Service in the local militia was an important stage in many a youngman's life in past days. Each parish provided an agreed number of men, who had to train, and serve if called.
Those slightly higher up the social scale might enrol as volunteer members of the Suffolk Regiment. They had their own battalions and it was similar to being in the Territorial Army now. In fact the Volunteer battalions were transformed into the Territorial Force (later the TA) when it was established in 1908.
The Loyal Suffolk Hussars were the most affluent of all the volunteers, being men who could provide themselves with a horse. They fought as infantry in World War I, however, as part of the Suffolk Regiment, before reverting to an earlier name: The Suffolk Yeomanry.
Women did not have the opportunity to become soldiers until World War II, when there were women's branches to all three of the armed forces.
|
