British Territorials

[bbroadside]

I've been reading about the British Territorial Force recently. Under definitions, this site says: "Men who joined the territorials came from all backgrounds, and gave up a night or two a week to train. They also went on an annual camp which for many was a highlight indeed, as many otherwise rarely travelled beyond their home town or county."

That sounds like quite a bit larger a commitment than the regular army's reserves, who I think trained for 12 days a year. Did the 1-2 nights a week commitment include officers and NCOs? I would think the higher the rank, the more duty would be expected, but that it would be served more in administrative duties. I imagine someone would have to be at the depot...? I gather that the regular army provided adjutants to the TF ... does that men the men above the adjutant (division commanders) were actual Volunteers themselves?

I read somewhere that 70 TF battalions volunteered for service in France/Belgium in 1914. How does a Battalion volunteer? Did they take a vote, or did the commander decide, or does it just mean individuals volunteered and that together, they numbered 70 battalions?

Was there a formal cadre structure for each TF unit in peacetime, or did the whole unit more or less go home together? Were men rotated so there was a constant small number of men training, or did most/all of a given unit report for duty together?

[Greg Bloomfield]

Hi Bbroadside

Reservists were former regulars with any number of years service behind them depending on their arm of service and so in some respects didn't need as much training as a territorial, although you can never get enough training. Even the best attended terrier couldn't claim to be anywhere near as well trained as a regular but at least there was a basic standard to start from if hostilities commenced and they would have been familiar with many aspects of army life, kit, weapons, tactics and so on.

Every TF unit would have had a sprinkling of regulars in key positions to lend experience and to smooth the administrative side along but a lot of the training would have come from the longer serving and more experienced territorials and this might sometimes have been a case of the blind leading the blind.

As regards units volunteering to serve overseas I think I'm correct in saying that if a certain percentage of a unit volunteered to be deployed abroad (and as territorials they were not forced to do so, being formed for home defence) then that unit was deemed deployable and the volunteers were given the Imperial Service Badge to be worn on their right breast. Some members of battalions had taken this pledge prior to the war starting. Units thus volunteering then found themselves deploying not just to F&F but to all outposts of the empire to relieve regular forces, who were then brought back to Europe to reinforce the BEF.

As regards training, there would only have been set days when this occured as most of the men had full time jobs and it would have been impractical to trickle men through to ensure that some people were constantly training. Generally speaking though most of the unit would attend the annual camp as it was not only looked upon as an adventure and a means of travel to some distant part of the country but was also a condition of the annual bounty payable to the individual soldier.

Greg