Enlisting in a Territorial Army unit

[jtemple507]

How did it work/What is the process involved? If anybody has an example of a TA enlistment form, it would be greatly appreciated.

[MBrockway]

Your best place to start on all this, as well as the Qs in your other posts, is Richard Holmes's excellent book Tommy. It will give you the essential background you will need for your historical novel and is a good read in and of itself.

It's easily available via Amazon and if you buy it having clicked through from the Forum here, Amazon donate to the Forum's running costs.

[E Wilcock]

Depending on the date and type of unit you are after?

Surviving Service and Pension records from the PRO and now on ancestry, include papers for men who joined the TA prior to August 1914. As far as I can see from records for the 4th South Midland Brigade of the RFA, the form they used did not change on outbreak of war.

Men who were prepared to serve overseas, signed a further declaration during the autumn of 1914.

[Scalyback]

Territorial ​Force the Army name is a later beast.

Formed as The TF in 1908 from previous militia and reserve forces.

[jtemple507]

Thank you all for your help. To clarify, what I am asking is this: was the process of enlisting and the enlisment form different for TA/TF units than regular army units, and how much different?

[MBrockway]

This use of "TA/TF" is going to really press people's buttons

The Territorial Force was not known as the Territorial Army until 1920. Best stick to the correct term - 'TF'

[jtemple507]

I'm really confused about that...The Long, Long Trail keeps calling it "TA" and I've seen a lot of other people do it like that too...

[MBrockway]

That's very odd. I did a by no means thorough skim of the Mother Site and could only find this mention specifically of 'TA' ...

Is it [= the Territorial Force] the same as the Territorial Army?

The TA did not exist until 1920, when it replaced the TF.

If you can give some examples elsewhere on the LLT of the term TA used referring to the wartime TF, then I'll pass them to Chris for correction.

[MBrockway]

Further to this, be aware that if you use the terms "Territorial Army", "TA" etc. in any sections of your novel set earlier than 1920, you will introducing an anachronism, which will definitely be picked up by most readers!

Not that linguistic anachronisms do much harm in Downton Abbey - LOL!

[jtemple507]

It does indeed say TF. I don't know where I got TA from...probably Wikipedia

I based the voices I picture my characters having with the accents of the people in Downtown Abbey. I'm guessing by your sarcasm that I am going about my accents horribly wrong?

[MBrockway]

It does indeed say TF. I don't know where I got TA from...probably Wikipedia

I based the voices I picture my characters having with the accents of the people in Downtown Abbey. I'm guessing by your sarcasm that I am going about my accents horribly wrong?

Is it a written work you're doing, or something where the dialogue will actually be spoken?

If the latter and for a US audience, then I wouldn't worry - most of the Americans I know cannot differentiate between a British speaker and someone speaking 'strine, whereas most of us over here can often separate a Canadian from a US speaker (unless they're from Minnesota, which seems a law unto itself!) and nearly always an Oz from a Kiwi! A US audience will likely not spot accent issues: whereas we still wince at the mock-Scots of Mel Gibson's Sir William Wallace in Braveheart!

Most of the Downton Abbey anachronisms are more along the lines of idiom and vocabulary, though I daresay the accents and pronunciation also has its inaccuracies - RP at the time was certainly far more clipped than in the show.

If you're interested in the changes in RP, an illuminating exercise is to compare Her Majesty the Queen's marvellous Christmas Broadcasts as they have changed over her 60 year reign.

[MBrockway]

It does indeed say TF. I don't know where I got TA from...probably Wikipedia

That's a relief - I was not looking forward to bearding Mr Baker with a long list of mistakes on the site.

[MBrockway]

P.S. Please don't misread my observations on Minnesota - it's a beautiful state with wonderful people. I visited there in 2000.

Whereabouts state-side are you?

[E Wilcock]

Apologies - if my (people know I am not a military historian) repeating the wrong abbreviation TA diverted this thread.

I think it worth spelling out that, if one reads the attestation form from the service file of a man who volunteered to join a territorial unit of the RFA in Aug-Dec 1914 (I have read many) and compare that with the form of a man who enlisted in a non-territorial infantry battalion that would show the differences between the attestation - if any.

