(militia, yeomanry and volunteers) to take their place in the six army corps proposed by St John Brodrick as Secretary of State for War. However, little of Brodrick's scheme was carried out. Under the sweeping Haldane Reforms of 1908, the militia was replaced by the Special Reserve, a semi-professional force similar to the previous militia reserve, whose role was to provide reinforcement drafts for regular units serving overseas in wartime. The 6th (Royal East Middlesex Militia) Bn became the 6th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment on 14 June 1908. World War I On the outbreak of World War I, the battalion mobilised at Mill Hill on 4 August 1914 under Lt-Col G.E. Barker, who had been the commanding officer since 1 September 1913. Later in August, together with the 5th Bn it went to its war station in the Thames & Medway Garrison, first at Rochester, then from November 1915 at Chatham, where it remained for the whole of the war. The 6th Battalion's role was to equip the Reservists and Special Reservists of the Middlesex Regiment and send them as reinforcement drafts to the Regular battalions serving overseas (the 1st, 2nd and 4th on the Western Front, the 3rd at Salonika). Once the pool of reservists had dried up, the 6th Bn trained thousands of raw recruits for the active service battalions. The 14th and 15th (Reserve) Battalions were formed in October 1914 alongside the 5th and 6th Bns in the Medway towns to provide reinforcements for the 'Kitchener's Army' battalions of the Royal West Kents. Under War Office Instruction 106 of 10 November 1915 the battalion was ordered to send a draft of 109 men to the new Machine Gun Training Centre at Grantham where they were to form the basis of a brigade machine-gun company of the new Machine Gun Corps. In addition, 10 men at a time were to undergo training at Grantham as battalion machine gunners. The order stated that 'Great care should be taken in the selection of men for training as machine gunners as only well educated and intelligent men are suitable for this work'. The battalion continued working after the Armistice with Germany until it was disembodied on 28 February 1919. Postwar The SR resumed its old title of Militia in 1921 but like most militia units the 5th Middlesex remained in abeyance after World War I. By the outbreak of World