concentration camps proved to be too much for the Boers. In 1902, the war ended as the last of the Boer commandos surrendered and the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed. With the war over, the 2nd Wiltshires returned to the England in 1903. A 3rd (Militia) battalion was embodied in January 1900 for garrison duty at Saint Helena, where a large contingent of Boer prisoners were sent. Following the end of the war in June 1902, most of the officers and men returned home on the SS Dominion, which arrived in Southampton in September. In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve; the regiment now had one Reserve and one Territorial battalion. The First World War At the start of the First World War, the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment), like most of the rest of the British Army, consisted of two regular battalions (the 1st and 2nd); there was also a Special Reserve battalion (3rd) and a Territorial Force battalion. Eventually, the Wiltshire Regiment expanded to ten battalions, seven of which served overseas. These included three additional Territorial Force battalions (1/4th, 2/4th, and 3/4th Battalions) as well as four service battalions (5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th battalions) formed for the Kitchener's New Army formations. Nearly 5,000 officers and other ranks of the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment) had been killed in action or died of wounds sustained during the Great War. 60 battle honours were awarded to the regiment, along with numerous awards for bravery, including a VC. Regular Army battalions Upon mobilization and the declaration of war, the 1st Battalion, Wilts deployed to France as part of the 3rd Division's 7th Brigade, landing in France on 14 August 1914, and soon fought in the Battle of Mons and the Great Retreat and, in October, in the First Battle of Ypres, by which time the battalion had lost 26 officers and over 1,000 other ranks. The 1st Wilts remained on the Western Front with the 3rd Division until the 7th Brigade was transferred to the 25th Division on 18 October 1915. In March 1918 the battalion was involved in Operation Michael, the opening phase of the German Army's Spring Offensive, and subsequently reduced to company strength. It was during this fighting that Acting Captain Reginald Frederick Johnson Hayward MC was awarded the Victoria Cross. The