Poplar and Stepney Rifles
military unit
The 17th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles), was a unit of Britain's Territorial Force formed in 1908 from Volunteer corps dating back to 1859. It saw considerable service on the Western Front, at Salonika and in Palestine during the First World War. It served as a motorised infantry regiment during the Second World War before conversion to an artillery unit in 1947 and subsequent amalgamation in 1967.
Rifle Volunteers 1859-1908
15th Middlesex (The Customs and Docks) Rifle Volunteer Corps
An invasion scare in 1859 led to the creation of the Volunteer Force and huge enthusiasm for joining local Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs). The 26th (Customs & Excise) Middlesex RVC of four companies raised on 9 February 1860 was recruited from customs officers in the London docks. Under the command of Major (Lieutenant-Colonel from 1861) Ralph William Grey, former MP and Commissioner of Customs, its early officers included the Principal of Police at the West India Docks, the Inspector-General of Customs, and the Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs. The unit joined the 5th Administrative Battalion of Middlesex RVCs when that was formed in August 1860. The 5th AB also included the 42nd (St Katharine Docks) Middlesex RVC formed on 19 June 1860. The 5th AB and 26th RVC shared a headquarters (HQ) at the Custom House, City of London. The 26th RVC amalgamated with the 9th Tower Hamlets RVC at London Dock House (see below) in 1864, becoming the 26th (The Customs and the Docks) Middlesex RVC, and absorbed the 42nd Middlesex RVC in 1866, doing away with the need for the admin battalion.
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