Special Reserve: necessary but not sufficient

[Muerrisch]

Slightly off-piste but worth adding that Regular Reservists of all Sections A, B, D were borne on the books of the regiment as supernumeraries.

[Purbecksteve]

Thanks team

[Keith_history_buff]

On 02/02/2014 at 14:22, Muerrisch said:

Thank you. I will follow up the references.

I consulted THE GURU on regimental numbering sequences, Paul Nixon.

He has vast databases of numbers/ dates issued. He says that whereas recruiting on SR terms [strictly, the allocation of SR numbers] was withering away by November 1914, some regiments, notably the Duke Of Wellingtons and some Irish regiments recruited SR numbered men right into early 1916.

  

On 05/02/2014 at 17:24, Muerrisch said:

readers will wish to see Paul Nixon's:

http://armyservicenu...-demise-of.html

Very interesting to see that Paul has taken a look at SR numbers. In many cases, the medal rolls do not usually make a differentiation between the terms of service, be they Regular or Special Reserve. The researcher has to attempt to determine the terms of service if the soldier concerned has a surviving service record or SWB roll entry.

As an aside, the excellent three part article by the late Martin Gillott and forum participant "Muerrisch" is well worth reading.

[Keith_history_buff]

On 01/02/2014 at 16:29, ss002d6252 said:

Have you seen part IX - Special Reserve in the General Annual Report of 1913-19 ?. This gives some interesting figures. No enlistment is shown to the S.R. after year ending 30 Sep 1914.

The Times Recruiting Supplement of Nov 1915 makes no reference to S.R. enlistments although it covers all the other options.

Craig

  

On 25/10/2020 at 12:50, ss002d6252 said:

[South Wales Borderers Special Reserve attestations;]
#15301 (SR) attested 2 Sep 1914
#15303 (SR) attested 15 Dec 1914
#15306 (SR) attested 14 Dec 1914

Craig

  

On 15/07/2014 at 01:24, Purbecksteve said:

Would each regiment have kept separate lists of Special Reserve Soldiers prior to 1914 ,I am interested in the Dorset Regiment SR rosters 1908-1916

As per my prior post, most medal rolls do not make the distinction. The South Wales Borderers are an exception to this. This gives details on soldiers with their SR numbers. The devil is in the detail, in respect of determining when they enlisted, and to see the spread of entrants over time. 

11628 Josiah Evans enlisted under SR terms on 4 August 1914. The numbers appear to have been issued up to the 1562* range. 15616 John Henry Broomhead enlisted under SR terms on 8 June 1915.

[Keith_history_buff]

The latest enlistment I have come across is for SR 15626 Michael Sullivan, who enlisted on 19 June 1915. He has a surviving service record. SR 15627 William Martin does not
  

On 03/02/2021 at 14:59, kenf48 said:

In the absence of a specific AO/AI which Charles Messenger stated he had not found (and  I'm sure he would have found one if it was there) I'd suggest the jury is still out as to the exact date (prior to conscription) time expired men ceased to be enlisted under 'Special Reserve' terms, though there is evidence such enlistments continued to be offered at least until May 1915 as I originally posted.

Some excellent material from the following thread

A quote from the late Martin Gillott

 

Quote

Something of related interest:

Army Order 341 dated 30th Aug 1914: Enlistments for the Regular Army and Special Reserve: "...except in the case of Cavalry and Foot Guards, all ex-regular Non-commissioned Officers irrespective of age and all men under 35 years of age will be posted to units of the new 6 Divisions of Army Troops. Other men will be posted to Reserve units of the Regular Army...."

 

London District of course being one of the Military Districts not supporting any Kitchener Division and therefore an untapped market given its huge population base (and presumably huge pool of ex-servicemen). MG

 

[Keith_history_buff]

Thanks to a thread about its partner, in which Craig (ss002d6252) has posted a link to BNA, I have been able to source a grainy image of the text of Army Order 295.

The source of the image is
Army & Navy Gazette, 15 Aug 1914 page 12 of 22

It has been attributed to
 R H Brade (1864 – 1933) who was the Secretary of the War Office and Permanent Under-Secretary 

Image courtesy of, and copyright of British Newspaper Archive ® by FindMyPast
 

[Keith_history_buff]

It would appear that the revised supplementary SR terms introduced by AO 295 were rescinded on 7 November 1914, likewise with the revised supplementary Regular terms of 3 years that were associated with AO 296. The attestation papers ceased, and Form B 2505 being used until the Derby Scheme or thereabouts when terms of service were changed with the introduction of conscription.

