The Spectator at war: The editor’s village guards

From ‘Rifle clubs and village guards’, The Spectator, 15 August 1914.  John St Loe Strachey, in addition to being High Sheriff of Surrey, was the editor and owner of The Spectator:

We understand that the High Sherriff of Surrey, Mr. St. Loe Strachey, is this afternoon holding a Conference of the Surrey Rifle Clubs at Brett Reynard’s Restaurant, Guildford, at five o’clock, with the object of making proposals for the formation of Town and Village Guards. It must be obvious to every one that it would be an enormous if every small town and village had such Guards, and if the police and military authorities could, in the case of emergency, could find an organised body, even though roughly organised, ready to co-operate with them. Mr Strachey proposes that wherever there are Rifle Clubs – and there are such in most villages and towns in Surrey – they should constitute themselves Town or Village Guards; that is, the Rifle Club organisation should be made use of, for, if it can possibly avoided, nobody must create a new organization when there are old ones existing capable of doing the work.