A Loyal Corps.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 3048, 10 August 1893, Page 3

A Loyal Corps.

From a report in the "London Times" of the celebration of the Queen's Birthday by the Queen's Westminster Volunteers, we take the following :—Early in the year Colonel Bingham, commanding the Sheffield Engineer Volunteers, thought that it would be advisable to ascertain how many of the old members of that corps could be relied on to rejoin in the event of a great national emergency. The first step was, of course, to get in touch with these men, and a day was appointed for the parading of thpse ex-Volunteers who sympathised with the idea, and the attendance was most successful. Colonel Howard Vincent, who is member for Sheffield, immediately appreciated the inipoitance of Colonel Bingham's action and resolved to make a similar experiment with his own corps. Consequently letters were sent out to those of the ex-members of the Queen's Westminsters whoso aldresses weje known, inviting them to pcrade-at the Endowed Schools Parade Ground, Palace Street, -\V-estminster, on Saturday afternoon, At the appointed hour nearly 600 ex-members of the corps were assembled on the parade ground. Soon thoy \vt>re formed into companies and their names and numbers taken. It was then found that the numbers amounted to 581, and several men are believed to have dropped in afterwards They soon tiled into their places and formed fours, ifcc, as if they had left the corps only the clay previously. An examination of the " veterans" whije going through the above performances showed that they were men of a superior social status. It looked quaint tv see them armed w^ith walkirjg sticks and umbrellas instead of rifles, The estimate which we formed was that rather over 33 per cent, were tit to take part in a ahort campaign. Some were quite old men, while many were of middle age, and there was a large average of waist measurement. In the ranks of his old company was Mr Justice Den^an^ and Colonels Biishhy. and Scrivener, oW cftmr^anclarit'y of the corps, fell 4n with j the com.pa.nies to. whigh they originally belonged, After a time the Duke of Westminster, Lord Lieutenant of London and honorary colonel of the corps, accompanied by Lord Methuen, arrived^ Colonel G-ascoigne, of the bri^ad^, wa^ a'^o on the ground. They were ree.eiY.ed, by a guarc| of honoy and 10.0 men, all 6ft, m& over. Lord Me^ijen anil the I)uke then inspected each eempany, the duke constantly stopping to shake hands with old comrades. The veterans then matched past in fours with gye^fc jitfecisiop. +^ Ie Duchess of Westminster bei^g amongst those at the saluting point. The rear of the veterans was biought up by an ex-Volunteer in a B^th chair,