Edits made where font is not black or is struck through:
My poorly worded misinterpretation is edited, to try to be clearer. These two General Service terms were supplemental, and in existence for a brief period up to the announcement on 7 November 1914, when they were rescinded.
Thereafter, the default position of the recruiter was to enlist the recruit under the Duration of War terms as a Regular.

On an exceptional basis, an individual wishing to enlist:

• under Regular terms, to notionally serve 7 years with the colours & 5 with the reserve (such as Joseph Suddick, 11357, South Wales Borderers enlisting on 10 May 1915)
• under Special Reserve terms, to notionally serve 6 months of instruction, followed by 5 years 6 months on call to be mobilised in the event of an emergency (such as Michael Sullivan, 15626, South Wales Borderers enlisting on 11 June 1915)

could enlist 'under conditions that existed before the war'.

It would have made sense for men enlisting from November 1914 onwards to go for the new singular General Service terms 
         'in the Regular Army, and for the duration of the war, at the end of which men so enlisting will be discharged with all convenient speed.'

 

Edited 13 February by Keith_history_buff
Further explanation given in the edit

[JMB1943]

On 29/09/2013 at 12:41, Muerrisch said:

The Special Reserve Infantry: necessary but not sufficient.

A recent article on the Special Reserve [sR] in the journal of the WFA set me thinking, in that it seemed not to address the inevitable crisis of manpower that the SR just about met. This short note looks at the vital role played by the SR men battalions in the first months of the Great War.

I have had a hurried look for this article in the back-issues of Stand To! (to 2006) without success; do you by any chance have chapter and verse for this?

Regards,

JMB

[Keith_history_buff]

The articles are from a slightly different time period to 2006.

 

Stand To! 100 June 2014
British Infantry Reserves for the Great War (Part 1) by David Langley

Stand To! 101 September 2014
British Line Infantry Reserves for the Great War - Part 2: A Case Study of the Royal Welch Fusiliers by David Langley

Stand To! 102 January 2015
British Line Infantry Reserves for the Great War – Part 3 by Martin Gillott

[JMB1943]

Keith,

Thanks for those references....more reading to do on a very important topic.

I was just about to edit my response to Muerrisch that I had eventually found the errant article at,

Stand To! Vol. 70, April 2004, K.W. Mitchison, p. 5.

Regards,

JMB

[Keith_history_buff]

  

On 16/03/2008 at 20:06, charlesmessenger said:

Grumpy

Thanks for your PM. I have not come across an ACI/AO which states that Special Reserve recruitment was formally ended. But, like you, I am convinced that it was terminated shortly after the outbreak of war......

 a meeting of the Army Council on 16 Aug 14 laid down that National Reserve Class I members should be posted to Reserve bns. Many, however, found themselves being sent as reinforcements to bns in France.

Charles M

The purpose of the Special Reserve became changed by that outbreak of war.

From 6 August 1914 to 7 November 1914, supplemental SR General Service terms were temporarily in place. The purpose was to mop up the pool of ex-servicemen who were amenable to reenlisting. To my mind, the choice of enlisting under legacy SR terms or the supplemental terms would be as simple as the choice between purchasing a second hand Austin Allegro versus a second hand Volkswagen Golf. Those who were going to do so would have enlisted in this time period. The pool had been absorbed.

Given that this supplemental General Service term of service in the SR (AO 295) had achieved its purpose, it made sense to retire it. It also made sense to retire the parallel supplemental General Service term of service for regulars (AO 296), where prior military experience was not a pre-requisite. Filling the gap was the new improved General Service terms, as a regular, that would be the preferred route of enlistment.

Those who wished to enlist in the Special Reserve could still do so, and this was perhaps more appealing for older men, but this would be the exception. The evidence is in the surviving records where recruits clearly dropped off.

Army Order 341 (published 30 August 1914) is important whereby the age limits were raised for ex-servicemen enlisting in the SR, and that ex-servicemen looking to reenlist were being directed to attest for the Special Reserve.  

On 18/03/2008 at 12:49, Michael said:

The Buffs continued to recruit into the Special Reserve and the numbering started again at S1 in August 1914. This continued until the last recruit was S892 on 5/11/1914. Before August 1914 they had got up to about S11000.

