ABSTRACT
After December 1919, several local governments sprang up in the 'Ajlun district of northern Transjordan, while, tribal rule continued in Kerak in the south. It was these conditions following the dissolution of the Arab kingdom in Damascus which led, in part, the British High Commissioner in Jerusalem to attempt in August–September 1920 the establishment of several local administrations in Transjordan. A battalion of Reserve Gendarmes to aid the stationary gendarmes and police and about 150 strong was one of the security forces in the area. This force was later disbanded and replaced with a new Reserve Mobile Force, which became the nucleus force of the new Arab Legion. When the mandate status of Transjordan was abolished in March 1946, and an independent kingdom proclaimed, the Legion entered an entirely new phase: this was the transition from a security force with limited military operational functions to a regular army, a fully-fledged military institution.
