The history of the Royal Military Police can be traced back further than any other Regiment or Corps to a period of at least 1241 AD when, a ‘Military Sergeant of Peace’ was appointed by Henry II. This unit formed the basis of the modern Royal Military Police.
During the many years that followed between this period and 1877 there were many non-permanent units formed under Provost Marshalls especially during the Napoleonic wars under the auspices of the Duke of Wellington. He had realised that discipline amongst his troops needed to be maintained both on and off the Battlefield, not only for their own protection but, for the protection of the local civilian population in whatever theatre they were operating at the time.
On 1st August 1877 the Mounted Military Police was formed as an official Corps within the British Army. This was the first time that a permanent standing official unit had been formed with a responsibility for policing the British armed forces.
The Corps was posted into various units both in the UK and abroad as required by the War Office at the time. It was not until 1885 that a separate Foot Police Corps was raised as a permanent unit.
Before the First World War both these units operated separately with a combined strength of about 508 members (all ranks). By the end of that war the numbers had increased to around 25,000 members (all ranks) however, these numbers were reduced at the end of the war as the army was disbanded back to its pre-war figures and the MMP and MFP units went back to their original number of around 508 members (all ranks).
In 1927 both of these units MMP and MFP were amalgamated into the Corps of Military Police, effectively becoming one standing police force within the ranks of the British Military establishment.
During the following years the Corps grew along with the British forces and by the time of the outbreak of World War II the Corps had around 4,121 members. By 1943 the number of personnel had grown to over 32,000.
In 1946 in recognition of the Corps outstanding war record His Majesty King George VI granted the 'Royal' prefix to the Corps, so it became Corps of Royal Military Police (RMP).
Around 1978 Cpl's Phil Matthews & Bob Woolnough opened the detachment at Longmoor. Longmoor was originally the main train depot area run by the Royal Engineers for the whole of the UK but, by then an annual training camp for the RAMC TA units from around the UK. The other main area of policing for this detachment was the Military base at Borden a few miles up the A325 from the Longmoor camp.
As well as the Borden and Longmoor camps there were the vast range areas to patrol.
On 5th March 1995 The Mounted Troop of the Royal Military Police was officailly disbanded after 118 years of service to the Crown and Colours. This was a sad loss to the Corps as even though the Troop which had only been around 20 strong for many years, had carried out effective and necessary policing duties throughout the UK. Many of these duties were unable to be carried out by normal units of RMP due to the unsuitability of terrain and area etc.
The Display Team had annually drawn crowds all over the UK to wonder at the precise timing of both Horse and Motorcycle riders and to cheer them on in the never-ending competition each year.
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