Mick

  

On 29/03/2008 at 08:28, SPotter said:

The Dorset Regt appears to have followed a similar line to the Buffs.

On mobilisation they had reached approximately number 3/7320. The highest recorded 3/nnnn number I can find is 3/8996, and the latest enlistment with a 3/nnnn number is the end of March 1915, though by far the majority enlisted in August and September 1914.

Of these 'post-mobilisation' men - some 1676 in total - no less than 234 earned the 1914 Star, being sent, almost to a man, to France on 23rd October 1914. One can speculate easily that these were men returning from recently expired periods in the Army Reserve.

Many more earned the 1915 Star, but these are harder to trace. Virtually all were in France before the end of 1914 though, the last entry into a Theatre of War being early May 1915.

Regards

Steve

For my part I have identified 297 SR men on the 1914 Star for the South Wales Borderers who enlisted after the declaration of hostilities. Unlike the clerks of the Royal Sussex Regiment, there is no delineation between those enlisting under legacy SR terms or General Service terms.

From an administrative perspective, I would imagine that those who enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment under legacy SR terms had their details recorded in the front of the Form 359 Enlistment Book, and those who enlisted under the General Service SR terms had their details recorded in the back of the book. As I understand it, this was destroyed by the Arnside Street fire.

A specific observation from the late Martin Gillott, in respect of the Loyal North Lancs 

On 25/01/2015 at 19:15, Guest said:

Here is something of interest:

Army Order 341 dated 30th Aug 1914: Enlistments for the Regular Army and Special Reserve: "...except in the case of Cavalry and Foot Guards, all ex-regular Non-commissioned Officers irrespective of age and all men under 35 years of age will be posted to units of the new 6 Divisions of Army Troops. Other men will be posted to Reserve units of the Regular Army...."

What this means is that every re-enlisted ex-line infantryman under 35 was diverted to K1, as well as every ex-NCO. The Regular Army had to make do with the 35-40 year olds (later 35-45 year olds). Interesting on a number of levels. In proactical terms this meant that (generally speaking) the cohorts of 1897 to 1902 who re-enlisted were sent to bolster K1. The Regular battalions were left with men who first enlisted in 1896 or earlier.

On a separate thread I am exploring the re-enlisted men. 64,000 re-enlisted in the Line Infantry between 6th Aug and 30th Sep 1914. A simply staggering figure - enough men to man over four-and-a-half Divisions of Infantry (assuming they were fit enough). Another 28,000 joined in the subsequent 12 months. Far more filtered through to the Regular battalions in France and Flanders than I would ever have expected. Some 32% of the 1st Bn Loyal North Lancs were re-enlisted men in April 1915.. If the AO 341 instructions were adhered to, that would mean nearly a third of the 1st Bn Loyal North Lancs were aged 35 or more and prior to enlistment had probably not picked up a rifle in 18 years.

I suspect the AO was slightly relaxed, but it perhaps illustrates the lengths to which the Army was prepared to go to in order to maintain their multiple objectives of keeping the Regular Army manned while raising a New Army.

MG

Older men were being accepted into the Special Reserve. From what I have seen, they were being sent to the regular pre-war battalions to replenish their losses, whilst men who enlisted under regular terms were now posted to the New Army and undergoing preparation for a later deployment to a theatre of war.

As mentioned by me on a different thread, and as implied by the 1914 Star rolls, there was a quick lead time for SR men between reenlisting and deploying to a theatre of war.

On 25/10/2020 at 11:55, ss002d6252 said:

Several years ago I did some bits with some work that MG was doing and we did come across some men who enlisted on SR terms and were at the front within a matter of a week or so - some of these had Boer War experience but there was no prior military service that could be found for some of them.

 

I came across a timeline elsewhere which I found interesting, and have cut down to a smaller size, reproduced below

On 22/02/2015 at 18:54, Muerrisch said:

The Special Reserve.

One of Viscount Haldane’s most contentious and far-reaching reforms of 1907 was the creation of the Special Reserve

[snip]

 

Each infantry regiment was to have “a Reserve battalion composed of Special Reservists”, not to go to war as a unit, but to provide drafts.

