Military reserve forces of Saint Helena

In 1833 the British crown took over governance of the island.^[5] The regular East India Company regiments were disbanded and a British Army garrison was posted.^[4][5] Eager to reduce the expense of the garrison the British reinvigorated the militia. New ordinances were passed on 29 May 1837 enrolling all able-bodied men between 15 and 50 into the "Corps of Local Militia". The Local Militia were reduced to a core of 360 men by an ordinance of 19 March 1838: 21 officers, 19 sergeants, 18 corporals, 4 drummers and 300 privates. These were chosen from the pool of men enlisted by the previous ordinance, the remaining men acting as a supplementary reserve. The militia were issued with new uniforms patterned after those worn by the contemporary Rifle Brigade. Members of the militia were required to attend six drills a year at Francis Plain and to respond to call-outs in times of emergency. The men were drawn from both the black and white population of the island, which numbered around 5,000 split roughly equally between the races in 1833.^[5][6]

The militia paraded for the 15 October 1840 procession carrying the disinterred remains of Napoleon to the French frigate Belle Poule for reburial in France.^[7] The militia led the procession, ahead of the 91st Regiment of Foot, and afterwards lined the streets of Jamestown with arms reversed. The militia band played for the occasion.^[8] On 8 June 1846 the age of liability for service in the militia was raised to 55 and on 14 December 1857 the corps became subject to the Mutiny Act.^[5] Between 1842 and 1865 the British Army maintained a St Helena Regiment that provided a permanent regular garrison, but the island was otherwise defenced by a rotating garrison of regular regiments.^[9]

The Local Militia must have fallen into disuse by the later 19th century as the British government, again keen to reduce the regular garrison, made several attempts to reinstate a militia force on the island from 1889. It experienced difficulty as many able-bodied male residents had gone to South Africa to work in gold mining.^[10] A new reserve unit, the St Helena Volunteer Sharpshooters, was established in 1897.^[11] The unit had an approved establishment of 3 officers and 100 men.^[12] The members of the unit wore a khaki uniform with a felt hat and were required to fire 70 rifle rounds in practice each year.^[13] Although they were classed as a rifle unit unlike their equivalents in the British Army the St Helena Volunteer Sharpshooters carried colours.^[14] According to a Colonial Defence Committee defence plan of 1895-1905 the St Helena Volunteer Sharpshooters would work in conjunction with a unit of the Royal Garrison Artillery (equipped with maxim guns) and a unit of regular infantry from the garrison to dislodge any beachhead established by an enemy force on the island.^[11] Despite the early recruitment problems the unit was at near-full strength in 1905, numbering 4 officers (one was supernumerary) and 93 men.^[12]

The later history of the St Helena Volunteer Sharpshooters is unclear. David L. Smallman, writing in 2003 states that the unit was disbanded in 1907, when the last British regular garrison was withdrawn; however a governors order exists from 1918 which altered the unit's name to the St Helena Rifles and G. C. Kitching, writing in 1947, states that the unit remained in existence.^[14][15][16] It is known that the island had no reserve military force by 1998.^[17] Currently Saint Helena, part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, has no military and defence is the responsibility of the United Kingdom.^[18][19]