Army Council (1904) Army Council (1904) The Army Council was the supreme administering body of the British Army from its creation in 1904 until it was reconstituted as the Army Board in 1964. The disastrous campaigns of the Crimean War led to the consolidation of all administrative duties in 1855 under the Secretary of State for War, a Cabinet post. That office was not, however, solely responsible for the Army; the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) held a virtually equal level of responsibility. This was reduced in theory by the 1870 reforms introduced by Edward Cardwell, which subordinated the C-in-C to the Secretary for War. In
British home army in the First World War empire. Accordingly, the War Office recommended in March 1919 that the force should be liable for service overseas, a condition of service that territorial representatives recognised as necessary. It was officially reconstituted in 1921 by the Territorial Army and Militia Act 1921 and renamed in October as the Territorial Army. The same legislation resurrected the militia as a replacement for the Special Reserve. The latter was only some 9,000 strong when a committee chaired by General Alexander Hamilton-Gordon recommended in July 1919 that it should be abolished, and it effectively ceased to exist by the end of the year. Having