Andrew Hesketh Posted 6 May , 2006 Share Posted 6 May , 2006 Does have anyone have access to (or can point me towards) the figures for the number of men who volunteered for the war on a month by month basis? Ideally I would like to know these figures all the way from August 1914 up to the advent of conscription. Thanks in anticipation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Stewart Posted 6 May , 2006 Share Posted 6 May , 2006 Andrew, For local stuff, it's best to go to local newspapers and it's possible you may find National Recruiting figures in some of the national newspapers, some of which may now be on line. One of the best books on the subject is Peter Simkins, "Kitcheners Army". Graham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Hesketh Posted 6 May , 2006 Author Share Posted 6 May , 2006 Cheers Graham, It's the national figures that interest me. I have always been under the impression (no reason, just swept along by what appears to be a widely held view) that there was a mad rush of enlistment in August followed by bursts of activity at certain moments. However, my Sherwood Forester spreadsheet is suggesting a rather sluggish August response that goes overboard in September and October, calms down, has a 'blast' after Christmas, slows down and then picks up c. March 1915 and so on.... So really I'm just trying to gauge the national response to see if this matches a trend or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_davies Posted 6 May , 2006 Share Posted 6 May , 2006 Andrew, I thought Chris used to have a chart on the Long Long Trail website showing enlistment by month, but just checked, and can't find it... Here's my figures for the 4th Lincs: Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Hesketh Posted 6 May , 2006 Author Share Posted 6 May , 2006 Jim, Thanks for the link. I'm sure I've seen the figures on a website somewhere too - just can't remember where. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fair Posted 6 May , 2006 Share Posted 6 May , 2006 Andrew, there is a resaonably detailed weekly breakdown of recruitment in Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire. The data is broken out for all the home nations, as well as split by TF, new armies etc. as well as some high level analysis by arm of service. If you want local stats then you could try the Ministry of National Service files in the NA (record class NATS 1, piece nos 398 to 401 or thereabouts). This includes (I think) daily data for each of the recruiting districts. Unfortunately rather cumbersome docs which you have to view in the large docs room. Some of the patterns you have pointed out are not unlike my 19th London data. I think the March 1915 spike may be a result of the Earl of Derby's recruiting campaign. If your data relates to the TF then the Sept 1914 spike is because of recruiting into 2nd line TF units which didn't really get going until that month. Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Hesketh Posted 7 May , 2006 Author Share Posted 7 May , 2006 Charles, Thanks for the detailed and helpful response. I remember spending hours looking at the 'Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire' some years ago in an academic library. Unfortunately I don't have access to a copy these days. (P.S. Happy Birthday sir!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fair Posted 7 May , 2006 Share Posted 7 May , 2006 Thanks for the detailed and helpful response. I remember spending hours looking at the 'Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire' some years ago in an academic library. Unfortunately I don't have access to a copy these days. (P.S. Happy Birthday sir!) Andrew - If you have broadband, I can send you photos of the pages as I have a copy at home. According to the table on p. 364 Sept 14 was a better month for recruiting than August. Figures for total enlistment into the regular army and TF combined are: Aug 298,923 Sept 462,901 Oct 136,811 Charles PS thanks for wishes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Hesketh Posted 7 May , 2006 Author Share Posted 7 May , 2006 Charles Much appreciated, thanks. I'll be in touch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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