The Volunteer Civil Force (VCF) was an armed force of volunteer police officers, established in February 1913 by picture dealer, restorer and framer William Mailes Power.[1][2] at Ruskin House, Rochester Row, Westminster, which became its headquarters.
Power had previously been one of the founders of the Volunteer Police Force (also known as the Civilian Force), begun on 21 October 1911 with Power as its vice-president and the Duke of Abercorn as its president. Power was removed from the Civilian Force on 16 December 1912[3] and the following year forced to apologise for inadvertently misrepresenting the VCF as the Civilian Force's successor and the Civilian Force as defunct[4]
The VCF was popularly known as Winston's Bobbies due to Winston Churchill's encouragement of its formation to assist the Metropolitan Police in a context of national strikes by rail, dock and coal workers in 1911 and 1912. Part of the VCF was embodied as a labour battalion of the London Regiment on the outbreak of World War One and the rest later joined the Artists Rifles. By July 1915 the VCF was known as the Westminster Battalion, West London Regiment, Volunteer Training Corps,[5] with Power granted army rank as a Temporary Captain,[6][7] but it was not re-formed as a separate body after the end of the conflict.
References
edit- ^ "Directory of British Picture Restorers". National Portrait Gallery.
- ^ "London Gallery Project - Victoria Gallery".
- ^ 'Letters', Pall Mall Gazette, 8 February 1913, page 8
- ^ 'Civilian Force Case - Chancery Division, Before Mr Justice Joyce', Pall Mall Gazette, 7 November 1913, page 5
- ^ 'London's Foreign Legion', Sunday Pictorial, 4 July 1915, page 2
- ^ "Supplement to the London Gazette, 29 June 1917, page 6493" (PDF). London Gazette.
- ^ "Officers Services, Long Service Papers (WO 339/93876), Captain William Mailes Powers". National Archives.