Above - Sergeant Edward Batcheler, Cinque Ports Volunteers c1865

In 1859 there was another scare , this time from Napoleon III, although there was no real substance to it. A Volunteer Rye Corps was formed in May 1859 to be called the Rye District Company. This became a joint company with Tenterden in December 1859, but was disbanded in 1860. In the following year the government reorganised the 35th (Cinque Ports) Regiment of Rifle Volunteers into two battalions and the Rye subdivision became the Third Hastings Company in the First Cinque Ports Administrative Battalion. This later became the Ninth Rifles and lasted until 1876. The Fourth Cinque Ports ( Hastings & Rye ) Volunteer Artillery were formed in 1861 and called themselves the Rye Marine Cinque Ports Volunteer Artillery and they lasted until 1877, yet they continued to meet in Hastings with only two Rye members until 1891. In 1885 E Company First Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteers ( Brookfield's Greys ) was commissioned and some of these men served in the Boer War ( 1899 - 1902 ). In 1909 these were re-organised as the Territorials and served in the First World War. In 1901 the Sussex Imperial Yeomanry was formed and a Troop was raised in Rye and district. It maintained very close connections with Rye until 1904 and some men saw service in the First World War. It then became the Surrey Yeomanry and was converted to the Field Artillery and served in the Second World War.

In early 1911 the Veteran Reserve was created, later to be known as the National Reserve. A Rye Comopany was established and forty men served in the First World War.

In 1912 a Drill Hall and Armoury was opened near the Windmill. When war broke out in 1914, 300 had volunteered out of a population of 4,000, before conscription was introduced in 1916. The upper floor of the Monastery was turned into a hospital in 1915. On April 17th 1917, three bombs were dropped from a Zeppelin but little damage was done. 144 names are recorded on the Rye War Memorial of those that died in this war.

During the Second World War a Local Defence Volunteers, later the Home Guard, was formed in 1940 and it lasted unitl 1945. It was part of the 22nd Sussex Home Guard. Pill boxes, tank traps, and artillery batteries were set up around Rye. During the war 88 bombs and 200 incendiaries were dropped. Many buildings were destroyed and enemy action drastically changed the face of Rye, especially around the Ypres Tower and the Strand. See Inavasion Coast.