File:Robertson-Street-1909.-with-letter-note..jpg

Summary

Troop Mobilisation, Robertson Street

Notes

On the 17th March 1909 (St. Patrick’s Day), members of the Automobile Association carried a composite battalion of Guardsmen from London to Hastings in their motor cars. This was an exercise that was organised in conjunction with the War Office to test the practicality of moving large numbers of troops to the scene of an invasion by utilising available volunteer motor transport. The battalion of 600 men was drawn from the Grenadiers, Coldstream and Scots Guards, and were embarked in over 100 open 4 and 5 seater cars, with the defenders’ weapons, ammunition and equipment transported separately in London Taxis specially hired by the Government. The whole exercise was judged to have been a major success and it demonstrated that in an emergency (such as an invasion by a hostile power, for example Germany) troops could have been moved rapidly to the invasion zone.^[1]

Medway Coal can be seen in the image.