Territorial force

[Simon R]

Absolutely fantastic!

Is there a new intro? Any significant changes? Is it now Bales, P.G. 2004 or have I simply missed this?

Frothing at mouth now. The heat, the terrible heat.

[Tony Lund]

Bales, P.G. Capt. 1920 'The History of the 1/4th DWR 1914-1919' Mortimer, Halifax.

Huddersfield Lending Library have a copy of the original, I have only seen a picture of the reprint on the Naval and Military Press web site, and the cover has changed colour! From the description it seems the content is the same. They describe it as a “2002 N & M Press reprint (first pub 1920).”

Captain Bales joined the battalion in September 1916 and was with it to the end, most of the time as adjutant and responsible for the war dairy. In general terms the conditions it describes applies to all four battalions of the 147th Brigade and a few others from the 49th Division, they were all inter-reliving each other in the same area.

The map of the Ypres area shows communication trenches with names like:

Huddersfield Road, Halifax Road, Colne Valley, Mirfield, Skipton Road, Wellgate, Barnsley Road and Vicar Lane, obviously named by men from West Yorkshire. In the case of the 1st 7th (Colne Valley) Battalion, I think it always contained a good number of men from the Lancashire area at the other end of the Standedge Tunnel from the Colne Valley. Certainly there are many Lancastrians buried in the Colne Valley Cemetery in Belgium.

There is a Newspaper called the Colne Valley Guardian on film at Huddersfield which contains the story of the Colne Valley Boot Fund, which was started by the Colonel of the 1st 7th Battalion in 1914 to buy boots for his battalion, also an informative Roll of Honour section reporting on the deaths from that area.

Tony.

[munchkin]

Thanks Tony,

It might be aswell for me to check my library on monday. Maybe they have a copy of it too.

Glynn.

[Simon R]

Ah, 2002, I must have missed it. Very remiss.

You should check out the Laurie Magnus book noted above whilst library browsing.

[munchkin]

Will do Simon

Thanks

Glynn.

[Tony Lund]

I shall shortly be looking for information about the activities of the Holmfirth men in 1916. Most of these are in the 1st 5th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's, with a smaller number in the 1st 7th and the rest are scattered throughout every regiment you can think of.

I believe the 3rd September 1916 was the second worst day of the war for Huddersfield and district including Holmfirth, the 1st 4th and the 1st 5th attacked the area around the Pope's Nose at Thiepval and the 1st 7th were in reserve in a wood nearby getting shelled all day. I would be most interested in anything you come up with for that day.

If you are interested in individuals, I have some Holmfirth men killed in the 1st 7th and a survivor who was blinded in 1917, I got a telephone call from his daughter a few days ago.

Tony.

[dycer]

A general comment from the 1/8 Battalion The Royal Scots(TF) in The European War 1914-1918

April 1918

"The Battlion was resting and reorganising ------- when the enemy made his attack-----.The enemy attacked in force during the early morning of the 11th April,and during the whole of that day the Battalion bore their share of holding the enemy in check.Severe fighting took place in and in front of Paradis, but the enemy,after his success of crossing the River Lawe,made little progress,and that at great expense.The Battalion had been reinforced by youths of nineteen,who behaved like veterans."

George

[munchkin]

Tony,

I have the officers and men died in Sheffield roll of honor books if you need any info.

Glynn.

[Ste]

This is not quite right:  the whole point of being a Territorial was that there was no legal requirement to serve overseas.  When war broke out there was a big movement to join TF precisely for that reason: men were willing to defend their homes but they had jobs and wives they did not want to leave.  I have statistics for this.

Langley,

this makes good sense. However, if I recall correctly, I came across a slightly conflicting picture when looking at the August / Sept 1914 recruitment of my local Territorials (1/5 & 2/5 South Lancs). It seems that they struggled a little in relation to the New Army.

By Sept 22nd the reserve battalion to the 5th SLR (to become 2/5) was still short of 400 men. On that day the St Helens Reporter editorial said:

The rush of recruits for the Pals may, for the time, have had the effect of temporarily eclipsing the needs of the 5th South Lancs, but now that the former are complete it is 'up to' St Helens, for credit's sake, to see that the old home Regiment gets all the men it requires.

I do seem to recall reading in some secondary works that the perceived glamour of the 'Pals' and respect for the regulars had a negative effect on TF recruitment.

By Sept 3rd the local 'Pals' (11th SLR) had already had 938 applications. On the same day, the local Engineers (Territorials) appealed for 75 men to bring them up tp establishment. The Reporter says that 400 applied by the Sunday afternoon - 325 of whom were told 'to go to the Town Hall to join Kitchener's Army.'

