ABSTRACT
In February 1919, the Director-General of the Territorial Force, the Earl of Scarbrough, submitted proposals to the Army Council for the reconstitution of the Territorial Force. The Territorial Force had got off to a shaky start, and not the least of its handicaps was the mistrust between the War Office and the Territorial Associations that poisoned relations for many years. The consequent — and perhaps inevitable — delays in producing a set of proposals allowed to escape that psychological moment when an appeal to Territorial spirit would have been most productive. A primary role for the Territorials as home defence troops seemed to be ruled out by post-war conditions. The defeat of the German Army and, more significantly, the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, laid to rest the invasion scares that had swept Britain before the war.
