Essex at once offered to form five Battalions with two more to follow making a total of seven.

The effect was that there was a platoon in most large villages with companies in small towns and Battalions covering a larger area.

The Battalions operated in similar fashion to the old Volunteer Battalions with weekly drill and army skills sessions allowing men to retain their normal occupation.

Many of the men were medically unfit or  too old to join the regular army but there were some who served in a VB as they were in essential jobs and as such not liable for conscription. The conscription boards had power to require some men to join the Voluntary Battalions as a condition of not being conscripted and so by the end of the Great War over a third of members joined under this power.

The main task of the VB during the war to to prepare to resist an invasion by the Germans with secondary tasks of guard duty at sensitive installations such as aerodromes, railways, munitions factories etc.

Volunteers did not receive military pay, apart from the Special Service Companies who were engaged on whole-time duties for a limited period in 1918.

An allowance of 5d. (latterly increased to 6d.) per six hours was made in lieu of rations for Volunteers engaged on temporary services (e.g., guarding vulnerable points) under the orders of General Officers Commanding the Military Commands.

No grants were made to Volunteer Battalions as such, but grants for clothing and administrative expenses of Volunteer units were made to Territorial Force Associations. Local fundraising made up the difference.

These Battalions served throughout the Great War and were disbanded by 1920.

Battalion HQ  bases

!st Volunteer Battalion HQ The Cedars, West Ham

2nd Volunteer Battalion HQ Drill Hall, Market Road, Chrlmsford

3rd Volunteer Battalion HQ Church Hill, Walthamstow

4th Volunteer Battalion HQ Drill Hall, East Street, Prittlewell

5th Volunteer Battalion HQ Gordon Road, Ilford

6th Volunteer Battalion HQ 17 St Isaac's Walk, Colchester

7th Volunteer Battalion HQ Medina Villa, Witham

Some details of the men and their activies can by viewed by clicking the links below