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Pre-War Regular, Reserve and Territorial Force Infantry Battalions.
Immediately prior to the outbreak of the
Great War, the Regular Infantry of the British Army consisted of four
Guards Regiments and sixty-nine Infantry Regiments. Infantry
Regiments normally consisted of two active Battalions, with one
Battalion serving overseas and one in the UK. Each Regiment
would normally have one Reserve Battalion, based at the Regimental
Depot, which trained new soldiers and supplied reinforcing drafts to the
two active Battalions. In the case of the DCLI, as with most Infantry Regiments, the active Battalions were
numbered the 1st and 2nd, and the Reserve Battalion was numbered the 3rd
(Reserve).
Many of the Infantry Regiments, including
the DCLI, also had Territorial Force (TF)
Battalions. These were made up of part-time officers and
soldiers who had signed up for Imperial or Home Service, and each of
these Battalions trained its own personnel so there was therefore no
requirement for the TF to be established with Reserve Battalions.
The TF Battalions were usually numbered in sequence after the Regular
and Reserve Battalions of the Regiment and often had a second title
linking them with their home city or town. In the DCLI, the
two TF battalion were the 4th Battalion TF and 5th Battalion TF.
Each of the active Battalions, overseas
and UK based, were grouped with a Brigade and/or Division and
immediately prior to the outbreak of war, Battalions of the DCLI were deployed as follows:
- 1st Battalion (Regular).
Based at The Curragh part of 14th Brigade/5th Division.
- 2nd Battalion (Regular).
Based at Hong Kong.
- 3rd (Reserve) Battalion.
Based at Bodmin.
- 4th
Battalion (TF). Based at
Truro. Part of the Devon and Cornwall Brigade, 1st Wessex Division (TF).
- 5th
Battalion (TF). Based at
Bodmin. Part of the Devon and Cornwall Brigade, 1st Wessex Division (TF).
The Re-Organisation at the Outbreak of
War.
The Regular and Reserve Battalions saw
little change at the outbreak of war, only their reinforcement to War
Establishment by Regular and Special Reservists and the deployment to
mobilisation locations. In the TF Battalions, those
personnel who had signed up for Imperial Service were formed into the
First Line of the Battalion, designated the1/4th Battalion (TF) and
1/5th Battalion TF, for service overseas. Those who had
signed for Home Service (and could not or would not sign up for Imperial
Service) were formed up into the Second Line of the Battalion designated
the 2/4th Battalion TF and 2/5th Battalion TF. These
Battalions continued to recruit and train their own personnel:
- 2/4th Battalion TF.
Formed at Truro in September 1914. Part of the 2nd Devon
and Cornwall Brigade, 2nd Wessex Division (TF). Moved to
India 12th December 1914.
- 2/5th Battalion FT.
Formed at Bodmin in May 1915. Moved to Tavistock then to
Winchester in May 1916. Absorbed by 4th (Reserve) Battalion TF
on 1st September 1916.
Service Battalions.
On the outbreak of war, The Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener,
saw that the UK must be prepared for a war lasting three to four years,
requiring an Army of at least 70 Divisions. On 7th August
1914, he started a campaign to recruit an initial 100,000 men, but the
response was overwhelming and 500,000 were signed up. He
decided not to use the framework of the TF to expand the Army, but to
create a "New Army", separate from the current Regulars and
Territorials. More than 500 New Army Battalions were raised
forming the basis of three New Armies, known as K1 (9th - 14th
Division), K2 15th - 20th Division) and K3 (21st- 26th Division).
The New Army Battalions were numbered consecutively after the existing
Regular and Territorial Battalions and they were distinguished by the
word "Service", in brackets, after their number. In the
DCLI, the Service Battalions raised were:
- 6th (Service) Battalion.
Raised at Bodmin, in August 1914. K1. Allocated
to 43rd Brigade, 14th Division.
- 7th (Service) Battalion.
Raised at Bodmin in September 1914. K2.
Allocated to 61st Brigade, 20th Division.
- 8th (Service) Battalion.
Raised at Bodmin in September 1914.
K3. Allocated to 79th Brigade, 26th Division. .
- 9th (Service) Battalion.
Raised at Falmouth in September 1914.
K4. Allocated to 103rd Brigade, 34th Division. Raised
as a Service Battalion but was converted to a Second Reserve
Battalion in May 1915, to recruit, train and supply reinforcements to the
DCLI Service Battalions of K1, K2 and K3.
Locally Raised Service Battalions.
Apart from the formal Service Battalions being raised as described
above, local Citizen's Recruiting Committees were raising their own
Battalions independent of the War Office. The expense of
raising, clothing, feeding, housing and training of these Battalions
were met by the Recruiting Committees until they were formally taken
over by the War Office in 1915 and added to the Army Establishment.