[snip]

Haldane explained the Special Reserve concept: ... so far as they remain merely training battalions, they will never go abroad. [An HON. MEMBER: Do you pay them?] Oh yes, just like the Militia. They have the training and get the pay. They will form mobilisation centres. The Regulars will recruit there; but, instead of training at the depôts, they will, as a rule, we hope, go at once to the second or home battalions. ... When the recruits come in, in large numbers in time of war, and when these battalions expand, they will remove to the barracks which are rendered vacant by troops going abroad, and these officers will go with them. What we hope is that they will form great double-company battalions—four double companies—each of which will be commanded by a regular captain, and that they will form a training school for finding drafts for war much better than anything we have had up to the present time. (Hansard 25^th February 1907).

[snip]

AND THIS:

Relevant Army Orders (AO) and War Office Instructions (WOI) up to the end of March 1915

6^th August. Ex-regular soldiers invited to enlist in SR for one year or the duration AO.295.

6^th August. Enlistments invited for Regulars (New Armies) three years or the duration. AO.296.

6^th August. 100,000 regulars to be enlisted. Large influx at Depôts expected WOI.32.

7^th August . Kitchener’s Appeal for 100,000 men. WOI.37.

[snip]

17^th August. All new recruits aged 30 years and over to Reserve battalion not to New Army. WOI.117.

[snip]

[30^th August. SR enlistment extended the invitation to ex-Militia, SR, VF and TF men. Age limits were raised accordingly. AO.341.

7^th Nov. The supplemental terms of service introduced by AO 295 & AO 296 are rescinded. In their place, recruits are encouraged to enlist under new General Service terms 'in the Regular Army, and for the duration of the war, at the end of which men so enlisting will be discharged with all convenient speed.' The legacy terms from 1906 & 1908, for Regular and Special Reserve respectively are unchanged and it is still possible to enlist 'under conditions that existed before the war.' Presumably all subsequent enlistments are to be documented using attestation form B 2505. AO.470.]

 

[Keith_history_buff]

 

On 25/11/2013 at 16:22, Muerrisch said:

AO 341 of 30th August 1914 which I do not think has been posted on the forum

 

This has been remedied

 

[Keith_history_buff]

An attestation of one of the last men to enlist under the supplementary terms of service of A.O. 295
15163 Thomas Johnson enlisted on Friday 6 November 1914, completing a Form B 248.

The next day, Army Order 470 was issued, to rescind A.O. 295.

Image courtesy FindMyPast

[Keith_history_buff]

Some great content from the late Martin Gillott

  

On 08/10/2013 at 17:43, Guest said:

Something to consider. On mobilisation the Regular Bns at Home were (on average) 570 men below strength for a number of reasons. The Overseas battalions despite nominally being up to strength also needed over 200 men each on average as they handed back men too young for active service and men who were unfit for active service. The Army Reserve and the Special Reserve made up the difference and the SR battalions absorbed the excess men that the depots could not cope with... so initially there was a decent pool of trained Reservists.

The first wave of reinforcements for the BEF came from the reservists. A half-trained man was not particularly useful so I think it very unlikely that many (any?) Kitchener recruits were drafted into regular battalions before mid 1915 .

When Kitchener battalions were raised, they were essentially raw recruits in the main. The blocks of men switching between battalions in 1914-1915 were (generally speaking) the New Armies trying to balance excess recruits from one area against shortfalls in others. The stats for K1 and K2 show the other Divisions had huge surpluses of men in most of the Divisions

[snip]

I believe the Reservists and the SR battalions managed to keep the Regulars supplied in 1914 and early 1915. After Loos I suspect supply became much tighter and of course the recognition of this was the introduction of Conscription in Jan 1916. It is after this date I suspect we will see the first evidence of Kitchener battalions being plundered for reinforcements for the 1st and 2nd Bns of the regular Army.

There is lots of evidence of K battalions later amalgamating and the small numbers of excess men being diverted to other weak Service battalions. I would not be surprised if some went to 1st and 2nd Bns.

[snip]

MG

  

On 08/10/2013 at 22:11, Guest said:

I suspect (but cannot yet prove) that the (few?) men from the Kitchener battalions who were accelerated through to serving with the regulars before the statutory training were either ex-Regulars or time expired Reservists who had rejoined.

I think (and others may either confirm or deny) that an OR would receive a new number on joining a battalion, even if he was an ex regular ...which might (if I am right) suggest that trying to prove that Kitchener Battalion men who served with Regulars after just a few weeks (based on their Army Numbers) might be a challenging starting point. My point is that Kitchener battalions would certainly contain men who had served previously, and some of these may have been accelerated through the system and their Army numbers would not necessarily reflect their previous service. This is only my conjecture and I may well be off mark.

