The Times - Call on Ex-Regulars

24th February 2026, David A Rew, Consultant Surgeon

Sir, Elisabeth Braw is correct in her ambition to expand the registration of former service personnel for a national strategic reserve but curiously selective in her target group and age limits through exclusion of former volunteer reservists and those over 65 (“MoD must track down ex-regulars — we need them”, Thunderer, Feb 23^rd 2026). There is no need at this point to “track anyone down”.

A national self registration portal and volunteer information system would be a valuable and efficient first step to re-engagement with a coalition of the willing in a wider age range. At 69, I remain professionally active and effective, and engaged with a dynamic collection of similar individuals whose collective service muscle memory is invaluable and deep.

The first step to reconstituting the resource is to track down the missing imagination.

David Rew, KVRM, TD, FRCS Consultant general surgeon, Southampton Hospitals; colonel (ret’d), Army Reserve

Background

I returned in this letter to my theme of the importance and urgency in creating an efficient system for the strengthening of the Volunteer Reserve (see letter in The Times of 9^th April 2025).

Elizabeth Braw of the Atlantic Council had offered one perspective in her “Thunderer” Op-Ed of 23^rd February. My observation is self-explanatory. The creation of a dynamic database with voluntary on line registration and regular updating of skills, experience and availability  would be of immense value and a substantial step forwards in reconstituting an active Volunteer Reserve for the British Army.

The framework for this already exists in the form of the recently issued UK Veterans card, and some 2 million veterans are eligible for this facility.

Of course, many of those individuals will be elderly and inform, but many ex-forces members remain active in public life in many roles, and the events in Ukraine have brought together many ex-military groups with specialist skills in charitable support of the Ukrainian cause. Here is Elizabeth’s article which prompted my letter:

MoD must track down ex-regulars - we need them

Elisabeth Braw The Times p22 Monday 23^rd February 2026

The Ministry of Defence wants members of the strategic reserve - that is, ex-regulars - to serve for ten more years, until the age of 65. The reform makes sense.

Former soldiers know the ropes, and Europe faces military threats all around. There’s just one problem: there’s no database of all the strategic reservists and their whereabouts. Find them!

The changes will also lower the threshold so reservists can be recalled for “warlike preparations”, not just the present requirement for “national danger, great emergency or attack on the UK”. Considering Russia’s inventiveness when it comes to harming countries such as ours, it’s little wonder that the MoD wants to prolong the availability of strategic reservists beyond the age of 55.

It is a positive step to give the UK’s massive pool of talented ex-regulars serious attention.

But how massive the pool is, and who is in it, is anyone’s guess. The government appears to estimate the strategic reserve at about 95,000 members. But with 13,000 to 15,000 service personnel leaving active duty each year, the force ought to be much bigger.

It’s no mystery why the government doesn’t have reliable figures: the armed forces don’t keep track of regulars when they leave.

There is, extraordinarily, no database of all the ex-regulars and their up to date details. Perhaps that’s because the military has had no need to keep in touch with them.

The details that do exist include ex-soldiers’ enrolment in the military pension scheme.

These days, veterans can also apply for a railcard, while if they’ve left the military since 2018 they also receive a veterans ID. But this does not amount to a record of the country’s strategic reservists and their whereabouts, let alone their skills, which they will have further enhanced on civvy street.

That’s a shame because strategic reservists are a formidable resource.

Find them. Set up a comprehensive database and issue a public call for them to submit their details. Train them. Sure, the MoD’s lack of engagement has made some disinclined to help. They may even have forgotten that they’re legally obliged to.

All, though, live in communities that could be subjected to warlike violence or even war itself. If invited, most would, I bet, do the right thing.

Such an initiative would also be an opportunity for the MoD to keep itself up to date about ex-regulars’ current expertise, as I suggest in an upcoming report for the National Preparedness Commission. It’s bound to uncover a wealth of skills.