Exact comparisons and judgements about motivation are difficult at this distance, with patchy evidence. The editorial piece indeed suggests that the Territorials were attracting fewer recruits than the 'Pals', yet it also seems that the Engineers were turning men away.

Can you shed any light?

Cheers,

Ste

[Ste]

One further point: I thought that the lack of legal requirement to serve overseas applied solely to pre-war Territorials, and that those who volunteered for TF units during the war did not have a choice. Is this correct?

Cheers,

Ste

[Tony Lund]

I think before the introduction of the 1916 Military Service Act all the Territorials who went overseas were men who had actually volunteered for active service. I do not believe there was any legal requirement to do so against an individuals wishes. But after the new law was passed everybody had to go where they were told to go, regardless of personal inclinations.

[AndrewThornton]

Here are some observations on Territorial Force recruitment based on research I have done on the Territorials in Staffordshire, in order to provide some comparisons with what other people have observed:

Instead of using the existing framework of Territorial Force units and the resources of the County Associations as a means of expanding the army, a function that Haldane had originally envisaged the force as performing in wartime, Lord Kitchener decided instead to raise an entirely new force of 100,000 men to support the Regular Army. Three further appeals for recruits were made by Kitchener during the remainder of 1914. This had a damaging effect on Territorial Force recruitment that would persist until the introduction of the Derby Scheme in November 1915, and the abolition a month later of direct enlistment into the Territorial Force. Ian Beckett argues that by restricting recruitment for the Territorial Force in the early days of the war, potential recruits were more likely to enlist into a ‘New Army’ unit as this option appeared more attractive, and that Kitchener’s decision “militated against its recruitment”. This duplication of recruiting efforts, and the resulting conflicts over limited resources, was particularly damaging to the Territorial Force as County Territorial Force Associations lacked the experience in dealing with large numbers of recruits.

Kitchener’s outright hostility towards the Territorial Force and his reluctance to use the organisation as a framework on which to expand the army meant that the County Territorial Force Associations were initially unable to tap into this initial “rush to the colours” for recruits. Kitchener’s preference was to concentrate recruiting efforts towards his “New Armies” in the early weeks of the war, with Territorial Force units only being permitted to recruit up to their peacetime establishment. Nonetheless, Kitchener was not reluctant to use the local influence of the Territorial Force Associations to aid him in achieving his initial recruiting target.

With the restriction of being able to recruit only up to their peacetime establishment and the resources of the county’s Territorial Force Association diverted towards supporting the “New Army”, Territorial Force units in Staffordshire initially limited their appeal for men with previous military experience to enlist. One example was an appeal for 100 trained men who had served with either the Regular Army, reserves or Territorial Force to report to the Drill Hall at Stafford Street in Wolverhampton on 7 August to re-enlist for the 6th Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment. Major A. Griffiths, the officer in charge of the depot of the 5th Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment at Walsall, made a similar request in the local press, which reported that around 30 former Volunteers and time-expired Territorials had already re-enlisted and had been sent to the battalion, which was then at its mobilisation station in Burton-on-Trent. For those units reliant on horse transport, the Yeomanry, the branches of Artillery and the Royal Engineers, appeals were made for recruits with specialist trades to enlist, including one such advertisement that appeared in the Staffordshire Weekly Sentinel for saddlers, grooms and farriers to join the 2nd North Midland Field Brigade, Royal Field Artillery at Shelton.

An important factor that must be considered with regard to the recruiting requirements for the Territorial Force were the conditions of service under which pre-war members served. The period of engagement in peacetime had been for four years, but on the outbreak of hostilities this was extended automatically to five years. In addition, the primary role of the Territorial Force was that of home defence and consequently not liable for service overseas. Individuals could volunteer to do so in wartime under the terms of the Imperial Service Obligation. Prior to the outbreak of war, only around 18,000 members of the force nationally had volunteered to serve overseas if required.

On 10 August 1914 the War Office had requested units of the Territorial Force to volunteer for Imperial Service, and from the evidence contained in the published histories and contemporary newspaper reports, the commanding officers of those from Staffordshire immediately accepted. Lieutenant-Colonel J.H. Knight of the 5th Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment received the telegram from the War Office on 11 August, while his unit had halted at Checkley en route to their war station at Burton-on-Trent, and immediately responded. He received a further telegram accepting his offer when the battalion finished their day’s march at Uttoxeter.

