WO-114 Returns July 1914

[David Waterman]

Hi all,

in order to avoid making a visit to Kew and dealing with the desperately involved arrangements for viewing archival material, might anyone have a reference for WO-114 monthly returns for July 1914, relating specifically to the manning of the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders?

 

[Keith_history_buff]

David, I don't think it exists after October 1913.

 

On 29/04/2021 at 19:08, Muerrisch said:

GARBA with the Victorian/Edwardian depth of analysis ends in October 1913 of course. The deployment in 1914 cannot therefore be covered. The replacement document, Statistics of the Great War etc etc does not provide the fine grain that one needs, or, if it does, I have never found it. I doubt if record keeping on the level needed was attempted in the crisis of autumn 1914, the army had more pressing priorities than helping us on GWF.

 

Screenshot from the catalogue, which corroborates this.

[Keith_history_buff]

On 29/05/2021 at 00:18, Maureene said:

Editions from 1902 to 1938 of The General Annual Report on the British Army are available on the library subscription website U.K. Parliamentary Papers. Your library must have subscribed for the 20th Century module.

 

Some UK resident GWF members perhaps may have access to "U.K. Parliamentary Papers" through their county library card (England) , or perhaps  cards for the National Libraries of Wales, and Scotland. Also academic libraries etc. Other countries check out what is available to you e.g. State Library of NSW has access for residents.

[David Waterman]

Thank you, Keith.

In making reference to a table created by the late Martin Gillott showing percentages of Section A, B and D men available to paired Scottish infantry battalions on the eve of war, he uses the detail from the returns for July 1914.

I have a copy of ‘Statistics…’ at home and will check, but as stated above I don’t think that has the fine detail.

[Keith_history_buff]

I have taken a look at this once more - perhaps there is July data with the weekly data for 1914? In the absence of a whole monthly set for 1914, it would make sense for the "orphaned" records to be filed with the records for 1914, latterly recorded on a weekly basis rather than a monthly basis, as supplemental filing.

Part one, Page 25

Quote

In July 1914 the average number of regular reservists per regiment was 1,090 men, comprising 53 in Section A, 719 in Section B, and 319 in Section D (WO 114/25).

Part two, Page 27 

Quote

RWF had a total of 1,351 regular reservists (held on its books as supernumeraries) on 31 July 1914, fifty four men of Section A, 914 of B and 383 of Section D. Only the Essex of all the two–battalion regiments had more reservists to call on (WO114)...

Acknowledgement
I wish to acknowledge the immense help and encouragement given by Martin Gillott, who provided most of the National Archive material, and whose ability to analyse and arrange data has been invaluable.

Part three, Page 14
 

Quote

Background: the Line Infantry and the Reserves
Note that to avoid repetition all numbers refer to the Line Infantry only.
In July 1914 the Army Reserve stood at 145,347 of whom 80,688 were Line Infantrymen split into Sections A and B, and Section D. Section D men were older and generally the least fit. In addition the Army had the Special Reserve; younger in age with less training and significantly less experience. The Special Reserve was a quarter under strength with only 47,893 men against an establishment of 63,170. Nearly one in five were under 19 years of age and ineligible for active service. (4) ...

(4)
General Annual Report on the British Army 1 October 1913 to 30 September 1919.
WO 114/25 Monthly Returns of the British Army at Home 1914.

Mobilisation: Peace Establishment to War Establishment 
Mobilisation required the 148 battalions of the line infantry to come up to War Establishment. The seventy–four Home based battalions were substantially under strength. The Monthly Return for the British Army provides a valuable snapshot of the effective strength of each battalion on 31 July 1914. Netting off these numbers from the War Establishment provides us with a nominal minimum number of Army Reservists required for mobilisation: 38,800 men. (5)

(5) Field Service Regulations 1913: War Establishment.

Part three, Page 15

Quote

Reserves II: Regimental Variations
The distribution of the Army Reserves varied considerably. The Monthly Returns for July 1914 again provide a snapshot of the numbers available to each regiment.

Sources:

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

The above are accessible to members of the Western Front Association.

Quotations reproduced on a fair use basis.

David Langley and the late Martin Gillott have the right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of the aforementioned work.

[David Waterman]

Thank you, Keith. I’ll have a read of those articles in full and plan a visit to the NA. I was in London a couple of weeks ago but managed only to get the the London Scottish Regimental Archive.

[bootneck]

Whether the Commander in Chief and War Office: Distribution of the Army Monthly Returns 1859-1950 held at Kew in WO 73 would be any help I couldn't say. Those for 1914 can be found in WO 73/96-98 with WO 73/97 covering May to August 1914. I recently had a cursory glance at both WO 73 & 114 for 1901-2 while trying to get a fix on something and decided it that I would need more time to study these records in more detail.

 

[Keith_history_buff]

Thanks for sharing this, it's always good to be made aware of source material.

Cheers
Keith

[Keith_history_buff]

@David Waterman

I have taken a look at file WO 114/25 today. It only contains weekly returns, the earliest of which for the infantry are in September 1914. If you are going to pay a visit to Kew, it would be worth taking a look in WO 73/97 to see if it contains what you need.

The mystery of the source of July 1914 is a question that only the late Martin Gillott would be able to answer.

I have seen the figure highlighted in red before, albeit rounded up
 

Quote

In July 1914 the Army Reserve stood at 145,347 of whom 80,688 were Line Infantrymen split into Sections A and B, and Section D.

