additional title The Blythswood Rifles in honour of its Commanding Officer (CO), Archibald Campbell of Blythswood House, who later took the title of Lord Blythswood. Campbell had served with the Scots Fusilier Guards in the Crimean War and had retired with the rank of 'Captain and Lieutenant–Colonel'. He was commissioned as Lt-Col in command of the 31st RVC on 1 December 1864. In 1873, the Blythswood Rifles absorbed the 5th Lanarkshire RVC, previously the 7th Admin Bn formed in September 1860 to administer the following Glasgow RVCs: 5th (1st Eastern) Lanarkshire RVC – services accepted 24 September 1859 21st (Parkhead Artisans) Lanarkshire RVC – recruited in the Parkhead district, services accepted 5 December 1859 34th (1st Rifle Rangers) Lanarkshire RVC – services accepted 27 December 1859 35th (2nd Rifle Rangers) Lanarkshire RVC – services accepted 27 December 1859 58th (1st Eastern Artisans) Lanarkshire RVC – services accepted 10 February 1860 59th (2nd Eastern Artisans) Lanarkshire RVC – services accepted 21 February 1860 64th (1st Rutherglen) Lanarkshire RVC – recruited at Rutherglen, services accepted 18 February 1860 65th (2nd Rutherglen) Lanarkshire RVC – recruited at Rutherglen, services accepted 18 February 1860 66th (Eastern Rifle Rangers) Lanarkshire RVC – services accepted 17 February 1860 90th (Whitevale) Lanarkshire RVC – recruited in the Whitevale district, services accepted 24 May 1860 The initial 12 companies in the 7th Admin Bn (consolidated as the 5th Lanarkshire RVC in 1860) had been reduced to 10 in 1864 and dwindled thereafter until it was absorbed into the 31st. Volunteer Force When the RVCs were consolidated in 1880, the battalion was renumbered as the 8th (Blythswood Rifles) Lanarkshire RVC. Under the 'Localisation of Forces' scheme introduced in 1872 by the Cardwell reforms, the 31st Lanarkshire RVC had been grouped with the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot, the 90th Regiment of Foot (Perthshire Volunteers) and the 2nd Royal Lanark Militia in Brigade No 60. However, this affiliation was broken up in the Childers Reforms, under which the battalion became a volunteer battalion of the Highland Light Infantry (The Glasgow Regiment) (HLI) on 1 July 1881. It was formally redesignated as the 3rd (Blythswood) Volunteer Battalion, Highland Light Infantry in December 1887. The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 introduced a Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war. In peacetime these brigades provided a structure for collective training. Under