Reference
X550/4
Title
The Third Battalion - The Bedfordshire Militia
Admin/biog history
1757 Pitt's Militia Act (30 Geo II c 25) Bedfordshire required to raise 400 men in one battalion
1760 Beds. Militia at authorised strength. Arms issued & regiment embodied (March) for service at home until end of Seven Years' War (1761)
1778 - 1783 Embodied for service at home during American War of Independence
1793 - 1801 War with Revolutionary France. First Embodiment served in Ireland 1798 - 1799
1803 - 1815 War with Revolutionary France. Second Embodiment served in Ireland 1813 - 1814
1815 - 1852 Virtually defunct, in common with all Militia units
1852 Reformed with new establishment - 570 in one battalion. Redesignated "Bedfordshire Light Infantry Militia"
1854 - 1856 Embodied for service at home during Crimean War
1857 - 1861 Embodied for service at home during Indian Mutiny and subsequent emergency
1881 Reform of the Militia. Bedfordshire Light Infantry Militia incorporated into the Bedfordshire Regiment as 3rd Battalion The Bedfordshire Regiment (Bedfordshire Militia)
1900 Embodied for service at home during South African War
1908 Transferred to Special Reserve as 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion The Bedfordshire Regiment
1914 - 1919 Embodied for service during the Great War. Served as draft finding & garrison unit in Home Forces throughout the War
1919 - 1953 Battalion in "suspended animation"
1953 Disbanded
N.B. See "Regimental Records of the Bedfordshire Militia 1759 - 1884" by Sir J.M. Burgoyne
Level of description
sub-fonds