Early last year the Council agreed to use some of its Cleaner Greener Safer (CGS) funding to support the Society’s proposal for an information sign about the Dulwich Volunteer Battalion. It will be located next to its war memorial in the grounds of St Peter’s Church on the corner of Dulwich Common and Lordship Lane. The memorial, with its original flagpole, has been in place since June 1920 when the battalion was disbanded, though few passers-by will currently appreciate what it stands for.
The Dulwich Volunteer Battalion, the first of its kind, was formed almost immediately after the outbreak of war in 1914. Its two objects were to encourage recruiting for the Regular Army, and to train its own members to take part, if necessary, in the defence and protection of their country. It appears to have been started by members of the Dulwich and Sydenham Golf Club who formed a Training Corps affiliated to the National Defence League. It eventually had a roll of over 1000 local men, a number of whom died on active service.
The memorial was listed Grade II on 7 November 2017 by Historic England as part of their war memorial listing programme to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War.