The History of the Prince of Wales' Civil Service Rifles

In late Victorian Britain, a remarkable thing happened: civil servants put down their pens and picked up rifles. Written in 1921 by someone who clearly served among these men, this book chronicles a unit that began as a defensive response to Victorian anxieties about public unrest and grew into one of the most distinguished volunteer regiments in the British Army. The narrative traces the regiment from its uncertain beginnings, when government officials hesitated to sanction a force of clerks as soldiers, through its consolidation into a unified battalion, and into the crucible of the First World War. What emerges is more than military chronology. The author captures the unique identity fostered among civil servants who became riflemen, the pride of men who served their nation in two capacities, and the particular grief of commemorating comrades lost in the trenches. This is regimental history at its most intimate: a document of pride, sacrifice, and a world that vanished after 1918. Military historians, those with family connections to the regiment, and readers interested in how Britain remembered its war will find here a moving artifact of its moment.