferring to the Regular RA each year was so large that the Hampshire and Isle of Wight units could not maintain their strength.

Although Lt-Col Maitland Moore-Lane of the Hampshire Artillery took command of the amalgamated brigade, its HQ was at Sandown and it continued with the Isle of Wight unit's precedence number.

[74][73][75][82] Captain (Honorary Major) Charles Westrow Hulse of the Duke of Connaught's was killed at Braklaagte on 4 June 1901 while commanding 106th (Staffordshire) Company of the 4th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry.

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.

[84][85] Under the sweeping Haldane Reforms of 1908, the Militia was replaced by the Special Reserve, a semi-professional force whose role was to provide reinforcement drafts for Regular units serving overseas in wartime.

[1][58] The uniform of the militia artillery conformed to that of the Regular RA, being blue with red facings, except that silver lace was worn in place of gold.

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.