COLONEL DAVIDSON AND THE NATIONAL RESERVE.
[TO TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—It is to be hoped that the National Reserve has taken a permanent-place in the activities and resources of the nation. All honour and credit to Mr. St. Loe Strachey and those other gentlemen who by their personal initiative and perseverance have forced the recognition of this most important movement upon the authorities. The National Reserve has entered into history, and it is desirable that a record should be kept of all the roots from which it sprang. I am sure that the gentle- men to whom we owe so much will not grudge some share of the credit to one who was an independent pioneer in the movement.
In 1901 Colonel W. Leslie Davidson, C.B., who was in command of the Royal Artillery at York, conceived the idea of enrolling in each district of his command all able-bodied
men of good character—especially Army reservists, game- keepers, huntsmen, &c., men with an intimate knowledge of their own localities—and organizing them as a force for national defence. The scheme was laid before the authorities and was at first received with favour, where- open Colonel Davidson proceeded to put it into execution provisionally and at his own expense. He mapped out the country, and, though only working the petty sessional divisions along the coast from Berwick to the Wash, he enrolled over 1,000 men. Each of these was invited to write on the baek of his enrolment paper the names of those in his neighbourhood whom he would recommend as desirable members of the Corps of Guides. In some cases as many as thirty names were so given, and the intention was that the numbers should thus mount up '6 snowball" fashion and ensure a register of all old soldiers in each district while the glamour of the war still existed. Colonel Davidson delivered a lecture at the Royal United Service Institution, which was attended by several distinguished soldiers and civilians.
For some unknown reason the authorities afterwards began to throw cold water on the undertaking, and when Colonel Davidson gave up his command it lapsed; but there can be no doubt that it contained the germ both of the National Reserve and the Boy Scouts movements, and that it was conceived and worked out independently by its originator.--.
[We deal with the subject of this letter in our leading columns.—E D. Spectator.]
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