Enlisting

[susan kitchen]

Can someone please put me straight about enlisting. I thought that men joined up to the Regiment where they lived. A few relations of mine were all born in Walsoken, a small village in Norfolk. One joined a Lincolnshire Regiment, another Cambridgeshire Reg. Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire they are all close together so i can understand why someone would join those. However of the two left one joined the York and Lancaster and the other the East Lancs. For what reason would they do that.?

Susan

[Ken Lees]

Prior to conscription (early 1916) a man could pretty much choose his unit, subject to them having a vacancy. The reasons for choosing could be many and varied. After conscription was introduced, a man went where he was sent, and that meant anywhere where men were needed.

To complicate matters further, a man could enlist in his local unit and before being sent overseas he could easily be drafted into another unit who needed reinforcement.

Ken

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

You find men enlisting in many regiments foreign to their home County,some may have worked in other counties {on the Railways etc,;on the other end of a Railway Line!;} others may have enlisted into a different unit to avoid being "found";or might have family affiliations with another unit,as Ken has said some would have enlisted {or tried to enlist} in the local unit to be posted elsewhere if the regiment was "Full Up" @ the time.

Regiments often recruited "Out of Area" prior to 1914,in line with their old Numbered Regt system. {eg:East Lancs recruited in Cambridgeshire/Hertfordshire border;home of the old 30th Foot}

[susan kitchen]

Thanks both for your replies. You have been a great help.

Susan