3-085-711 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Defence of London: the Great Night March of the Guards and Volunteers, 1898. '1. Searching for the Column, Parliament Hill. 2. Arrival of a Column at Point of Concentration.... 3. Receiving Messages at Headquarters, Gospel Oak...a body of infantry troops of the regular army and of the auxiliary...forces...to the number of 14,000...performed a combined night march into the country...The idea was that of preventing a supposed enemy coming thence to seize the Docks...They formed...a semicircle of about six miles...it was a satisfactory performance, although it cannot be pretended that the total number of troops presented anything approaching a strength proportionate to the area they covered. If strictly regarded as a mimic presentment of a sudden defence of London, the operations must be confessed inadequate...What they did afford, however, was a valuable proof of the rapidity with which it would be possible, in an emergency of war, for larger forces to march through London's thoroughfares...The system of signal from and to the headquarters on Parliament Hill by flashlights and electric search-lights formed a valuable illustration of what could be done in London's hour of need to ensure unity of action all round her vast circumference...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.