Richards then hired rooms in the City of London, and enlisted 1000 men to form the 'Workmen's Volunteer Brigade'. Although the unit began holding parades at the City of London's Guildhall in the autumn of 1860, the first officers' commissions were not issued until 26 April 1861, when the unit was formally adopted as the 3rd City of London Rifle Volunteer Corps. The men were generally less well-off than some other London corps recruited from the professions and middle classes, but the unit received some financial support from the City of London and the Livery Companies. It adopted the motto "LABOR OMNIA VINCIT" (Work conquers everything) derived from Virgil.