As pointed out by Beckett, the enthusiasm of commanding officers to volunteer the services of their units for overseas service was not necessarily universal, and the individual soldiers ultimately decided if they would sign for “Imperial Service”. On 21 August, those units in which at least 80 per cent of their members had volunteered were allowed to recruit up to their war establishment, but by 31 August this requirement was reduced to 60 per cent. It has proved difficult to determine the level of response across all of the Territorial Force units in Staffordshire to the requests to volunteer for overseas service except for isolated examples. Contemporary newspaper reports are generally positive in their descriptions of the response of Territorials serving with Staffordshire units to the call to volunteer for overseas service, but provide little evidence to make conclusions regarding the overall response of the county’s Territorials to the request. Unit histories are also vague in their descriptions of the subject. The authors of the War History of the 6th Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment blandly recorded that when members of the unit were asked to sign on for “Imperial Service” at Luton in September 1914:

"Every man in his turn, and in full knowledge of what he was doing, destroyed the old contract, whereby his services were limited to home defence, and signed the new one, whereby he might be called upon to serve the whole world over."

More information is available on the level of response within individual sub-units. Within days of the initial War Office appeal, 40 officers and men of the 110 serving with “B” Squadron of The Staffordshire Yeomanry had volunteered, just over third of the total strength. By early September, it was reported that 75 per cent of the members of the Wednesbury-based “H” Company of the 5th Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment had signed the Imperial Service Obligation. Another report noted that 75 per cent of the men serving with the 6th Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment had volunteered for Imperial Service by early September 1914 and that one detachment, “C” Company based at Tamworth, had three officers and 104 other ranks volunteer to serve overseas by late September 1914. A nominal roll for the 2nd North Midland Field Company, Royal Engineers, published in early October 1914 while the unit was stationed at Luton, does provide a more detailed breakdown of the situation as regards one Territorial Force contingent from Staffordshire. The wartime establishment of a Divisional Field Company was set at six officers and 211 other ranks. Of the 269 other ranks listed as serving with the company at the time, 208 had volunteered for Imperial Service. By analysing the regimental numbers of the men listed on the roll and comparing known dates of enlistment, 123 pre-war members of the unit had volunteered for overseas service as opposed to 57 who had not, although some of these men are known to have subsequently served overseas. Ten Officers are also listed but the nominal roll does not specify which of them had volunteered for service overseas or had opted to remain at home, although all but one are known to have served overseas at some point during the war. It is probable that the other units had similar ratios of those serving who had undertaken the Imperial Service Obligation and those who had not, but in the absence of detailed data it is difficult to make any solid conclusions regarding the level of response for the whole of the Territorial Force in Staffordshire, or if there were any local variations between units, as indicated by Beckett with reference to discrepancies between companies recruited from certain occupations.

The outcome of this process was that in order for the Imperial Service contingents to be fully manned, new recruits would have to be found to replace the men who remained at home. The process of separating the Home Service men from the remainder who had volunteered for Imperial Service began in early September 1914 and in the case of the infantry battalions, the men detached accounted for around a quarter of a battalion’s establishment. The 6th Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment were recorded to have sent away a detachment to Dunstable consisting of seven officers and around two hundred men, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel H. Taylor. The 5th Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment sent 250 men back to Walsall on 5 September. Of those soldiers returned, 65 were either under or over-age, while 70 men had failed to reach the medical requirements. The remainder of the contingent were men who had refused to volunteer for overseas service, although 15 later changed their mind and were posted back to the main unit at Luton six days later. A detachment of some 200 men of the 6th Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment had also been sent back to Burton-on-Trent on 5 September. As well as being separated from their comrades serving with the “Imperial Service” units, they were also deprived of much of their equipment and were even made to give up their khaki service dress and don scarlet full-dress tunics instead. Some of the men who had originally opted for Home Service would eventually decide to volunteer to serve overseas, and no doubt treating them in this manner influenced their decision. Even after the declaration of war, recruits still had the option of enlisting for home service only in Territorial Force units and this situation that was not resolved until the abolition of home service enlistments in March 1915. There is evidence that this anomaly did prove attractive to some recruits for Territorial Force units in Staffordshire. In December 1914 one non-military member of the Territorial Force Association, Molyneaux Seel, felt obliged to complain to Major Green, the Recruiting Officer at Stafford, that recruiting for one home service unit, the Reserve Regiment of The Staffordshire Yeomanry, was bringing in all eligible recruits to the detriment of the Imperial Service units.

