The Legion of Frontiersmen, founded in 1904 by a quixotic writer and adventurer, Roger Pocock, attempted to create a paramilitary force that would serve the empire both as an irregular scouting force in time of war and as an intelligence network through its 'frontier' connections. Although the organization's global membership reached 10,000 by the beginning of the First World War the legion's requests for official recognition were consistently rebuffed and the picturesque nature of its uniforms often caused public mockery. Nevertheless, a study of these 'super patriots' provides new perspectives on several important cultural and political themes in Britain and the empire in the early twentieth century, including the significance of the 'frontier' in imperial discourse. It also questions several assumptions about the supposed 'militarization' of Edwardian society.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.