VOLUNTEER, MILITARY. A member of a military organization, serving of his own free will. He may belong to a trained reserve for national defense, as in England or the United States, or to an auxiliary force of the regular or standing army. The modern volunteer movement had its origin in England, the oldest organiza tion of which there is any reliable knowledge being the Honorable Artillery Company of Lou don. The volunteer movement proper may be said to have had its inception in the call for 40.000 Protestants of Ireland to repel the threat ened invasion of that country by the French and Spaniards in 1779. The fear of an invasion of England by Napoleon brought about the volunteer legislation of 1S05, resulting in the creation of a volunteer establishment closely approaching 450,000, of whom fully one-fifth were Irish. The militia were organized locally and in each county were under the command of a lord lieutenant (q.v.). With the advent of peace be gan the neglect of the system, an error which was heartily repented of during the period, of the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny. the French hos tility of 1857, and the difficulty with the United States over the San Juan boundary. The com paratively small regular army was used exclu sively tor the re'enforeement of foreign and colonial garrisons, so that a volunteer force was an imperative necessity. The volunteer regiments of this period were made up of tradesmen, clerks, and farmers, officered by locally prominent pro fessional non, or employers of labor, each officer and man paying the entire expense of his service —uniform, equipment, drill hall, instruction, etc. Wealth wag almost a necessity on the part of the officer, owing to the custom of enlisting em ployees to complete the strength of the command, the employer paying all the expenses. Prohibi tive almost as such were. the prefer ence of a free people for a volunteer army rather than a huge regular army led to the )issembling, under arms of 100.000 men. The moment the war stimulus ceased. however, the organization again showed signs of decay. so much so that the Government. in order to keep alive the system, finally placed it on a firm national basis by eg tiddishing it as fl reeognized form of national defense, defraying its expenses, and bringing it in fictively close is mit with the regular army.
In 1572 was commenced the system of joint ma nteuvres, volunteer regiments taking an equal share of the work and training with the regulars. English volunteers are enlisted under the Volun teer Act (1863) , and the Volunteer (military ser vice) Act of 1896. They are organized for ser vice at home, but may offer themselves either in dividually or en masse for service in the regular army. Under the Volunteer Act of 1900 new regulations were formulated as follows: LI) A member of a volunteer corps may contract to come out for actual military service at specified places in Great Britain whenever summoned by order of the Secretary of State for War, and to serve for a period not exceeding one month in the absence of a royal proclamation, calling out the volunteers generally. (2) A member of a volun teer corps or regiment may contract to proeeed upon active service to any part of the world in a unit or company formed of volunteers, on spe cial conditions as defined by the terms of this contract.
The Boet War of 1899-1902, in which large bodies of volunteers and yeomanry did valuable service, demonstrated the value of volunteers to the British a fact which has resulted in a similar organization and equipment to the recm lam and militia battalions of the regimental dis tricts to which they belong.
The volunteer system of the United States was originally lormed along the same lines as in Eng land. The Ancient and honorable Artillery Com pany of Boston. like its British prototype, enjoys the distinction of seniority as a volunteer organization. In 1792 Congress rec ognized the existence of volunteer organizations not included in the regular State militia, and has from time to time, as occasion arose, or neces sity demanded, raised volunteers for temporary purposes, but in such cases they have invariably been Federal rather than State forces, the com missioned )ffileers being appointed by the Presi dent. Volunteer officers while in service rank with regular officers and are entitled to the same honors and privileges as regular officers of the saute grade. Their uniform is essentially the same as that of the regular establishment except that the letters are used instead of the U.S. on the collar.