{"id":1794,"date":"2020-01-24T09:26:15","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T09:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldbritishstuff.com\/?page_id=1794"},"modified":"2025-08-05T18:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T17:25:07","slug":"william-edward-bone-1st-middlesex-volunteers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ianwaugh.com\/archive\/archive\/william-edward-bone-1st-middlesex-volunteers\/","title":{"rendered":"William Edward Bone (1895)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"British
British Army Victoria Rifles and King\u2019s Royal Rifle Corps volunteers. Antique print from Her Majesty\u2019s Army by Walter Richards (Source: Frontispiece).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

William Edward Bone (1876\u20131964).<\/strong>
On the 7th of December 1895, William Edward Bone formally applied to join the First Middlesex (Victoria and St. George\u2019s) Rifle Volunteers<\/strong> (more here<\/a>), and on that occasion he signed a detailed Memorandum of Agreement<\/strong> outlining the terms of his volunteer service. This marked his official entry into the highly regarded citizen-soldier movement of the late Victorian period.<\/p>\n

I was fortunate to obtain this fragile original document<\/strong>, along with a small but evocative collection of his personal photographs<\/strong>\u2014each one offering a glimpse into the world he inhabited.<\/p>\n

From what I can gather\u2014though I remain cautious in case this is a different individual\u2014William appears to have spent the majority of his life in the Croydon and Lewisham area<\/strong>. By the time of the 1939 Register, he was most likely working as a railway clerk<\/strong>, a stable and respectable civilian occupation during that era.<\/p>\n

If my research is correct, William married his wife, Daisy Catherine Smith<\/strong> (1880\u20131971), in 1915<\/strong>, during the First World War. Together they had a daughter named Dorothy<\/strong>, born in 1917<\/strong>, whose early years would have been shaped by wartime Britain and its aftermath.<\/p>\n

Below, you\u2019ll find both the original Memorandum of Agreement<\/strong> and the photograph collection<\/strong> that accompanies this modest but revealing piece of personal history.<\/p>\n

\"Memorandum<\/a><\/p>\n

583<\/strong>
Memorandum of Agreement<\/strong> between
Stanley George Bird<\/strong>, Colonel for the time being of the 1st Middlesex (Victoria and St. George\u2019s) Rifle Volunteers, hereinafter called the Commanding Officer,
of the one part, and William Edward Bone <\/strong>of an enrolled member of the said Regiment, hereinafter called the Volunteer, of the other part. The Commanding Officer agrees to provide for the use of the said Volunteer, a complete outfit, viz.:\u2014Tunic, Trowsers, Helmet, Forage Cap, Leggings, Belt, Great Coat, Haversack, Slade-Wallace Equipment, and Water Bottle, necessary for his use as a private of the said Regiment. The said Volunteer in consideration of the said outfit being provided for him, agrees to pay on or before the completion of this agreement, the sum of One Pound Five Shillings, and he further agrees to pay the sum of Five Shillings annually, as his subscription to the funds of the Regiment.<\/p>\n

The said Volunteer agrees to make himself four times an Efficient of the said Corps, according to the Government regulations during the four Volunteer years succeeding his enrolment, should he serve for so long in the Corps; and he further agrees that, should he fail to earn the Capitation Grant for each and every of the four years before mentioned, he will pay to the Commanding Officer a sum equal to the amount which he has failed to earn from the Government within ten days of his default, and he further agrees to return on demand, to the said Commanding Officer, in good condition, fair wear and tear excepted, all the articles comprised in the above named outfit: the said outfit being always the property of the said Commanding Officer, and issued to the said Volunteer for his use only at the authorized Parades and Drills of the Regiment.<\/p>\n

Signed on behalf of the said
Colonel Stanley George Bird,
[Signature]<\/strong>
E. J. Beeching<\/strong>
Lieutenant<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Volunteer year is from November 1st to October 31st.<\/p>\n

The Commanding Officer wishes to remind members that the mere fact of their time having expired does not preclude them from remaining on in the Regiment, and that no further agreement on their part is necessary.<\/p>\n

Explanation of the Document<\/h3>\n

The document is a “Memorandum of Agreement”<\/strong> dated 12 July 1895<\/strong>, between:<\/p>\n