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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 Dorsetshire
Regiment, 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 Dorsetshire Regiment, 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 Battalion 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 Dorsetshire Regiment, the one TF
battalion was named 4th 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 Dorsetshire
Regiment were deployed as follows:
- 1st Battalion (Regular).
Based at Belfast part of 15th Brigade/5th Division.
- 2nd Battalion (Regular).
Based at Poona, India part of 16th Brigade/Poona Division.
- 3rd (Reserve) Battalion.
Based at Dorchester.
- 4th
Battalion (TF). Based at
Dorchester. Part of the South Western Brigade,
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 Battalion of the Regiment, those personnel
who had signed up for Imperial Service were formed into the First Line
of the Battalion, designated the1/4th 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. These Battalions continued
to recruit and train their own personnel.
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
Dorsetshire Regiment, the Service Battalions raised were:
- 5th (Service) Battalion.
Raised at Dorchester, in August 1914.
K1. Allocated to 34th Brigade, 11th Division.
- 6th (Service) Battalion.
Raised at Dorchester in September 1914.
K2. Allocated to 50th Brigade, 17th Division.
- 7th (Service) Battalion.
Raised at Weymouth in September 1914.
K4. Allocated to 102nd Brigade, 34th Division. Raised
as a Service Battalion but was converted to a Second Reserve
Battalion in May 1915, to train and supply reinforcements to the
Dorsetshire Regiment Service Battalions of K1 and K2.
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 Dorsetshire Regiment
did not form any Locally Raised Battalions.
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 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
Dorsetshire Regiment, the Third Line Battalion TF raised was:
- 3/4th Battalion (TF).
Formed at Bath in April 1915 and moved to Bournemouth to guard local
installations and local coastal areas, to train recruits and provide
reinforcing drafts for 1/4th and
2/4th Battalions TF. This battalion 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 27th 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 Royal Navy it got
priority to take him.
This act was extended to married men
on 25th 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
Dorsetshire Regiment was
reorganised as follows:
-
7th (Reserve) Battalion.
Based at Wool, formed the
35th Training Reserve Battalion,
part of 8th Reserve Brigade.
Home Service 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 and securing local
installations. 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, and the Dorsetshire
Regiment raised:
-
1st (Home Service) Garrison
Battalion.
Raised at Wyke Regis in June
1916 for duties in the Weymouth
and Portland Garrisons.
The Battalion was disbanded in
January 1917.
-
2nd (Home Service) Garrison
Battalion.
Raised at Wool in September 1916
for duties initially in the
Portland Garrison, and later at
Blackpool and Danbury, Essex.
In November 1916 it was
re-titled as 8th (Home Service)
Battalion. This
battalion was disbanded
in December 1917.
More Reorganisations.
Training Reserve Battalions.
In 1917 the Training Reserve (TR) was
re-organised to provide better and
more specialised training for
recruits and a total of 14 TR
Battalions were designated "Young
Soldier" and "Graduated" Battalions.
This system saw these new Young
Soldier Battalions take in and
train 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 Dorsetshire Regiment.
Service Battalions.
The 9th (Service) Battalion was
formed at Aldeburgh in June 1918 and
absorbed a cadre of 10th Battalion
Cheshire Regiment (which had
returned to UK after this Battalion
had suffered many casualties during
the 25th Division's actions during
the Battle of the Aisne in May and June
1918). The war ended
before the unit was battle-ready and
the Battalion was disbanded at
Aldershot in
November 1918.
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