[1] The volunteer movement gained publicity from discourse in the press advocating civilian participation in home defence, with notable proponents being Arthur Conan Doyle and H. G. Wells.

Concerned that such a body would undermine recruitment into the regular army and hinder more than help home defence, the War Office banned the movement.

[3][4] In November, the association was officially recognised as the administrative body of the VTC and formally subjected to conditions which prevented interference with recruitment into the regular army, barred members from holding military rank or wearing uniforms other than an armband and denied any state funding.

[5] Ex-military personnel of the National Reserve played a leading role in the growth of the VTC, providing many of its recruits and lending the nascent organisation an element of martial respectability.

It was supported by General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, commander of the Central Force First Army, who, in a letter to The Times, wrote of "the most valuable aid the VTC are giving me".

The VTC officially remained unrecognised and outside of the nation's home defence scheme, thus depriving members of legal protection in the performance of their duties.

There was some doubt that the armband would be recognised by the enemy as uniform, leaving members vulnerable to execution as francs-tireurs, and when it was suggested that the VTC might guard prisoners of war, it was pointed out that, technically, a volunteer could be hanged for murder if he shot an escapee.

Volunteers undertook a wide range of other tasks including; guarding vulnerable points, munitions handling, digging anti-invasion defence lines, assisting with harvesting, fire fighting and transport for wounded soldiers.

[12] In 1918, when there was an acute shortage of manpower because of the German spring offensive, c.7,000 Volunteers undertook three-month coast defence duties in East Anglia.

Some 120 members of the 1st (Dublin) Battalion, Associated Volunteer Training Corps were returning from field exercises at Ticknock, when they heard the news of the uprising.