Recruiters directly employed by TF Associations

[Charles Fair]

I have been going through the minutes of the County of London Territorial Force Association which are held in the London Metropolitan Archives for a paper on TF recruiting in London from 1908 to 1914.

A pilot scheme employed a number of recruiters who were paid directly by the County of London TF Association. A total of 14 recruiters operated in 7 of the 28 London boroughs from 6 January 1913.

Up until the end of March 1913 the paid recruiters had recruited 306 men which compares with 1,756 men obtained by the units themselves. By early July they had recruited a total of 700 compared with c. 5,000 by the units.

The Recruiting Committee meeting of 22 July 1913 spent much of its time discussing the effectiveness of this scheme. As the transcript of the meeting shows, view of their effectiveness were mixed.

Mr Barnes, the chairman of the Recruiting Committee commented:

“You must understand that these paid recruiters are breaking ground that the COs have not got. The COs may work their own ground but the recruiting officers are breaking new ground and you cannot tell how many of these men have influenced the 5,000. It is one of those things you cannot tell.”

Some units clearly benefited. Colonel Pakenham of the 18th London Regiment, the London Irish was delighted:

“I have been one of the units that has benefited by the paid recruiters. I have had more recruits this year than all the seven years I have had the battalion, and these have been largely brought in by the paid recruiters.”

However, Colonel Christmas replied saying that:

“Colonel Pakenham’s unit is rather a peculiar one, it is recruited from all over London. It is supposed to be an Irish battalion … and it is possible that the Association may find him men from all over the area of the County of London. But that does not apply to majority of COs.”

Colonel Lewis added:

“with regard to my own battalion, I may say that my favourite recruiter brings in an average of five recruits a week, and I attribute it to this reason, that he gets about during the daytime and also parts of London where my own men cannot get because my own men in the daytime are at their work and in the evening they have their homes and they have their private engagement, so I think there is a great deal to be said for the breaking of new ground and I should think myself that the paid recruiters are worth the money.”

In contrast to these positive experiences, Mr Pownall reported:

“As far as my experience is concerned the recruiters of the association are absolutely useless. I had some four working in my battalion and I do not think that they have brought in a single recruit. Since then I have taken up recruiting myself and at the expense of about £25 the association has got 100 recruits, that is taking the recruiting stations in the district in the evening when the men leave their work”

In their defence, it was pointed out that the recruiters were operating in only one quarter of the London boroughs. Seven hundred out compared with 5,000 “is not such a bad proportion as some of you make out.” If the experiment had been carried out across all boroughs they might have pulled in a number nearer to 2,800 men.

The Committee recommended that the experiment with paid recruiters be discontinued from 25 July 1913 over the summer camp and holiday period, but that they be reemployed in the autumn. It also recommended that “two paid recruiters be employed in every borough where the strength of any unit is below 80% of its establishment”.

The recruiters were reemployed from 26 September 1913. In the period until 21 November 1913 they had obtained 303 recruits, compared with the units themselves which had obtained 745 recruits. The recruiters obtained another 576 recruits between 22 Nov 1913 and 14 March 1914.

This second ‘season’ of using paid recruiters does appear to have been more successful. A total of 879 men were recruited by an average of 20 NCOs in the five and a half months between 26 September 1913 and 14 March 1914. This campaign was certainly more cost-effective with a cost per recruit of 15s 3d – half that at the outset of the experiment.

My questions:

Unfortunately I do not know whether this experiment was continued up until the outbreak of war as the last TFA meeting was held in March 1914, and they were suspended until late 1917 so there are no minutes which would have this information. Does anyone know if the experiment continued?

Was this approach - i.e. recruiters employed by TF Assocs not directly by units themselves - used anywhere else in the country?

If not, did any TF units directly employ dedicated recruiters themselves? (I dont mean ordinary TF soldiers and NCOs who may have carried out some recruiting activities on top of their normal duties.)

