This thesis is an examination of the Conscription movement in Britain between 1899-1914. / The introduction briefly examines British efforts at home defence before 1899 and the existing historiography on the Edwardian Conscription movement. / Chapter One studies the impact of that conflict's manpower problems. In particular, it looks at the ad hoc wartime efforts to expand the Army and the subsequent rise of the National Service League. / Chapter Two studies the non-military goals of the Conscription movement. It considers the attraction of conscription as the foundation of both greater physical efficiency and social reform, especially before 1906. / The final chapter studies the use of sensationalist invasion scares and calls for home defence to further the cause of the Conscription movement. Particular attention is given to the invasion scare of 1908-09 and the rise of the Territorial Force after 1906.

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This is a study in supreme command, its nature and the course of its development within the fabric of the English Constitution during the decade or so prior to the shattering of the peace of the old world and the coming of the War in Europe. It is a study concerned with an examination of the formulation and development of defence policy only in so far as these factors helped determine the course and outcome of the struggle, which occurred during these years, to establish an effective form of supreme command. [...]

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In 1917, a mere thirty years before India gained independence from Britain, Indians were alIowed into the officer corps of the colonial Indian Army, thus initiating its " Indianization ". Yet, as an issue of British military policy, Indianization had been debated for a hundred years before 1917. This thesis delineates the contours of that debate, the myriad schemes for Indianization that it engendered, the reasons for the faHure of each of these, as weIl as the reasons why the bar on Indians in the Indian Army's officer corps was finally broken. In analysing the debate, attention will be paid to factors that influenced and channelled the discussions. The most important of these were: Anglo-Indian strategies of Imperial politics, such as the need to seek out and collaborate with certain sections of Indian society as a means of holding India to the Empire; British ideological and intellectual formulations, such as the "Gentleman-Ideal" and the Martial Races theory; and Indian political developments, such as the emergence of Indian public opinion and nationalism .

This thesis examines how Britain's government and military establishment conceptualised the role of the voluntary Territorial Army (TA) between the World Wars, and explores the relationship with British defence policy during the period. It also evaluates whether or not the TA was capable of carrying out its ascribed role, through a balanced assessment of its organisation, training and military efficiency. It posits that the TA was integral to British defence planning and played a key part in the Army's mobilisation plans, although the priority given to its role shifted throughout the period in accordance with the direction of Britain's strategic focus. Additionally, this thesis will emphasise that the Territorial Army had not one purpose but several. Alongside its central function as the framework for a conscript National Army it held key responsibilities for both home and imperial defence. This thesis examines the TA's role and organisation in a thematic and broadly chronological manner. Part I deals with the TA's expeditionary role and its function as the framework for all future military expansion, as well as its role as a voluntary imperial reserve for any medium scale wars conducted without resorting to conscription. Part II focuses on the Territorial Army's home defence responsibilities, in particular its domestic role in aiding the civil power and its contribution to Britain's increasingly important air defence capabilities.

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