During an invasion scare in 1859, large numbers of part-time Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs) were formed throughout Great Britain, eager to supplement the Regular British Army in case of need.

While the sub-districts were referred to as 'brigades', they were purely administrative organisations and the Volunteers were excluded from the 'mobilisation' part of the Cardwell system, though they carried out joint manoeuvres.

[5][6][8][11] The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 proposed a more comprehensive Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war.

He had formerly served in the 1st Durham Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) and had won the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) with the 5th Imperial Yeomanry during the Boer War.

Orders to proceed overseas to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) arrived in early April, and the transport and equipment of the battalion was completed.

At one point Lt-Col Vaux ordered his men out of the trench and to stand up to avoid the low-hanging gas cloud, which they did, singing the hymn Abide with Me.

In this role it provided working parties to assist the divisional Royal Engineers (RE) in tasks ranging from trench digging and wiring, to road making, while remaining fighting soldiers.

There was almost constant low-level fighting until the division was relieved at the beginning of April 1916 and moved to the Wytschaete sector, 1/7th DLI marching from Canada Huts to La Clytte.

The 1/7th DLI arrived in the area in mid-August and began training to construct a new cruciform pattern of strongpoint, then was engaged in building roads and tramways before the rest of the division took up its positions.

The division made further piecemeal advances during the Battle of Morval (25–28 September); during this whole time the battalion was constantly at work, suffering heavy casualties.

This led to slow, costly advances while the 1/7th DLI kept the road repaired for supplies, then worked on strongpoints, wiring and constructing shelters, until they were relieved on 26 April.

Under pressure on its flanks, 50th Division began withdrawing to this line on 23 March, while the 1/7th DLI moved back behind the Somme Canal ahead of it, shooting down a German aircraft that was machine-gunning the road.

The Germans attacked Rosières itself the following day aided by morning mist, but were held up, orders to the 1/7th DLI to retire were countermanded and it advanced against little or no opposition to re-occupy the Vauvillers Ridge.

Fresh withdrawals on both flanks suddenly made this position critical, but the 1/7th DLI held on until 15.30, when it was moved to Caix Ridge, and then relieved by French troops at 18.00.

[71][72] The very weak 50th Division was sent to a 'quiet sector' along the Chemin des Dames on the French front to rest and recuperate, where it absorbed a draft of raw replacement troops.

The Germans began to retreat from their positions on 18 October, and the pursuit through Lens and Douai was slowed by road and bridge demolitions that the pioneers had to repair, sometimes under shell or machine-gun fire.

The brigade was intended to go to Murmansk in North Russia, but this never happened and most of the men were drafted as reinforcements to the Western Front in March 1918 after the German Spring Offensive.

It quickly reached a strength of 680 men and was stationed at Whitburn, South Tyneside, to guard the docks and the oil stores on the River Tyne.

New permanent instructors were appointed from the RE and a group of officers and NCOs was temporarily attached to 31st (City of London Rifles) AA Bn, which had already undergone conversion.

[5][108][109][115][118][119][120] During the early part of the Battle of Britain, German day and night air raids and mine laying began along the East Coast of England, intensifying through June 1940.

[122][123] The regiment supplied a cadre of experienced officers and men to 235th S/L Training Rgt at Ayr where it provided the basis for a new 558 S/L Bty formed on 13 February 1941.

The cluster system was an attempt to improve the chances of picking up enemy bombers and keeping them illuminated for engagement by AA guns or night fighters.

112th (DLI) LAA Regiment caught up on 7 October, when it arrived to reinforce 100 AA Bde and defended the bridge at Grave, one of those captured in Market Garden.

Seven troops of 119th and 112th LAA Rgts were ordered to provide harassing fire in support of an attack by 227th Bde on 16 November, but the Germans had pulled out of Meijel.

[152][153] The divisional historian describes the 'mad crescendo' of the Pepperpot, with the darkness criss-crossed by 'the vivid red of anti-aircraft and anti-tank and machine-gun tracer; the rushing, rending crash of the Mattresses'.

[154] Meanwhile, the rest of the regiment was with 100 AA Bde providing close protection for XII Corps Royal Engineers' ferrying and bridging operations against enemy aircraft and swimmers.

After dark on D-Day, Junkers Ju 88 bombers appeared and began making medium- and low-level dive-bombing attacks on the bridging operations, but 366 LAA Bty on the east bank and 113th (DLI) LAA Rgt on the West Bank dealt with these by firing 'radial zone' Bofors barrages using radar data; three enemy aircraft were shot down and others took evasive action.

There was some scattered daylight raiding by Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bombers on 28 March, but thereafter the Rhine crossings remained quiet as the Luftwaffe fell back in the face of 21st Army Group's rapid advance.

[156][157] During the final weeks of the war, 112th (DLI) LAA Rgt was 'grounded', confined to acting as a transport pool, guarding PoWs, and clearing the area around the Rhine battlefields of abandoned equipment and ammunition.

[178][179] There is a board inscribed with the WWI Roll of Honour of the 7th DLI and a brass memorial plate to senior NCOs of the battalion at the Army Reserve Centre at Dykelands Road, Sunderland.