had been taken to have no Territorial Force units in Ireland and so the two yeomanry regiments were disbanded and reconstituted in the Special Reserve as the North Irish Horse and South Irish Horse. The Isle of Man Volunteers and Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps remained organised as Volunteers; whilst the new legislation did extend to the Isle of Man, the force was not reorganised there partly due to the difficulty of changing to annual training. Bermuda, the Channel Islands and Malta were not encompassed by the scope of the legislation, and so the Militia there continued to operate under the old system. First World War The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 saw the Act and its principal issue, the Territorial Force, put to the sternest of tests; the regular Expeditionary Force of six divisions was quickly sent to the Continent, where, facing overwhelming odds, they secured the left flank of the French Army. Of the 90,000 members of the original BEF deployed in August, four-fifths were dead or wounded by Christmas. Meanwhile, as Haldane had envisaged, all 14 Territorial divisions were mobilised; the mobilisation was carried out punctually and the divisions were armed. By April 1915, six complete Territorial divisions had deployed to France. According to BEF commander in chief, Field Marshal (then) Sir John French, "Without the assistance which the Territorials afforded between October 1914 and June 1915, it would have been impossible to hold the line in France and Belgium." For detail both on this and Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener's decision to set up a parallel 'New Army' see main article Territorial Force. Subsequent legislation The Army (Annual) Act 1909 gave the Territorial Force powers of billeting in private accommodation when embodied. Under the Military Service Act 1916, which introduced conscription, the provisions of the Act which prevented a Territorial soldier from being transferred to a different corps, or a regular unit, without his consent were suspended. The Territorial Army and Militia Act 1921 changed the Territorial Force into the Territorial Army, and the Special Reserve returned to its old title of Militia. The Air Force (Constitution) Act 1917 had created a reserve and an auxiliary force for the newly constituted Royal Air Force, and the Auxiliary Air Force and Air Force Reserve Act 1924 modified the 1907 Act so as to allow County Associations to administer the Territorial Army and the Auxiliary Air