To me it simply does not make sense that an army flush with trained reservists would send out untrained men to regular battalions. I have no doubt it happened, but there will be some underlying explanation why some Kitchener men were sent out early. I suspect their numbers would be insignificant in the great scheme of things.

Any mistakes are mine.

MG

  

On 09/10/2013 at 10:05, Guest said:

It is worth recognising a huge debt to GWF colleagues Grumpy and Graham Stewart who's detailed knowledge of the structure and numbering of the Army and the ACIs both during the war and prior to the war spurred my interest. We have some related threads trundling along regarding the Special Reserves, recruiting etc. I would strongly recommend their privately published book on Army Numbering. Essential reading in my view.

There is evidence that despite the mass of recruits, the Army would still have been short of trained men once the Reservists had been absorbed by the Regulars. After 27th August it is worth noting that the Kitchener men surplus to the requirements of K1, K2 and K3 were consolidated with the Special Reserve battalions, which clearly provides the structure and mechanism by which a Kitchener volunteer with prior experience could have been absorbed into a reinforcement draft early in the War.

MG

  

On 11/10/2013 at 13:25, Guest said:

Looking at the long list of 101 Special Reserve and Extra Reserve battalions I noticed two interesting things;

1. Many of the Special Reserve battalions had come up to strengths slightly higher than 2,000 which is consistent with Peter Simkins comments in "Kitchener's Army" that once K1 had been formed, the SR battalions would be brought up to strength of 2,000 before K2 was formed. This, according to Simkins was decided on 27th Aug 1914. Any further surplus would then be used for the formation of K2. This confirms the view that the SR had effectively been denuded of its best trained men to bring the regular battalions up to strength and provide cadres for Service Battalions (see Bowman and Connelly "The Edwardian Army") combined with the realisation that the SR would need far more men in the immediate future than their establishment of 606 ORs.

The data on the 5th and 12th Sep 1914 is a snapshot of this critical transition. Roughly a fifth of the battalions had complied with the instruction by 5th Sep and the remainder were on their way with the notable exception of the Irish battalions and their structural (politically driven) impediments to recruiting the required numbers. Resolving the individual regimental numbers against the K1 battalion data for the same dates (see post #8) also helps clarify the ebb and flow of recruits over these critical dates. Clearly at one extreme by the 5th Sep some Regiments had formed a K1 battalion, filled the SR battalion to 2,000 from surplus men and were already starting to form the K2 battalion. At the other extreme some Regiments were still short on all three counts.

This intrigues me. If Kitchener men from the recruiting pool were being sent to the SR battalions, these men were more likely to get to the front line earlier. One might reasonably assume there was some kind of selection process to choose K men who made up the SR battalions to 2,000. I have not seen any reference to this decision process.

2. By September 1914 the location of some of the SR battalions were many miles from the depots. The 3rd (Special Reserve) Bn Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby) Regt was located in Plymouth, the 3rd (Special Reserve) Bn North Staffordshire Regt was in Devon and so on.... Which raises questions as to how the Depots and the SR battalions coordinated and in particular where the depot staff were.

This is slowly coming together.

Any mistakes are mine. Excuse typos and damn predictive spelling.

MG

 

[Keith_history_buff]

Further content from the late Martin Gillott

  

On 10/07/2015 at 19:23, Guest said:

Bart - Grumpy and I have researched this in some detail. There is a three part article in Stand To! that covers the Reserves in some detail.

The main reason that the SR men were not replaced is that their terms of service were no longer offered after Sep 1914. The only source of SR men would be men in training and re-enlisted men (under SR terms but clearly a different kind of soldier). A typical SR battalion also consolidated hundreds of regular Army Reservists who were (initially) surplus to mobilisation requirements as well as hundreds of re-enlisted men who rushed back to the colours . When drafts were sent out the preference was for Army Reservists (Section A and B men), Section D, then SR, however it is very clear that there were many exceptions and it is very likely that hundreds of re-enlisted men made it to France before the end of 1914. Dozens of unit war diaries made note of the type of reinforcements and some comments were not always good, particulary after first Ypres when the best men had gone. The Balck Watch claims that all its trained men were in France by October 1914.

