Queen's Edinburgh Light Infantry Militia
military unit
The Queen's Edinburgh Light Infantry Militia was an auxiliary regiment raised in and around the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. It was formed in 1798 and reformed in 1802, but had links with earlier Fencible and Volunteer units from the area. It served in home defence during the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War. Later it became a battalion of the Royal Scots and saw active service in South Africa during the Second Boer War. It served as a Special Reserve training unit in World War I, but after 1921 the militia had only a shadowy existence until its final abolition in 1953.
Scottish militia
The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in Scotland: all men aged from 16 to 60 were obliged to serve for a maximum of 40 days in any one year if required, and their arms and equipment were inspected at regular Wapenshaws. In time of war they would be called out by proclamation and by riders galloping through towns and villages bearing the 'Fiery Cross'. There is a record of Edinburgh Town Council calling out 200 men of the county militia to join the king's army on its march to Dumfries in 1588. The Edinburgh militia usually exercised on the Burgh Muir.
After the restoration of Charles II, the Scottish Parliament passed an Act in 1661, ratified in 1663, creating a militia of 20,000 infantry and 2,000 horse, available for Crown service anywhere in Scotland, England or Ireland.
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This entry incorporates text from “Queen's Edinburgh Light Infantry Militia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.