"Kitchener" recruitment 1914

[Moonraker]

The recruitment of so many men in 1914 to the New Armies must have had a serious effect on many employers, but I don't recall reading much about this. The impression I have is that many men left their jobs "just like that", telling their employers they were joining up and leaving for the recruitment office.

(Yet I would think that some gave, say, a week's notice to tidy things up and then joined up.)

With women at that time not "mobilised" as a workforce, how did companies cope? Did many cease to trade?

Later it was realised that some men should not have been allowed to leave their key occupations and, indeed, some soldiers were returned to their civilian work.

I'm talking specifically about the last months of 1914. The labour situation at home worsened as the war went on, and after conscription there was much special pleading at tribunals about the effect a man's departure would have on a business.

Moonraker

[truthergw]

There was quite a lot of unemployment at the time and that helped swell recruiting numbers. In " Haunting Years" by W.L. Andrews, he mentions being asked to step aside from the queue waiting to join the New Army when he admitted to being employed. He later enlisted with the local TF and so ended up in 4th Black Watch instead of the 8th. In that particular case, the local textile industry was going through a bad patch. Manufacturing sandbags soon changed that.

[clive_hughes]

In some cases, the employers had encouraged enlistment even (I understand) to the extent of promising to make up the difference between their usual and Army pay rates. Such offers were made without consideration of the numbers who might take them at their word, or the likely length of the conflict.

One such generous offer was made by the Cardiff Railway Company. The IWM London have a series of the handouts they circulated to their workforce in 1914, initially backing any men who felt they had to enlist; but within days retracting their offer as it became clear that they faced undermanning!

Another take on this is the North Wales slate quarrying industry. With the outbreak of war ending their overseas export markets and a slump in the building trade, many of the workers were laid off or put on part-time rates. As a result, though a good many enlisted (and were robustly encouraged in this by their employers), just as many went off to fill vacancies in the mines, factories, and docks caused by other recruits!

At the other end of the scale, some "essential" employers including the Royal Mail, Civil Service, and Railways would threaten to treat any employee enlisting without specific permission as having resigned their posts.

Clive

[Moonraker]

... At the other end of the scale, some "essential" employers including the Royal Mail, Civil Service, and Railways would threaten to treat any employee enlisting without specific permission as having resigned their posts.

Clive

One can understand the importance of retaining postal and rail workers especially. The railways appear to have done very well in moving thousands of men, not only of the BEF but of Territorials at their summer camps at the time war was declared. And many of the new camps were served by sidings from railway lines.

Moonraker