The Territorial Army and Militia Act 1921 (11 & 12 Geo. V, c. 37) was an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

affecting the reserves of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

It modified the

Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 ('' 7 Edw. 7, c.9'') was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the auxiliary forces of the British Army by transferring existing Volunteer and Yeomanry units into a new Territori ...

, renaming the existing Territorial Force as the " Territorial Army" and the Special Reserve as the "

Militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

", and updated or repealed a number of outdated regulations. The Act primarily served to rename the two organisations, which had been announced as a government policy the previous year, and ensure that all regulations and legislation referring to the two were updated.p. 867, ''Manual of Military Law''. HMSO, London: 1929 (reprinted 1939) The renaming provoked some controversy and confusion, particularly as the original use of "Militia" had only been abolished fourteen years earlier, but it was argued that the role of a "Militia" was clearer and more readily understood by the public than that of a "Special Reserve".Debate on the bill in the House of Lords
''Hansard'', 10 August 1921 The Act also served to abolish the "legislative lumber", as it was termed by Viscount Peel, the previous Under-Secretary of State for War, of the old Militia and Yeomanry Acts which were still nominally in force. The eighteenth and nineteenth-century system of a locally conscripted Militia and volunteer Yeomanry had been effectively abolished by the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, and all the organised units had been dissolved or transferred to the new system, but the legislative framework still existed. The Act thus abolished these powers as no longer necessary or appropriate.

References

{{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1921 1921 in military history 20th-century history of the British Army Army Reserve (United Kingdom) 20th-century military history of the United Kingdom United Kingdom military law