GUYANA LEGION

The British Guiana Volunteer Force was established in June 1948. It was to be the second to last in a long line of military reserve forces that had been an honourable citizens' tradition in this country for over 250 years. The Force was to survive only eighteen years until it was abolished in May 1966 to make way for the Guyana Defence Force.
After the final British conquest of the colonies from the Dutch, the existing ˜Burgher Militia' was reorganised in 1806 to provide for a distinct unit for each colony the Demerary (i.e., Demerara) Militia, the Essequibo Militia, and the Berbice Militia. That militia lapsed in the 1850s but was reorganised again in 1878 with the establishment of a ˜Volunteer Force.' When the West India Regiment was withdrawn, the British Guiana Militia was established in 1891.

By David Granger,November 2, 2008

Radicals regarded it as their ritual duty to yell œLimey go home on encountering British soldiers in British Guiana in October 1953, fifty-five years ago. Under the governorship of Sir Alfred Savage, the soldiers were reviled as invaders. But the regiments were replenished and replaced almost continuously up to and beyond independence in 1966. By that time, they came to be seen by some as saviours.

A decade after the troops' arrival, the premier Dr Cheddi Jagan wrote a long letter to the governor Sir Ralph Grey in June 1963 asking for them to be deployed on the street. œIt is my definite impression that the very presence of the British Army is likely to have a sobering effect on those who are determined to act as hooligans and barbarians, injure and maim innocent people, start racial warfare, pose a serious threat to law and order and overthrow the constitutionally elected government, the premier pleaded. Perceptions had certainly changed from 1953 to 1963.