3rd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers
military unit
The Metropolitan Artillery Volunteers (popularly known as 'Truro's Tigers') was a part-time unit of the British Volunteer Force formed in the London area in 1861. It was designated the 3rd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers and went on to become the 5th London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in the Territorial Force. It provided two active service units in the First World War, which saw action on the Western Front. Just before the Second World War it again spun off a duplicate regiment, each taking the '5th London' subtitle. Both regiments saw widely varied service during the war. The regiment later provided an airborne artillery unit in the Territorial Army of the 1950s.
Volunteer Force
The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Rifle, Artillery and Engineer Volunteer Corps composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need. One such unit was the Metropolitan Artillery Volunteers raised in Islington, North London, on 12 September 1861 by Charles Wilde, 2nd Lord Truro and known as 'Truro's Tigers'. It was numbered as the 3rd Middlesex Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVC), and competition to join was so great that it was able to set a minimum height standard of 5 foot 11 inches (1.8 m). The cost of maintaining guns and harness put pressure on the AVCs and a number of units began to decline after the first enthusiasm.
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