 

[Keith_history_buff]

Various quotes and links back  

 

On 14/08/2011 at 11:01, Guest said:

"Statistics 1914-1920" records on page 30:

FORCE.............Establishment.....................Strength on 1st Aug 1914

Regular Army..........256,798....................................247,432......................... therefore at 96% of establishment

Army Reserve........145,000......................................145,347

Special Reserve.......80,120.......................................63,933

Territorial Force......316,094.....................................268,777..........................therefore at 85% of establishment

TF Reserve.................NA.........................................2,082

National Reserve......NA...........................................215,451

MG aka QGE

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/167432-infantry-bn-established-strength-1914-1919/?tab=comments#comment-1630410

  

On 14/02/2006 at 23:57, Roxy said:

Richard Holmes, in 'Tommy', suggest that, in August 1914, the British Army had 247,432 regular officers and men against an authorised establishment of 256,798. Reserves numbered 145,347 and the Special Reserve numbered 63,933. Furthermore, the Territorial Force had 268,777 against an establishment of 316,094. This gave a grand total, including militia/volunteers from the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Bermuda of 733,514. His quoted source is 'Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During the War', page 30.

Roxy

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/47163-size-of-british-army-in-1914/?tab=comments#comment-400559

 

  

On 01/10/2013 at 22:43, Guest said:

Grumpy - From what I have read, in the first weeks of the War the SR absorbed the excess recruits and Army Reservists. Edit. According to 'Statistics of the Great War' at the outbreak the numbers of Army Reservists and Special Reservists were as follows:

............................Establishment.......Strength on 1st Aug 1914

Army Reserve........145,000.......................145,347

Special Reserve.......77,238.........................66,933

So for every Special Reservist there were 2.2 Army Reservists. In 1914 I would imagine that the Infantry represented a very large proportion of the Army Reserves. When they were called up they had to go somewhere and as the Depots filled to bursting, I believe the Special Reserve battalions absorbed the excess until the K1 was started. There are a few anecdotes supporting this scenario on this thread here.

...........

MG

Edited. Any mistakes are mine.

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/200389-special-reserve-necessary-but-not-sufficient/?tab=comments#comment-1966935

A slight deviation

  

On 01/10/2013 at 23:30, Guest said:

A summary so far: In the sample of 24 home based battalions, on average a battalion took in 591 Reservists. The Overseas based battalions(sample size of 6) took in 282 Reservists each on avearge.

....mostly sourced from Battalion histories and contributions on this thread...

Home Based Battalions...................................Reservists Received in the first week

snip

Sub Total of 14,188 reservist in 24 Bns.........591 Reservists on average.

Overseas Based Battalions............................Reservists received in the first week
snip

Sub Total of 1,394 Reservists in 6 Bns..........232 Reservists on average

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD MORE.

Any mistakes are mine.

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/184175-bef-1914-mobilisation-and-reservists/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-1966975

And, to conclude, a final quote from SMEBE (page 29) by Martin

 

[Keith_history_buff]

Based on what I am seeing from the text in the screenshot, and one of his comments above from 1 October 2013 could it be that he populated the table, based upon shortcomings from official histories and war diaries, giving each a notional date of 31 July 1914, given it was the closest month-end?

 

[David Waterman]

Hi Keith, I cannot thank you enough for the work you’ve put into trying to solve this.

I’ve scoured everything Martin sent me in case I missed a nugget of information but alas not.

I am due to see/support Martin’s wife later this month as she and close friends of Martin undertake a Lands End to John O’Groats cycle ride in support of the Pancreatic Cancer Charity and in memory of Martin. If there’s time and it’s appropriate I will ask if she has anything relating to this.

[Keith_history_buff]

Hi David,

I think going through these threads is the way forwards. Whilst it's nice to have data, if you did not compile it yourself it can be problematic to trace it back to an ultimate source. I can tell you that from both professional and extra-curricular data management project experiences. 

If you have the time and inclination, the following is an interesting read
The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Extracting, Cleaning, Conforming, and Delivering Data

There's a very interesting "data archaeology" story where they try and determine what a programmer had done in 1977, and how they can emulate his oeuvre.

Best of luck
Keith

[Derek Black]

@MuerrischCan you assist here?

Cheers,
Derek.

[Keith_history_buff]

This is a classic case of taking over a spreadsheet or similar, you don't know where or how the data was put together and unless you get a formal handover and explanation, it's difficult to know where or how the data was sourced. I would imagine that Martin's narrative on the various threads will explain what he did. Whilst he did the "hard yards" in compiling the data, anyone looking to run with this will need to go the hard yards of finding the threads that he posted.

It could be worse. Martin was transparent in what he did, and was at pains to explain his methodology. (I can think of an occasional forum user who sits on some good data, but is keen to protect both his source, and far more importantly his methodology. That's his choice, and I'm fine with that.) This is an exercise in knowledge management or similar as opposed to "history".

[Keith_history_buff]

Four pages of the weekly returns dated 5 September 1914

[Keith_history_buff]

Here is one example of the above data being used in one of Martin's posts

Link
https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/200389-special-reserve-necessary-but-not-sufficient/?tab=comments#comment-1966935

  

On 16/12/2013 at 14:48, Guest said:

Another chart from the 3rd (Special Reserve) Bn King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry showing the near collapse of the Regiment's ability to reinforce the 1st and 2nd Battalions. It is worth noting that the 1st Bn did not arrive in France until 16th Jan 1915 as it had been stationed in Singapore, so the vast majority of Reserves were dedicated to just one battalion until this date.

snip

Data and charts below. Any mistakes are mine.

MG aka QGE