Between 10 August and 30 November 1914, 6,691 recruits had joined Territorial Force units in Staffordshire, nearly doubling the peacetime establishment of the units located in the county. Some 19,668 recruits for the Regular Army (which were in effect "New Army" enlistments) had enlisted from the county during the same period. Enlistments in Staffordshire for the Regular Army and Territorial Force between 5 August 1914 and 1 May 1915 were broken down as follows:

Recruiting Area Regular Army Territorial Force

Stoke on Trent 15,440 5,522

64th Regimental District 5,384 2,419

Wolverhampton 9,489 4,307

38th Regimental District 7,036*

*Regular and Territorial recruits not distinguished

Source: Staffordshire Territorial Force Association – Minutes of Meeting 11 May 1915 (Staffordshire Weekly Sentinel, 15 May 1915)

I hope this helps.

[Guest Duke]

Dear Glynn,

My name is Martin Maynard and my grandfather was in the 1/7th Duke of Wellingtons. Because of this I have done quite a bit of research into their First world war exploits. You appear to have been given all the relevent texts and available documentation that is available.

The PRO providing the documents have not been destroyed are the only chance of tracing your relatives actual war record as the Dukes archives have no individual records other than certain officers.

The territorials lost the vast majority of their original embarkation force which went overseas in 1915. Members of their second battalion the 2/7th provided a few replacements and then went overseas in their own right as members of the 62nd Div.

Looking down casualty lists for the final year of the war very few local men to the battalion were killed, with the vast majority being from all over the country. Quite a lot of these had been members of other regiments and for one thing or another had been placed into what was a Colne Valley, Saddleworth and Mossley Territorial battalion.

Good Luck,

Martin

[Guest Duke]

Dear Tony,

I have some information concerning the Dukes on the Somme during September 1916. I have access to the war diaries which would be a great aid to your research.

As I only live a few miles from you, perhaps you would like to contact me on 01484 860642.

Best wishes,

Martin Maynard

[Ste]

Andrew,

thank you for that most detailed and informative post.

I have a couple of questions:

I thought the pre-war term of service was 5 years not 4. Hence a lot of men leaving in 1913, after their initial term from 1908 was up. Do I have this wrong?

Were the men who didn't volunteer for overseas service used to help raise and train th second line units? Despite their red tunics (conspicuous moral pressure, if ever there was such a thing!) that would have made good use of their experience.

Cheers,

Ste

LATE EDIT - I have just checked, and you are quite correct. You can see part of Clement Attlee's service recordhere. It includes his attestation into the Territorials on 14.9.14, giving his period of service as 4 years.

Thanks again,

Ste

[munchkin]

Martin,

I would be interested to know what information you do have. Also do you have the book "History of the 1/4th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment 1914-1919". I have ordered it but it's 3 weeks delivery, and i have a question about it. Drop me an email please.

Thanks

Glynn.

[AndrewThornton]

Andrew,

thank you for that most detailed and informative post.

I have a couple of questions:

I thought the pre-war term of service was 5 years not 4. Hence a lot of men leaving in 1913, after their initial term from 1908 was up. Do I have this wrong?

Were the men who didn't volunteer for overseas service used to help raise and train th second line units? Despite their red tunics (conspicuous moral pressure, if ever there was such a thing!) that would have made good use of their experience.

Cheers,

Ste

LATE EDIT - I have just checked, and you are quite correct. You can see part of Clement Attlee's service recordhere. It includes his attestation into the Territorials on 14.9.14, giving his period of service as 4 years.

Thanks again,

Ste

The conditions of service for the new Territorial Force were set out in the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907.

New recruits for the Territorial Force would enlist for a period of four years but were allowed to terminate their engagement on giving three months notice and on payment of £5, unless they chose to enlist into the Regular Army when this requirement was waived.

Serving members of the Volunteer Force were allowed to transfer to the Territorials on a short one-year engagement but if they chose to continue their service would have to re-enlist for four years.

The period of engagement was automatically extended by one year to five years on mobilisation.

Territorials would be subject to Military Law and any offences they had committed while on duty would be punishable under King’s Regulations. Officers and other ranks were also required to attend weekly drill nights and also an annual camp that would last between 8 and 15 days. Unlike the Volunteers, members of the Territorial Force would be paid for their attendance at camp. Members of the Territorial Force were liable, on embodiment, to serve anywhere in the United Kingdom in an emergency.

Individuals would also be able to volunteer for additional service. Those men who had volunteered for the Special Service Section could be called out on duty in a national emergency even if the Territorial Force had not been embodied. Territorials could also volunteer to serve overseas, an arrangement that from 1910 became known as the “Imperial Service Obligation”. Those men who had signed to undertake overseas service could only do so with their unit and could not be drafted to any other formation unless they had given their permission.