ABSTRACT
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the nature of the 'amateur military tradition' in Britain took on new forms. Ultimately, the popular response to the South African War also demonstrated the role of the auxiliaries in the growth of militarism in Victorian Britain. Despite growing Anglo-French tensions in 1840, and an invasion panic in Britain in 1846-7 resulting from fears of French naval expansion, attempts at revival repeatedly foundered until another invasion panic in 1851-2 following Louis Napoleon's coup in Paris. The yeomanry's annual training was suspended on nine occasions between 1849 and 1881, and it was only in 1888 that it became liable to serve anywhere in Great Britain. Few of the men who served in the militia, yeomanry and volunteers would have come into contact with the British army in any other way. It was argued that Fitzroy had 'no position or qualification in the County which it is intended should be represented in Militia regiments'.
