Waistbelt clasp, officer, Tower Hamlets Artillery Volunteers, 1860-1873 (waistbelt clasp)

Waistbelt clasp, officer, Tower Hamlets Artillery Volunteers, 1860-1873. Oakleaf design belt fitting with a depiction of the White Tower, the central keep of the Tower of London, within a circlet bearing the unit title, ‘Tower Hamlets Artillery’. When an invasion scare in 1859 led to a flood of volunteers forming new military units to defend Great Britain, artillery volunteers corps were formed. The Tower hamlets Artillery volunteers were raised in Poplar, East London in 1860. The cost of maintaining some artillery volunteer units was very high and as a result the Tower Hamlets were disbanded in 1873. Volunteer corps wore silver or white metal insignia, until the creation of the Territorial Force (TF) in 1908.