Editing Ceylon Defence Force (section)

===First World War===
In 1914, with the outbreak of the [[World War I|First World War]], the Ceylon Defence Force was mobilised and expanded. Many volunteers from the Defence Force traveled to England and joined the British Army, and many of them were killed in action. One of them mentioned by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] was Private Jacotine of the Ceylon Light Infantry, who was the last man left alive in his unit at the Battle of Lys, and who continued to fight for 20 minutes before he was killed. The CPRC sent a force of 8 officers and 229 other ranks commanded by Major J. Hall Brown to the Great War. The unit sailed for Egypt in October 1914, and was deployed in defence of the Suez Canal. This unit was officially attached to the [[Australian and New Zealand Army Corps]] (ANZAC) and was in 1915 dispatched to [[ANZAC Cove|Anzac Cove]] (‘Z’ Beach) on the [[Gallipoli Peninsula]]. The CPRC performed operational duties as guards to ANZAC headquarter staff, including the General Officer Commanding ANZAC, Lieutenant General [[William Birdwood]], who remarked, “I have an excellent guard of Ceylon Planters who are such a nice lot of fellows.” According to its onetime Commanding Officer (CO), Colonel T.Y. Wright (1904–1912), the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps had sustained overall losses of 80 killed and 99 wounded in the Great War. Soon after the war the 80th Carnatics, who were the last regular military unit stationed in Ceylon on garrison duties, left. This resulted in the Ceylon Defence Force becoming a regular military unit with some units, such as the Mobilized Detachment of [[Sri Lanka Light Infantry|Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers]] having troops mobilised on a permanent basis.