The Volunteer Civil Force (VCF) was an armed force of volunteer police officers, established in February 1913 by picture dealer, restorer and framer William Mailes Power. at Ruskin House,

Rochester Row Rochester Row is a street in the City of Westminster in London that runs between Greycoat Place in the north and Vauxhall Bridge Road in the south. It is joined by Greycoat Street, Rochester Street, Vincent Square, Emery Hill Street, Vane Str ...

, Westminster, which became its headquarters. Power had previously been one of the founders of the Volunteer Police Force (also known as the Civilian Force), begun on 21 October 1911 with Power as its vice-president and the Duke of Abercorn as its president. Power was removed from the Civilian Force on 16 December 1912 and the following year forced to apologise for inadvertently misrepresenting the VCF as the Civilian Force's successor and the Civilian Force as defunct The VCF was popularly known as ''Winston's Bobbies'' due to

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

's encouragement of its formation to assist the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

in a context of national strikes by rail, dock and coal workers in 1911 and 1912. Part of the VCF was embodied as a labour battalion of the

London Regiment London Regiment may refer to two infantry regiments in the British Army: * London Regiment (1908–1938) The London Regiment was an infantry regiment in the British Army, part of the Territorial Force (renamed the Territorial Army in 1921). The ...

on the outbreak of World War One and the rest later joined the

Artists Rifles The 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve), historically known as The Artists Rifles is a regiment of the Army Reserve. Its name is abbreviated to 21 SAS(R). Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, the regimen ...

. By July 1915 the VCF was known as the Westminster Battalion, West London Regiment, Volunteer Training Corps, with Power granted army rank as a Temporary Captain, but it was not re-formed as a separate body after the end of the conflict.

References

{{reflist 1913 establishments in the United Kingdom