Burma Railways Volunteer Corps

The Burma Railways Volunteer Corps were an auxiliary regiment in Burma.

"In the case of an outbreak of hostilities, the special work of the Burma Railway Volunteers would be to ensure that the railway communications were undisturbed, and to hold the stations....one of the regulations of the Burma Railway Company is that all their European and Eurasian employees shall undergo the necessary military training to make themselves efficient members of it."

Chronology

• 1879 raised 18th April (by GGO 370, 2nd May 1879)
• 1899 designation altered to Burma Railways Volunteer Corps (by GGO 730, dated 30th June 1899)
• 1906-1908 numerical statistic = c 850 men.

Details

• Headquarters - Rangoon
• Uniform - Khaki drill

Detached companies

In 1901:

• Prome
• Toungoo
• Pegu
• Insein
• Katha
• Ywatang
• Yamethin

Muster Rolls

Muster Roll of 1884-1885 Rangoon Volunteer Rifles is found at The Anglo Burmese Library website

The earlier Muster Roll of 1879 Rangoon Volunteer Rifles on the same page designates "E" Company as the Railway Company

External links

• Photograph, Burma Railway Volunteer Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers page 259, Twentieth Century Impressions of Burma (1910) , see above
• Photograph, at Augban, pre 1941 from Steve Rothwell’s The Burma Campaign
• The National Anthropological Archives located in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland USA has in its catalogue the following photograph reference:

“Burma State Railway Volunteer Corps. Lieutenant Colonel W. Innes was corps commander. The photographer was P. Kilien, of Rangoon. Date 1893 Call Number: Photo Lot 131”

Copies may be ordered

A different catalogue entry describes the photograph as “Burma State Railway Volunteer Corps in Uniform and in Formation; Lt. Col. W. Innes (Traffic Manager), Commanding 1893” with the photographer as P.Klier