The New Army Begins: Welsh Volunteers August 1914
On this day a hundred years ago Lord Kitchener, Secretary State for War, called for a 100,000 men to join what was officially ‘The New Army‘ and soon became known as Kitchener’s Army. This image shows new recruits for the Welsh Regiment having just been sworn in and still wearing their civilian clothes. The Welsh Regiment appears to have issued small card badges, all they had to issue at this stage, to show the men had enlisted despite the fact that they were not yet in uniform.
Last Summer Camp Before War
In the summer of 1914 Britain’s armies were on the move. Not the regular forces but the men of the Territorial Force, Britain’s ‘Saturday Night Soldiers’ who were departing all over the country for their annual summer camp.
This image from a century ago shows men of the the 15th Battalion London Regiment (Civil Service Rifles) at their annual camp on Salisbury Plain. But this camp was not to last. As July moved into August the road to war now looked almost inevitable as the battalion returned to London and most convinced they would be moving to War Stations in only a matter of days; and they would indeed be proved right.
Great War Photos 