regular soldiers, and to shift an increasing part of the burden of the garrison on the part-time units. This process took many decades, however. The number of soldiers began to decline, and then quickly rose again. For the remainder of the 19th Century, military personnel made up a quarter of Bermuda's population, and defence spending, not agriculture or tourism, was the central leg of the Bermudian economy. Many wealthy American visitors actually brought their daughters to holiday on the island specifically in hopes of marrying them to the young, aristocratic military and naval officers who were posted to Bermuda (this put them in competition with local women, as Bermuda had a disproportionate number of spinsters). The new Princess Hotel made the most of this market, sponsoring dances and other social gatherings to which the officers of the garrison were invited to mingle with guests. In addition to components of the army garrison, the Royal Marines, part of the Royal Navy, maintained detachments at the Royal Naval Dockyard and aboard ships of the North America and West Indies Station based there, which included both Royal Marine Light Infantry and gunners of the Royal Marine Artillery. The various infantry detachments could be assembles ashore as a battalion, but detachments were most often scattered about the Americas with the ships of the station and not able to reinforce the military garrison. The Royal Marines did, however, provide the garrison in 1825. First World War On the declaration of the First World War, Lieutenant-Colonel George Bunbury McAndrew, the commanding officer of the 2 Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment, was acting governor of Bermuda as the actual governor, Commander-in-Chief and Vice-Admiral (Bermuda's governors, from the time the bases were built up, were normally military officers, especially from the Royal Engineers or the Royal Artillery), Lieutenant-General Sir George Bullock was off the island, and oversaw Bermuda's placement onto a war footing. Lt. Gen. Bullock resumed command on his return to Bermuda, and was succeeded as governor and commander-in-chief by General Sir James Willcocks in May, 1917. The 2 Lincolns were soon sent to England, preparatory to deployment to France, being replaced by a succession of Canadian battalions. On 19 August 1914, the British Government requested from the Adjutant General of the Canadian Militia a Canadian battalion to replace the 2 Lincolns, a request that was agreed to on 22 August by Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Octave Fages, commanding the