At this time all previous expenses were refunded to Committees and
further costs borne by the War Office. These Battalions were
to become known as Locally Raised Battalions and provided the majority
of the infantry for the 4th New Army (K4). The Battalions
were numbered consecutively after the Service Battalions in a Regiment
and had an additional title showing the connection with the city, area
or organisation which raised them. The DCLI raised one of
these Battalions:
- 10th (Service) Battalion
(Cornwall Pioneers).
Raised at Truro, in March 1915. Taken over by War Office in August
1915 and allocated to 2nd Division as Divisional Pioneers.
Further Re-Organisations.
Territorial Force (TF).
By June 1915 most of the First Line Battalions of the TF had been
deployed to active service locations overseas and the Second Line
Battalions were preparing for future overseas service and so a Third
Line Battalion was
formed to recruit, train and supply reinforcements to the First Line and later to the Second Line Battalions.
Home Service personnel and those not fit for overseas service were
transferred from the Second and Third Line Battalions to the
non-Regimentally affiliated Provisional Battalions TF. In the
DCLI, the only Third Line Battalion TF raised was:
- 3/4th Battalion (TF).
Formed at Bodmin in March 1915 and moved to Bournemouth to guard local
installations and to train recruits and provide drafts for 1/4th and
1/5th Battalions TF. Became 4th (Reserve)
Battalion TF on 8th April 1916, part of the Wessex Reserve Brigade TF.
Service Battalions.
By spring 1915 it had become clear
that voluntary recruitment was not
going to provide the numbers of men
required. The Government
passed the National Registration
Act on 15th July 1915 as a step
towards stimulating recruitment and
to discover how many men between the
ages of 15 and 65 were engaged in
each trade. The results
of this census became available by
mid-September 1915 and on
11th October 1915, Lord Derby was
appointed Director-General of
Recruiting. He brought
forward a scheme five days later,
always called the Derby Scheme, for
raising the numbers. It was
half-way to conscription.
Disappointed at the results
of the Derby Scheme, the Government
introduced the Military Service Act
on 27 January 1916. All
voluntary enlistment was stopped as
all British males were now deemed to
have enlisted - that is, they were
conscripted - if they were
aged between 18 and 41 and resided
in Great Britain (excluding Ireland)
and were unmarried or a widower on 2
November 1915.
Conscripted men were no longer given
a choice of which service, regiment
or unit they joined, although if a
man preferred the navy it got
priority to take him.
This act was extended to married men
on 25 May 1916.
The
Training Organisation, based on the
Regimental Reserve Battalions could
not cope with the sheer number of
conscripted men now available and a
new system was put in place on 1st
September 1916 to deal with these
numbers. All New Army
Regimental Reserve Battalions would
lose their Regimental identity and
become a Battalion of the Training
Reserve. The role of
these Battalions was to train new
recruits for active service and
despatch drafts to Service
Battalions overseas. The
Second Reserve Battalion of the DCLI was
reorganised as follows:
-
11th (Reserve) Battalion.
Raised at Launceston in November
1915. Became 95th
Training Reserve Battalion at
Chiseldon on 1st September 1916.
Home Service and Labour Battalions.
Late in 1916 orders were given for
the formation of additional Home
Defence and Home Service Divisions;
these would have the dual role of
carrying out training of men for
overseas drafts, in addition to
providing forces for home defence
guarding, securing local
installations and providing HQs with
manpower for labour duties. Men who
went through the Regimental Reserve
and, later, the Training Reserve
organisation and who were deemed as
unfit for active service overseas
were posted to Home Service
Battalions or Labour units.
The DCLI raised one Labour unit:
- 12th (Labour)
Battalion.
Formed at Plymouth in April 1916 and moved to
the BEF as Army
Troops for the 4th Army. Became 156th and 157th Labour
Companies of the Labour Corps.
More Reorganisations.
Training Reserve Battalions.
In 1917 the Training Reserve was
re-organised to provide better and
more specialised training for
recruits and a total of 14 Training Reserve
Battalions were designated "Young
Soldier" and "Graduated" Battalions.
This system saw these new Young
Soldier Battalions take in and
trains 18 year olds recruits and
train them step by step until the
recruits could be posted , in
Company strength, to Graduated
Battalions for further training
until ready to be sent to active
service units. In
October 1917, these Battalions were
affiliated to Regiments of the Line.
There were no new units formed in
the DCLI.
Service Battalions.
The 13th (Service) Battalion
was formed at Aldeburgh in June 1918
and absorbed by the 6th (Service)
Battalion Somerset Light Infantry (which had returned to UK
after this Battalion had suffered
many casualties during the 14th
(Light) Division's actions during
April and May 1918).
UK
Home Service/Local Defence
Battalions. Two DCLI
Volunteer Battalions were formed
between 1916 - 1918 and remained in
the UK under command of the Royal
Defence Corps:
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