From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1572 and their reorganisation in 1662 and 1777, the Militia regiments of Staffordshire served during times of international tension and all of Britain's major wars.
They provided internal security and home defence but in the Crimean War were stationed in the Mediterranean relieving regular troops from routine garrison duties.
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.
Edward III called out the Staffordshire levies in 1333, when they served at the Siege of Berwick and the Battle of Halidon Hill.
The government progressively stepped up the organisation and training: in 1580 the Earls of Warwick and Leicester and Sir Christopher Hatton were assigned a group of shires (including Staffordshire) to oversee and reinforce the work of the county commissioners for horses.
When the counties levied troops for overseas expeditions they usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than the Trained Bandsmen.
In 1638 the King's Sergeant major general of infantry, Sir Jacob Astley, and his officers reviewed the TBs in several counties, when the Staffordshire contingent comprised 400 foot (with 248 muskets and 152 'corslets' or pikemen with armour), together with 73 cuirassiers and 30 light horse.
[29] Control of the trained bands was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War.
[28][31][32] During the Royalist uprising of 1648 (the Second English Civil War) the Staffordshire Militia (two troops of Horse and a regiment of Foot) provided the garrison of Leek.
The first name on the list of commissioners for Staffordshire and the City of Lichfield was Sir William Brereton, who had commanded the Parliamentarian forces in the area during the First Civil War, but he declined to sit as one of the King's judges a few weeks later and retired from public life.
[28][33][34][35] Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country.
[34][36] During the Scottish invasion in the Third English Civil War in 1651, the Cheshire and Staffordshire Militia (Horse and Foot) joined Major-Generals Thomas Harrison and John Lambert's cavalry in trying to halt the invaders.
[38][39][40][41] The Staffordshire Militia were called out following the death of Cromwell in 1659 to help deal with Booth's Uprising in neighbouring Cheshire.
[13][53][55][56][57][58][59] From 1784 to 1792 the militia 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.
[61] The French Revolutionary Wars saw a new phase for the English militia: they 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.
[52][62] The Staffordshire Militia was embodied in 1793 and spent 1794–5 quartered in Weymouth, Dorset, where it came to the notice of King George III who holidayed there.
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.
The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war.
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.
[76][93][94] After the disasters of Black Week at the start of the Second Boer War in December 1899, most of the regular army was sent to South Africa, followed by many militia reservists as reinforcements.
Militia units were embodied to replace them for home defence and a number volunteered for active service or to garrison overseas stations.
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.
Until June 1917 their training and defence role was the same as the 3rd Battalions'; however at that point they were sent to Canterbury in Kent to join 67th (2nd Home Counties) Division of the Territorial Force (TF).
Reinforced with raw 19-year-olds, the division was moved to the quieter Flanders front, where the Germans chose to launch the second phase of their offensive (the Battle of the Lys).
4th South Staffs held a salient at Ploegsteert ('Plugstreet') Wood and was virtually destroyed, losing its commanding officer captured.
[102][103][110][111][112][113][114] 25th Division was now sent to the 'quiet' Chemin des Dames ridge sector of the French front to recover and to absorb young recruits.
The attack opened with the heaviest bombardment so far, which overwhelmed the front line troops; soon 25th Division in reserve remained as the only intact formation.
By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the only officer remaining listed for any of the four battalions was the Honorary Colonel of the 3rd South Staffs.
From 1778 the counties were given an order of precedence determined by ballot each year; for Staffordshire the positions drawn were:[58][125][126] However, when the militia were re-embodied in 1793, the order of precedence balloted for that year (when Staffordshire was 27th) remained in force throughout the French Revolutionary War: this covered all the regiments formed in the county.
This permanent list was revised in 1855:[58][125][126][81][83] In line with most other militia regiments the Staffordshires paid little attention to the additional number.