was held at the Saracen’s Head, Ashford, where Hastings was represented by F. de Brabant Cooper, J. C. Savery and W. Ransom. The other ports and their tributaries represented were Rye, Ramsgate, Tenterden, Deal, Walmer, Hythe and Faversham. The Hastings Rifles assembled for instruction under Sergt. Dabney, and also arranged to have built for them a six-oared galley, to be named the “Rifleman”. As temporary places for drill, Mr. Rock kindly lent his factory at Hastings, and Mr. Burton the Assembly-Room at St. Leonards. The Hastings and St. Leonards Rifle Corps having received the Royal sanction through the Marquis of Dalhousie, as Lord Warden, many of the members expressed a wish that the formal enrolment should take place during the mayoralty of Mr. W. Ginner, by whom some of the correspondence had been conducted. A meeting was therefore convened for Nov. 8th, 1859, at the Castle-hotel new Assembly-room. The Mayor attended in his official robes and administered the oath to the 61 members who were able to be present. The nominated officers were Lieut. V. B. Crake, Ensign J. Rock, Sergt. S. Stace, Sergt. G. Childs, Sergt. and Hon. Sec. W. Ransom, Corporal J. P. Shorter, Corpl J. T. Penhall, Corpl A. Emary and Corpl J. Ransom. The Rifle Corps having by this time filled up its allotted number, measures were at once taken to form a Volunteer Artillery Corps. Thus was established the 1st Cinque Ports Rifles, and with the Poet Laureate’s stirring appeal “Riflemen Arm”, the ball was further set rolling, and the movement became general. Thus is closed the story of the formation of the Rifle Corps as a preliminary to its movements in 1860, the year that is now under treatment.
A Grand Muster of the Corps took place on the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 3rd, in the Music Hall, for the purpose of administering the oath of allegiance to Capt. The Hon. George Waldegrave and such other members of the corps as had not yet taken it. The Hall was thrown open to the public. All the requirements of military etiquette were observed, even to the volunteers mounting guard in pairs at the doorways and on the stairs. The rest of the corps were marched into the Hall in double file. They were 85 in number, but with the twenty additional who were present for the purpose of being sworn, more than the prescribed hundred were thus enrolled. The ceremony commenced with the singing of the national anthem, the score of which, painted in large characters by Corporal Savery, was suspended in front of the platform. It was sung in solo and chorus, the former being performed by T. Mitchell, Esq., of the Chapel Royal and Sacred -
