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Territorial Army

Absolutely. As a former member of both Cambridge and Oxford officer training corps, I know how important a part it played in my training. Although the OTC plays a very important role, it would be wrong to suggest that many of these officers, being group B officers, can be deployed on operations. One area where lessons definitely have been learned from those early years is improved relations with employers. In recent times, the organisation, Supporting Britain's Reserves and Employers—otherwise known as SaBRE—has done much to engage employers and promote the benefits of employees belonging to the reserves and acquiring transferable skills such as leadership, self-confidence and initiative. Throughout the 100-year history of the modern Territorial Army, whenever they have been asked to do so, the men and women of the TA have stepped up to the mark. In August 1914, at the start of the great war, the British, having been distracted by the Irish Home Rule crisis, had the least time to react of any of the participants in that war. The assumption that no Territorial unit would proceed overseas until after six months' training was scrapped almost instantly. Despite the prejudices and distrust of the ““amateur”” soldiers by some, not least Kitchener himself, it was Territorials who were deployed to ““fill the gap”” on the western front, with the first unit to be sent to France, the 1/14th London Scottish, being dispatched on 16 September 1914. In numerical terms, the eventual contribution of the Territorial Force to the war effort was considerable, with 318 battalions and 23 infantry divisions serving overseas, and when voluntary enlistment ended in December 1915, some 725,842 men had enlisted in the Territorial Force since August 1914. During that war, 71 Victoria crosses were won by members of the Territorial Force, the first by Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Woolley on the night of 20 April 1915 on Hill 60 at Ypres. The willingness of Territorials to be mobilised at times of national emergency has been a feature throughout our history, and the response of the Territorials to the outbreak of the second world war was similar to that seen for the first, when, as war clouds loomed over Europe in the early months of 1939, the Government authorised the ““duplication”” of all Territorial Army units, thereby doubling the size of the TA. The TA today is very different even from the one I joined in 1990 at the end of the cold war years. Once again, mobilisation is the norm, with members of the TA being involved in all of the major recent conflicts—Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, the equivalent of 21 battalions have been mobilised to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in recent years. It is equally fair to say that the chaos that accompanied earlier mobilisations has been largely removed with the establishment of the reserves training and mobilisation centre—RTMC—at Nottingham, a dedicated facility designed for an annual throughput of some 3,600 soldiers, with some 200 at any time. There remains a concern, however, that the TA is being overused, and while keen to serve, many members—some now being mobilised for their second or third tour of duty—are hesitating at the prospect of being asked to sacrifice their primary career for their second. The TA is not a militia, but a volunteer force, but increasingly, month by month, it is being used as a militia and, ultimately, I fear that this will prove to be a major mistake. Basil Liddell Hart once described the TA as:"““One of Britain's hardiest plants””," but it would be rash to assume that the plant is as hardy as it once was. A Territorial ““volunteers”” every time he or she reports for duty and seeks challenge, backed by organisation, resources and commitment. Starve the TA of these and the plant will wither. The TA has a proud history of service to our country, and today of all days it is right that this House should celebrate its 100th anniversary, and the service of those brave ““volunteers””. They have given much over 100 years of service, and all they ask in return is that, for once, we learn the lessons of the past.