29,562
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
→Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps
A Corps of 150 ‘fine young Englishmen’ left Ceylon in 1914, comprised not only of planters but also Government servants, Colombo businessmen and others. They served in Egypt and were then attached to the Wellington infantry Battalion of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the ANZAC division at Gallipoli. The high standard of the men led to virtually all of them receiving commissions and they went on to serve in other regiments which meant this Corps then ceased to exist. <ref> ''Great War Forum'' thread [https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/943-ceylon-planters-rifle-corps/ Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps] (retrieved 19 January 2019).</ref>
A number of men who were members of the Ceylon Volunteer Force, who were in Britain at the outbreak of WW1 were granted commissions by the War Office in the late-Summer/Autumn of 1914. Many went into the [[Rifle Brigade]]. These men, almost all of whom were involved in the plantation section, were sometimes referred to as Ceylon's "Home Contingent", to distinguish them from the "Ceylon Contingent",<ref> Dominion-of-the-North [https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/191395-war-diary-8th-rifle-brigade-post-may-1918-does-it-exist/?do=findComment&comment=1877338 War Diary: 8th Rifle Brigade; Post-May 1918; Does it Exist?] ''Great War Forum'' 10 March , 2013. Retrieved 19 January 29192019.</ref> those in the paragraph above.
== Records ==
