Political dissidents sabotaging airfields. Foreign operatives destroying stores of military equipment. The fifth column has already arrived.
In 1940 we had the answer — the Home Guard. Its rapid formation provided the country with a much needed source of organised and trained manpower. Tasked with protecting population centres and infrastructure, the creation of such a force freed up the Army to rebuild post-Dunkirk. While popular imagination recalls with great fondness Corporal Jones’ up-armoured van, improvised armoured vehicles were employed for patrolling key infrastructure such as armaments factories and aerodromes. Perhaps Palestine Action would have acted differently if confronted by one of Lord Beaverbrook’s Car Armoured Light Standard.
The pressing need for a form of territorial protection has thankfully been recognised in Whitehall. The latest Strategic Defence Review — Making Britain Safer — stated the need for a “whole-of-society” approach to the development of “national resilience”. The Review refers to the creation of “a new Reserve Force”, trailed in the press as the creation of a new “Home Guard”. The term “Home Guard” may conjure up images of John Le Mesurier drifting around a church hall attempting to make battledress look fashionable. But with the Wagner Group operating on British soil, the resurrection of such a territorial deterrent is certainly needed. Yet, a potential framework to support it already exists — the University Officers’ Training Corps (UOTC).
There is a historical precedent for the involvement of the UOTC in territorial defence
After the comparatively cheering winter of 1940, George Orwell wrote the following reflections on the state of the Home Guard: “they have passed … their Saturday afternoons on the drill-ground or the rifle-range, their evenings dismantling machine-guns in draughty halls — and they have done this without any form of compulsion whatever.”
Orwell’s comments are rather prescient to the current state of UOTC units. With a recent move away from Sandhurst Group, and mystery permanently surrounding the extent to which they can prepare Officer Cadets for Army Officer Selection Board, the University Officers’ Training Corps is stuck in a form of limbo.
Formally, UOTC units exist as training establishments, with Officer Cadets being non-deployable reservists. Administratively largely detached from the Reserves, the UOTC potentially meets the SDR’s goal of a “new” Reserve Force. With pre-existing stores of equipment and uniforms, the separation of the UOTC from the Reserve structure ensures that any potential re-employment of UOTC units to a “Home Guard” role would not be to the detriment of the ability of Reserve units to operate and deploy as needed.
There is a historical precedent for the involvement of the UOTC in territorial defence. Operating alongside the Home Guard for the course of the Second World War, Officer Training Corps units proved themselves to be highly effective, providing a much needed source of manpower and equipment. In St Andrews, for instance, the OTC’s 36 rifles were the sole defence of the town, fortified by improvised barricades — later supplemented by coastal defences constructed by Free Polish forces. According to John Blair’s history of the OTC, during training exercises in Dundee it was treated as a commando unit within the Home Guard.
As non-deployable Reservists, it is natural that UOTC units are not held at a warfighting readiness. Yet, taught on a weekly basis by Permanent Staff Instructors who often hold increasingly rare experience of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a vast wealth of motivation and experience passed on to Officer Cadets.
The desire to actively contribute something thus exists within UOTC units. This would doubtless increase if the Armed Forces once again became engaged in combat operations. Whilst such an idea may be dismissed as whimsical, elements of the SDR build towards supporting such a model. The goal of expanding in-school and community-based Cadet Forces by 30 per cent by 2030, and the “ambition to reach 250,000 in the longer term”, demonstrates a certain desire. Whilst Cadet Forces are aimed at twelve to eighteen year-olds, retaining former Cadets within some form of organisation as adults — such as an expanded OTC network — would surely have a benefit.
The Ministry of Defence has until December 2026 to present John Healey or his successor with options for the protection of national infrastructure, and specific details regarding the new Reserve Force. They would be wise to consider the value of the University Officers’ Training Corps in such a light.