In one sense it was a 'wasting' asset, as trained men with experience were not easily replaced, and recovering invalids would be only other source. Data shows recycled invalids were a trickle in 1914-15. Ultimately the SR battalions had to train men and then send them out as reinforcements. Kitchener effectively gambled that the regulars could hold the line until the New Armies were ready. In theory this was 6 months (the time it supposedly took to train a n infantryman). For reasons that are quite obvious, his gamble didn't quite pay off and he had to rely on a trickle of TF battalions (21 by Dec 1914), then TF formations, the often maligned IEF(A) and the Cavalry in the infantry role. There were four Line Infantry regiments that literally ran out of trained reserves in early 1915 and scores more that were reduced to less than 100 trained men. The nadir was in March 1915. It is a part of the War that is not well covered by historians. To paraphrase Wellington, it was a close run thing.

On of the great mysteries is why the K1 and K2 Divisions were not deployed after 6 months. They were not used en masse on the Western Front until Loos in Sep 1915, over a year after volunteering. They were only slightly beaten to the jump by the K1 in Gallipoli who ent into action a year and a day after the declaration of War. (A subject for another thread and one I am researching at present).

The Special Reserve and Extra Reserve battalions time line is as follows:

1. Mobilsation. SR men report for duty

2. Consolidation. The SR battalions consolidate the following:

a. SR men

i. Trained men

ii. Recruits - existing recruits not yet trained, and new recruits enlisting after the declaration of War*

b. Unfit Regulars sent back from mobilising Regular battalions

c. Regulars under 19 years of age sent back from mobilising Regular battalions

d. Surplus Army Reservists not required for mobilising the Regular Battalions

e. (As the war progressed) recovering invailds

f. Re-enlisted men. This category is not well covered by historians. 122,316 men re-enlisted in 1914-15. They were given new Army Numbers and are therefore difficult to trace. They initially enlisted under SR terms of engagement in the tens of thousands

3. (in parallel with 2. above) SR Battalions deployed to their War Stations a few days after the declaration of War

The Special Reserve and Extra Reserve would very soon drop the 'Special' and 'Extra' and simply become Reserve Battalions with the dual roles of key point defence in the UK (usually Ports) and providing reinforcement drafts for the Regular Battalions. SOme Reserve Battalions later in the war did deploy to the Western Front, but this was very rare.

The War Office allowed the SR to recruit under different terms for a brief period. It is unclear when this stopped exactly, but probably sometime in Sep 1914. There was a short window of opportunity for men to enlist in the Special Reserve. By end of Sep 1914 all Regular Army recruiting terms of engagaements were being narrowed down.

The SR battalions had to improvise with their approach. There are a few regimental histories that covered their Reserve battalions. There was no standardised approach, but generally speaking the SR Battalions restructured and had dedicated Companies for

1. Trained men. The technical term was 'Fully Trained and Effective'. This would include recovered invalids, trained SR men and re-enlisted men, and, as time passed recruits who completed training. There is some evidence that many recruits were categorised as 'fully trained and effective' after only 12 weeks. Towards the end of 1914 there was a wave of recategorisation of men in training

2. Trained Men recovering from injury, sickness or wounds

3. Recruits. Before K2 was raised the War Office instructed the Reserve battalions to come up to 2,000 men.

4. Invalids medically downgraded. This category was defined in the Jan 1915 returns. Many would either be discharged or sent to Garrison Battalions or 'sedentary jobs'.

As for men joining the nearest SR battalion, to date I have not seen any evidence, but it is something that was technically possible, hence my interest. They would be very rare.

 

[Keith_history_buff]

Not sufficient

  

On 26/01/2015 at 17:48, Guest said:

History of the Dorsetshire Regiment 1914-1919 page 277: 3rd Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment

"By September,1914, all the regular reservists had been despatched to the front as reinforcements and the special reservists followed immediately after, so that the greatest difficulty was experienced during the first six months in supplying all the drafts required. Before the end of 1914 men were being sent out whose total service did not exceed three month's training...."

 

MG

 

[Keith_history_buff]

An excellent thread which, although it is about Kitchener's New Armies, does contain statistics on the Reserve Battalions and their strengths, for three cutoff dates in 1914, sourced from WO 162/4, 'breaking down the Officers and Men, and splitting out men destined for Reserve battalions and those destined for Kitchener battalions. '