Battalion, 13th Foot) 3rd Battalion (formerly 1st Somerset Light Infantry Militia) 4th Battalion (formerly 2nd Somerset Light Infantry Militia) 1st Volunteer Battalion (formerly 1st Somersetshire Rifle Volunteer Corps) 2nd Volunteer Battalion (formerly 2nd Somersetshire Rifle Volunteer Corps) 3rd Volunteer Battalion (formerly 3rd Somersetshire Rifle Volunteer Corps) The two regular battalions continued the system of alternating between home and foreign stations: Actions in India and Burma The 2nd Battalion took part in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885 to 1887. Following an initial invasion, the battalion spent two years broken up into small groups pacifying the inhabitants of the country. While the unit lost only 17 men in combat, 150 were to die from disease. During its period in India, the 1st Battalion was mainly stationed in the North West Frontier Province, and took part in First Mohmand Campaign of 1897. The battalion was posted at Rawalpindi until late 1902 when it moved to Peshawar near the historic Khyber Pass on the border to Afghanistan. Second Boer War In October 1899, war broke out between British Empire and the Boer Republics of South Africa. The 2nd Battalion landed in the Cape in December 1899, and was part of the British forces defeated at the Battle of Spion Kop in January 1900. In February of the same year, the battalion helped to relieve the siege of Ladysmith. They spent the remainder of the conflict taking part in a number of minor actions. The 4th (2nd Somerset Militia) Battalion was embodied in December 1899, and 415 officers and men embarked in the in early March 1900 for service in South Africa. A large contingent of the men returned home in May 1902 on the SS Sicilia. Haldane reforms The Boer War had severely stretched the resources of the British Army and had exposed the weakness of the militia and volunteers as an effective reserve force. In 1907–1908, Richard Haldane, Secretary of State for War reorganised these second-line units of the army as part of a larger series of reforms. The existing militia was reduced in size and redesignated as the "Special Reserve", while the Volunteer Force was merged with the Yeomanry to form a new Territorial Force, organised into 14 infantry divisions, liable for service in wartime. In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former merging with the Yeomanry to become the Territorial Force and the latter the Special