The Somerset House Volunteer Association consisted only of two companies of light infantry, under the command of Walter Sterling, Major Commandant. The Captains were J. Stewart and W. Harrison. The corps was not to go out of the district of Somerset House and St. Mary-le-Strand, but with its own consent. Bank of England Volunteers, 1798. Among those who would have cause for anxiety at such a period would naturally be the Governor and Directors of the Bank of England, and certainly they showed great public spirit. They headed a voluntary contribution to the revenue in this year, with a subscription of £200,000. They also raised from their employés a corps of volunteers, 450 strong, to protect the Bank. This corps was under the command of Thomas Whitmore, and Rowlandson tells us that it was presented with colours on 2nd September, 1799, by the lady of Samuel Thornton, Esq., Governor of the Bank of England, in Lord’s Ground, Marylebone. A picture of this ceremonial, painted by Stoddart, is to be seen now in the Bank. These Loyal Volunteers of London were, however, entirely swamped by the great volunteer movement, which swept throughout the country in 1802, caused by the extensive preparations then being made by Bonaparte to invade England. Volunteers of 1802. In this war-scare, which far exceeded in its intensity that of 1859, 420,000 Volunteers were enrolled in a few months--many more, in fact, than the Government could or ever did arm. The Civil Service were represented in this body by two corps: the Excise Corps, which in 1804 was 576 strong, under the command of Lord George Seymour, and the Customs Corps, about 300 strong. In the same year (1804), the Bank of England had a corps of 433, under the command of William Manning, and a supplementary corps of 122, under the command of Beeston Long. Some of the records of the last-named corps are still in existence in the Bank. From them we gather that the parades were usually held at 7 or 8 a.m. The most notable period in their history appears to have been in 1812, at the time of the assassination of Mr. Percival in the House of Commons. In the state of public alarm that followed this event, it was considered necessary that the Bank Volunteers should be under arms to guard the Bank, night and day. Disbandment. At the signing of the general treaty of peace in 1814, the joy of the country at what it believed to be the conclusion of its long and exhausting wars, was shown by the haste with which the Volunteers were at once disbanded. The Corps of the Civil Service shared with others in votes of thanks passed to them by both Houses of Parliament, and letters from the Commander-in-Chief (the Prince Regent) were received, thanking each corps for its valuable services. From the records already referred to, we find that a special “march past” before the Lord Mayor, at the Mansion House, brought the military duties of the Bank officials of that generation to an end.