Gambia Armed Forces defence and security in The Gambia was the responsibility of the Field Force. The Field Force was a paramilitary unit of the police, consisting of roughly 140 men at independence and rising to around 500 in 1980. It has been formed in 1958 following the disbandment of the Gambia Regiment, part of the British Army. There was little concern about security in The Gambia due to its small size and the safety provided by being totally surrounded by Senegal, with which it had signed a mutual defence pact in 1965. This lax attitude to defence changed following the 1981 coup
History of the Gambia I, the Gambia Company served alongside other British troops in the Kamerun campaign, under the command of Captain V. B. Thurston of the Dorsetshire Regiment, and a number of its soldiers received gallantry medals for their conduct. In 1920, the National Congress of British West Africa was formed, an organisation working towards African emancipation, with Edward Francis Small as the sole delegate. He returned and founded the Gambia Section of the Congress, the principal aim of which was to achieved elected representation in the government of the Gambia. It also frequently petitioned against unpopular government policies. It had some success,