[dave ricketts]

Charles,

I will skim the Leicestershire and Rutland Association Minute Book when I next get to the Leicestershire Record Office - in the next few days, weather and chores permitting.

Dave

[AndrewThornton]

Charles

I didn't come across any references to agents being employed by the Territorial Force Association in Staffordshire during peacetime, possibly because the general recruiting situation in the county was a lot healthier than in London. However, there are a couple of examples of agents working on behalf of particular units (not CTFA-sanctioned as far as I have been able to detect) after the outbreak of the war.

A contingent of “Non-Manuals” was formed within the 5th Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment and included a large group of old boys of the Newcastle High School. Colonel W.W. Dobson, the Honorary Colonel of the battalion, started this initiative by enlisting a group of 24 former pupils who had served with the Officers Training Corps on 27 August 1914. By the following week, this contingent had increased to fifty men, with the Headmaster, F. Harrison, acting as recruiting agent.

Other Territorial Force contingents relied on the efforts of patriotic individuals to act as recruiting agents. In Tamworth, Richard Tolson, owner of the Bleach Works at Fazeley, was asked by Captain John Jenkinson to undertake the collection of the names of potential recruits for the local detachment of the 6th Battalion. Edward Hammersley, a former Quartermaster-Sergeant with the North Staffordshire Regiment who had retired after 22 years service in 1912, assisted Tolson with drilling the recruits he had collected, combining his duties with being landlord of the George Inn until his death from Bright’s disease on 13 October 1914. After the death of Hammersley, another Fazeley man, Basil Green, stepped in to canvass former members of the company to re-enlist. Green himself was to join the 6th Battalion as a private in October 1914. A similar initiative was undertaken by Richard Sparling Harding, the captain of Knypersley Cricket Club, who was “given a commission” to enlist 75 men for the Reserve Battalion of the 5th Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment.

[dave ricketts]

Gents,

I have reviewed the logbook for Leicestershire and Rutland T.A., and there is no mention of recruiters, nor from their accounts any sign of payment. As with Staffordshire, it seems that there was a relatively healthy situation in regard to manning, although recruiting, and more particularly retention, was much discussed. There are a couple of references to a "West Riding" scheme, which is not expanded on, but whether that is anything to do with the question, I don't know.

Dave

[Charles Fair]

Dave, thanks very much for looking. I too have found a huge amount of discussion of recruiting and retention - perhaps not surprising as the County of London comprised alomost 9% of the 1909 TF establishment.

Andy, thanks for your examples. Do you think these agents were paid? The last one sounds like he might have been.

I am beginning to suspect that this was probably only a metropolitan thing, and perhaps only in London because it was a difficult place in which to recruit. I am looking through various books and papers I have on the TF and havent yet found anything similar.

many thanks to you both,

Charles

[Charles Fair]

Just bumping this old thread up just in case anyone who has joined the GWF in the last couple of years can add anything.

[Graham Stewart]

Charles,

Don't know if you're aware, but "paid recruiters" were a common feature of enlistment for both the Regular Army and Militia, but have to admit that I've never been aware of it being used by the pre-1908 Volunteers or Territorials. In the case of the latter this was due to strict recruiting boundaries set out by County T.F.A.'s, which were set out to stop poaching.

Years ago when going through the Minute Books of Northumberland T.F.A. reference was made to a map which showed the recruiting boundaries of the Northumberland Fusiliers Territorial Battalions, alas I never actually saw the map itself which wasn't in the Minute Book itself. However it was made clear to the C.O.'s of Battalions that recruiting out of their boundary area wouldn't be tollerated, but their was nothing preventing men from voluntarily crossing boundaries to join the Battalion of their choice.

I do have in my possession a "Pamphlet for Recruiters" dated October 1895 with extracts regarding rewards for paid recruiters and if you're interested I'll e.mail them to you. Can also supply details from T.F. Regs regarding recruitment.

Graham.