[Petroc]

I think that the crucial point (as mentioned in Post 3) during the period of voluntary enlistment, and prior to the cancellation of the 'Home Service option' for Territorials was the document relating to a recruit's willingness to serve overseas in the TF. Beyond that, I suspect that the actual process of joining the Army and declaring one's willingness to serve in the Territorials was no different to that same process with regard to the Regulars or New Armies. Territorial units, especially in more rural areas, might well have exerted more of a 'pull' on potential recruits due to familial/social/community ties and influences, but this also applies to the 'Pals' and locally-raised Kitchener units of the towns and cities; nonetheless, the 'joining-up' process, at least in terms of the theory behind it, would have been the same. How individual battalions/batteries/companies may have 'bent the rules' (the classic recruiting sergeant ignoring an obviously under-age recruit, using social or community connections to secure a position or place) is another story, but was no doubt common to the Regulars, Terriers and Kitchener's Mob alike; indeed, its unlikely that the wonderfully shambolic recruiting rush of the early months of the War, and the efficient Army that this eventually chaos engendered, could have been possible without this. It's also worth noting that, in examples that I have personally seen but regrettably cannot locate source-wise at present, some hard-pressed New Army units had to 'borrow' and utilise Territorial Force attestation and enlistment forms/documents in the absence of their own equivalents.

Andy

[kenf48]

How did it work/What is the process involved? If anybody has an example of a TA enlistment form, it would be greatly appreciated.

I share the reservation as to why we should do your research for you and refrained from posting as my 'buttons were pushed!". However, as noted above service records are on Ancestry and they show the enlistment form in general use to the TF in 1914. Army Form E 501 was headed 'Territorial Force '4 years service in the United Kingdom', a new form E624A was issued in May 1915.

A short service or Duration of the War recruit would use Army Form B2512 and a reservist would use Army Form B.2513.

I'm intrigued as none of this minutiae seems of any relevance to a work of fiction involving a man who enlisted in the Post Office Rifles or if it is seems pretty boring in terms of literary drama.

What is more interesting given the military politics of the time (again as described for the general reader in 'Tommy' as previously recommended to you) is what was his motivation in joining a TF Unit and why that one? Why did he not join a 'New Army' Battalion? Until March 1915 a man could enlist in the TF for Home Service only; many TF soldiers were too young or too old for overseas service; many more were unfit. So why did your character choose the Post Office Rifles? Was he a postman? Why didn't he join the throng in Whitehall?

After the 11 December 1915 (with as always some exceptions) direct recruitment into the TF ceased, so there is a limited time window for volunteering.

The initial New Army recruited between the ages of 19 and 30, while many gave false information as to their age, older men in particular might enlist in the TF and despite the stories of 'boy soldiers' they were a small proportion of recruits and many seventeen year olds who did not wish to lie about their age enlisted in the TF (which was to cause further problems). There was direct competition for recruits between the two, most noticeable in the County Associations but also in London.

As to your concern about reorganisation in your other post one of the major difficulties was maintaining TF units at the Front and this became critical from early 1915. It's unlikely a 1914 recruit was still soldiering in the same unit following the reorganisation in 1918 and frankly although you are writing a fiction almost unbelievable, though that doesn't seem to stop anyone.

You may find this site of interest http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/postofficerifles as it features a recruitment poster from 1915. which tells the recruit 'how to enlist'. The opening paragraph of the poster highlights the 'urgent need' to 'supply drafts', i.e. emphasising the difficulty referred to above. Also has a nice picture of the POR on parade outside what appears to be Bart's Hospital.

Ken

[4thGordons]

This may be of interest. From the diary of a man who joined the 1/4th Gordons just before the war and deployed with the battalion to France and Flanders in Feb 1915

Give some sense of the process (or at least one example)

Chris

[jtemple507]

Is it a written work you're doing, or something where the dialogue will actually be spoken?

If the latter and for a US audience, then I wouldn't worry - most of the Americans I know cannot differentiate between a British speaker and someone speaking 'strine, whereas most of us over here can often separate a Canadian from a US speaker (unless they're from Minnesota, which seems a law unto itself!) and nearly always an Oz from a Kiwi! A US audience will likely not spot accent issues: whereas we still wince at the mock-Scots of Mel Gibson's Sir William Wallace in Braveheart!

Most of the Downton Abbey anachronisms are more along the lines of idiom and vocabulary, though I daresay the accents and pronunciation also has its inaccuracies - RP at the time was certainly far more clipped than in the show.

If you're interested in the changes in RP, an illuminating exercise is to compare Her Majesty the Queen's marvellous Christmas Broadcasts as they have changed over her 60 year reign.

This will be a written work, but I always have a vision in my head of what my characters are like. My philosophy is that without it, my characters would be empty souls, both negatively and positively.

kenf48: Thank you for help, regardless of whether I'm not doing my own research My character joined the Post Office Rifles because his best friend was already a part of it. My character would've wanted Home Service anyway with a wife with children on the way (although he didn't know it until just before he left for France), but it didn't end up happening because the Division had already been sent over the Channel by November 1914. Thank you for the link.

4thGordons: Thank you for that. It will certainly help me modify the part of my book about training.