Uganda Volunteer Reserve

The Uganda Volunteer Reserve (UVR) has its origins in the Colonial Defence Committee (CDC), which was a British government body that promoted the establishment of self-defence forces in British colonies and protectorates. The CDC had supported the government of the Uganda Protectorate, in East Africa, to pass the Uganda Volunteer Reserve Ordinance (Ugandan Ordinance No. 5) in March 1903. Each Rifle Corps was permitted to pass its own bye-laws to manage its operations. Each corps had a president who was, ex-officio, the commissioner of the district in which the corps was headquartered and a secretary, who was elected by the members. The secretary was responsible for the property of the corps, all correspondence with the government and the maintenance of order and discipline. The UVR could be mobilised upon the order of the colonial governor, though the secretary of each corps could authorise a member to absent themselves upon such an occasion. Members were granted two days to respond to the call up and faced 75 rupee fines if they did not attend. Volunteers were unpaid but awarded a 15 rupee annual grant if they qualified as "efficient". Originally all that was required to qualify was to keep the rifle in good order and to fire 21 shots at an annual meeting; in 1904 this was amended to requiring a certain score to be achieved from , and . The score required (initially 45/105) was increased in 1905 (to 50/105). == Development of units ==

The first corps to be formed was the Entebbe Corps on 28 April 1903. It was the only corps in the unit for several years and was formally named the "Uganda Rifle Corps". There were discussions in 1906 about forming a second corps at Kampala, as some members of the Entebbe Corps lived there. Nothing progressed until December 1909 when fifteen Kampala residents sent a formal petition to the governor; the Kampala Rifle Corps of the UVR was formed on 4 January 1910. As many of its members were members of the Entebbe Corps the Kampala Corps requested that their subscriptions be refunded and that the older corps provide £20 towards the expenses of the new unit. The Entebbe Corps objected to the formation of the new unit on the basis that the Ordinance prohibited existing members from joining new units and that such persons should be excluded from the 15-man count. The government of Uganda agreed and formally cancelled the Kampala Corps by order on 18 March 1910. By May 1913 some 34 Kampala residents were members of the Entebbe Corps. On 23 June fourteen of these members, together with one non-member, sent another petition to the governor requesting that a Kampala Corps be formed. This was rejected on the same basis as the 1909 petition. A second petition was sent, signed by 29 persons not already members of the Entebbe Corps and the Kampala Unit was formally established on 25 June. Expansion of the Kampala membership was initially slow, due to the lack of a dedicated shooting range. The unit used the local police range, until that was damaged by heavy rain; a new range was built in May 1914 at the cost of £95. By June 1914 the Uganda Volunteer Reserve of the two corps, with headquarters staff at Entebbe, numbered 129 members (of whom 90 were rated as efficient). The unit was equipped with the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield rifle. The Uganda Volunteer Reserve was active in marksmanship competitions, holding three cups for its members (the Coles Cup established in 1905; the Governor's Cup, in 1909; and Allen Cup in 1913) and competing against teams from other East African territories. The unit occasionally sent teams to compete in the National Rifle Association's annual competition at Bisley, England. On 4 December 1913 a sepoy of the 4th King's African Rifles (KAR) Indian contingent was killed by a stray bullet while acting as a score marker on the Entebbe unit's range. An inquiry found that the range's protective mound was in need of reinforcement, that was carried out at the cost of £8, but no case for negligence was found. By 1913 a formal system was in place to call out the Uganda Volunteer Reserve. Buglers of the military or police would be dispatched to rifle corps headquarters; upon hearing the call members of the unit were to form up at the flag staff outside their local collectorate. == First World War==

Mobilisation The United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, following the invasion of Belgium. The Uganda KAR battalion was mobilised for service outside the territory, leaving the defence of Uganda in the hands of the UVR, the local police and the KAR Reserve of retired ex-soldiers. The government amended the Ordinance on 11 August to allow greater flexibility in its deployment of the UVR; the requirement for two days' notice prior to call-up for service was removed and secretaries were no longer permitted to except members from duty or appoint officers, these roles falling to the governor. The new Ordinance brought the UVR under military law (in times of war only) for the first time. The first government-appointed officers were installed on 20 August. These included the acting commissioner of the Uganda Protectorate Police as commandant and the assistant district commissioner of Entebbe as adjutant. From 22 August authorisation was granted to pay members of the UVR who were called up, including those receiving training, though no uniform was implemented. On 24 August the UVR was reformed as an infantry battalion of three companies. No. 1 Company consisted of the Entebbe Corps, No. 2 Company the Kampala Corps and No. 3 Company (also based at Kampala) was to accommodate members of Indian ethnicity who were joining the reserve in increasing numbers. The European UVR members were of British, French, Dutch, Boer, Danish, Scandinavian, Greek and Armenian origin. Those with citizenship of neutral countries were placed into class 2b only. No. 3 Company consisted largely of former Punjabi soldiers of the British Indian Army, mainly Sikhs with a number of Hindus and Muslims. Some 3,000 of these levies were mobilised during the war, together with 15,000 held in reserve. They patrolled alongside the police on the southern frontier. Revolts were also incited by the Germans among the African residents of Southern Uganda. British forces on this front were supported by Belgian troops from September 1914. A "striking force" was established within the UVR at Kampala, with members reporting daily to headquarters to carry messages. There was also a proposal to deploy 50 of the Indian members as a separate unit and a special training course was started in Kampala, before the idea was dropped. On 5 September 1916 the governor of Uganda, Sir Frederick Jackson, sent a letter of thanks to the commandant of the UVR for the unit's service during the war. In December 1916 Jackson recommended to the secretary of state for the colonies that several officers be commended for their service. Three officers, Captain (local Major) F.A. Flint, Captain (local Major) E. H. T. Lawrence and Captain (local Lieutenant Colonel) C. Riddick, were subsequently named in a commendation notice issued by the War Office on 7 August 1917. All members of the UVR that were called up were entitled to the British War Medal. A former orderly sergeant in the UVR published a book, The Uganda Volunteers and the War, in 1917 that detailed some of the war-time activities of the unit. == Post-war and disbandment ==

In 1919 a restructuring of the unit was proposed though, again, it did not proceed. In the post-war years the UVR continued to participate in marksmanship competitions with other East African reserve units. Because of the quantity of war surplus materiel available the Ordinance was modified in 1921 to allow members to purchase unlimited quantities of ammunition from the government at cost price. In the post war years the UVR shot around 16–20,000 rounds per year. Membership of the corps fell to around 70–100 men, of whom around half were of Indian origin. Under the 1921 Ordinance the governor retained the right to mobilise the UVR and, in conjunction with the President of the unit, to appoint its officers. By 1926 the UVR was holding rifle practice only monthly, though volunteers were entitled to claim an increased 200 rounds per year free of charge. The UVR numbered only 49 in 1930, 28 men at Entebbe and 21 at Kampala, a decline blamed on the quality of the rifle range at Kampala. In the same year permission was granted to establish a corps at Jinja, though the Ugandan colonial government questioned the value of the unit. It was proposed that either the UVR be replaced by a formal military reserve unit or be disbanded and replaced by government-subsidised rifle clubs. The government chose the latter option, passing the Uganda Volunteer Reserve (Repeal) Ordinance on 21 November 1932. It was not until 1937 that the Uganda Rifle Association was established as a successor. == See also ==