Volunteer Training Corps
The Volunteer Training Corps was a voluntary home defence reserve force in the United Kingdom during World War I. == Early development == After war had been declared in August 1914, there was a popular demand for a means of service for those men who were over military age or those with business or family commitments which made it difficult for them to volunteer for the armed services. At this stage in the war, Britain relied entirely on a voluntary system of enlistment and many men still held to the Victorian principle that it was the task of professional troops to fight a war whilst the Militia, or Constitutional Force (which had converted from conscription to engaging volunteers for periods of service in the 1850s and was converted into the Special Reserve in 1908), Volunteer Force and Yeomanry (two volunteer forces, in which recruits did not engage for periods of service, that had amalgamated to form the Territorial Force in 1908, in which recruits voluntarily engaged for a period of service) provided for home defence, and civilian local defence groups began to spring up spontaneously as soon as war was declared.