Uganda Volunteer Reserve
The members of the UVR were required to attend rifle practice annually and were unpaid, except for a bonus for meeting a minimum marksmanship standard.
The UVR was deployed to protect Kampala from looting by British-raised levy troops and some members were posted to the southern frontier, but the unit saw little action and most men were stood down in March 1915.
Members were responsible for the cost of repairs to their firearm and were liable to a fine of 300 East African rupees if the rifle was lost, sold or rendered unusable.
[8] By June 1914 the Uganda Volunteer Reserve of the two corps, with headquarters staff at Entebbe, numbered 129 members (of whom 90 were rated as efficient).
[8][7] The unit occasionally sent teams to compete in the National Rifle Association's annual competition at Bisley, England.
On 4 December 1913 a sepoy of the 4th King's African Rifles (KAR) Indian contingent was killed by a stray bullet while acting as a score marker on the Entebbe unit's range.
Buglers of the military or police would be dispatched to rifle corps headquarters; upon hearing the call members of the unit were to form up at the flag staff outside their local collectorate.
[10][8][11] The government amended the Ordinance on 11 August to allow greater flexibility in its deployment of the UVR; the requirement for two days' notice prior to call-up for service was removed and secretaries were no longer permitted to except members from duty or appoint officers, these roles falling to the governor.
From 22 August authorisation was granted to pay members of the UVR who were called up, including those receiving training, though no uniform was implemented.
[14] The European UVR members were of British, French, Dutch, Boer, Danish, Scandinavian, Greek and Armenian origin.
3 Company consisted largely of former Punjabi soldiers of the British Indian Army, mainly Sikhs with a number of Hindus and Muslims.
The UVR was issued uniforms for the first time, consisting of khaki tunics, trousers and puttees manufactured by the inmates at the Central Gaol and belts, pouches, bandoliers and haversacks.
[15] In the early stage of the war the UVR helped to detain German subjects residing in the protectorate and transfer them to Nairobi for internment.
[9] The levying of Bugandans had previously resulted in looting of the town so the UVR companies were posted to the Indian bazaar and native market to prevent trouble.
[16] The German authorities in Rwanda may have initially had intentions to invade Southern Uganda but withdrew in late August, possibly as a result of British patrols on the border.
German efforts in Southern Uganda shifted to large-scale raids on British posts and the mail communication route to the Belgian Congo.
[6][13] A similar meeting in Tooro, saw 3 European and 20 Indian volunteers agree to enrol, though no corps was formed as the colonial government considered the region safe from German attack.
[13] From October the Ugandan colonial government ordered that all new members be British subjects and required recruits to be approved by the unit's headquarters.
[16] In late 1914 the unit was augmented with the appointment of 12 technical staff of Indian origin, including an armourer, blacksmith, compositor and a motor engineer.
[20][21] There was also a proposal to deploy 50 of the Indian members as a separate unit and a special training course was started in Kampala, before the idea was dropped.
[19] By March 1915 the military situation had improved sufficiently that the majority of the UVR were stood down and placed on indefinite leave; all compulsory training was halted.
[19] At the end of 1916 the commandant proposed restructuring the UVR to better serve the requirements of the protectorate; but it was decided to leave the unit on it previous footing.
[22] One member of the UVR, Sergeant Charles Thomas Campbell Doran, served in the 18 February defence of Kachumbi Fort in Buddu and received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
[23][22] On 5 September 1916 the governor of Uganda, Sir Frederick Jackson, sent a letter of thanks to the commandant of the UVR for the unit's service during the war.
A former orderly sergeant in the UVR published a book, The Uganda Volunteers and the War, in 1917 that detailed some of the war-time activities of the unit.
[22] Three members of the unit were killed in service during the war: a quartermaster sergeant buried at Simba in July 1915, a captain at Entebbe in June 1916 and a mechanic on transport duties at Bloemfontein in South Africa in November 1917.
[4] By 1926 the UVR was holding rifle practice only monthly, though volunteers were entitled to claim an increased 200 rounds per year free of charge.
[26] In the same year a lack of enlistments caused concerns, with discussions held on replacing the unit with a new European Defence Force or Volunteer Reserve.
[25] The UVR was reformed in May 1940, during the Second World War, and received arms and ammunition from the Uganda Rifle Association, but its later history is not known.
