Bermuda Militia Infantry

The Bermuda Militia Infantry
The Bermuda Militia Infantry wore the General Service Corps cap badge
Active	1939-1946
Country	Bermuda (United Kingdom overseas territory)
Branch	Army
Type	Infantry
Garrison/HQ	Bermuda Garrison

The Bermuda Militia Infantry was raised in 1939 as a part-time reserve of the British Army's Bermuda Garrison.

The Parliament of Bermuda had authorised three part-time reserve units in 1892 to re-inforce the regular army detachments to the Bermuda Garrison. These replaced the original militia, raised in 1612, which had been raised under Militia Acts that required periodic renewal. The local government saw the militia as an unnecessary expense following the buildup of the regular army garrison (that resulted from Bermuda's becoming the primary base for the Royal Navy in the western North Atlantic following American independence), and simply stopped renewing the Militia Act after the American War of 1812, allowing the militia to fade away.

Despite short-lived attempts to raise militias without the aid or funds of the local government, a permanent reserve would not exist 'til the first of the three units authorised in 1892, the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC), was raised in 1894 as a reserve for the regular infantry force (which normally numbered one battalion posted to Prospect Camp. Various battalions were posted to Bermuda, normally for three years at a time. On occasions of heightened tensions, a second infantry battalion was sometimes posted to Bermuda. The BVRC was split into four companies, including three rifle companies and a headquarters company, with the archipelago divided between them into Western, Central, and Eastern areas of operation.

In 1895, the Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA) was raised as a reserve for the two regular companies of Royal Artillery (from 1899 to 1924, the Royal Garrison Artillery), manning the various coastal artillery batteries in Bermuda, most of which were clustered in the fortified East End of Bermuda, where the only safe passage for sizeable vessels lay through the surrounding barrier reef. The Royal Engineers and the Royal Artillery had taken over and improved the fortifications of the old militia, and built many new ones. By the middle of the 19th century, they had emplaced roughly five hundred artillery pieces around Bermuda; vastly more than there existed trained gunners to man. Due to rapid advances in artillery in the latter 19th century, many of the forts, and most of the guns, were obsolete before the turn of the century, but the part-time reserve was still vital to the effectiveness of the garrison. The BMA provided detachments to batteries around Bermuda, but was centred on the St. David's Battery, which was the Examination Battery, overlooking the entrance through the reefs where arriving vessels were inspected by the Royal Navy before being allowed to proceed inwards.