The East Lancashire Brigade—the 4th and 5th Battalions, East Lancs Regiment, and the 9th and 10th Battalions, Manchester Regiment.
The Manchester Brigade—the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Battalions, Manchester Regiment.
The 5th L.F. was mainly composed of men from the Bury district, the 6th from Rochdale, the 7th and 8th from Salford, the 4th E. Lancs from Blackburn, the 5th from Burnley, the 5th Manchesters from Wigan, the 6th and 7th from Manchester and its suburbs (including a good proportion from the Cheshire suburbs), the 8th from Ardwick and East Manchester, the 9th from Ashton-under-Lyne, the 10th from Oldham.
The 1st R.F.A. Brigade (Blackburn) was composed of the following batteries: the 4th (Blackburn), the 5th (Church), the 6th (Burnley). The 3rd R.F.A. Brigade (Bolton) of the following: the 18th, 19th and 20th, all from Bolton and district.
Many of these units date back to 1859, when the Volunteer movement came into being. For forty-one years the Volunteers were an untried force, but in the year 1900 their offers of service in the South African War were accepted, the infantry battalions providing detachments which served with credit in that campaign. It was not until 1907 that serious thought was given to the equipment and organization of this fine body of patriotic men. Lord Haldane’s Territorial Scheme, based on the model of the Regular Army, did more than change the name from Volunteers to Territorials. Major-General Douglas Haig, Director of Military Training at the War Office, had charge of the scheme, and in bringing about this great change, he gave evidence of the foresight and grasp of essentials which in 1918 enabled him to lead the armed strength of the Empire to victory. The various batteries, battalions and corps, no longer scattered and independent units, were organized and trained as divisions, and the force was actually treated as a valuable and even essential element in the system of national defence, with the result that the Territorial Force soon reached a higher state of efficiency than the Volunteers had ever been permitted to approach. The East Lancashire Division had the reputation of being one of the smartest and most efficient of the whole force.
Mobilization
On August 3 units in camp for their annual peace training were recalled, and the order to mobilize the Division was received at 5.30 p.m. on the following day. Probably few members of the Territorial Force had realized that their “calling-up” notices had been ready from the day they joined; that month by month the addresses on the envelopes were checked and altered when necessary; that enough ball ammunition was stored at the various headquarters to enable every man to march out with the full complement of a fighting soldier, and that field dressings were available for issue. It must be remembered that never before had the Force been embodied, and that officers and men were civilians, few of whom had ever regarded mobilization as other than a remote possibility quite outside the range of practical politics. Yet the absence of confusion was remarkable, as all ranks threw themselves into their new parts with zest, making the best of unusual conditions and treating discomfort as a jest. The men were quartered in drill-halls or schools within easy reach of their Headquarters. Major-General Douglas, commanding the Division, with his General Staff Officer, Lieut.-Colonel A. W. Tufnell, was daily at the Divisional Headquarters in Manchester, or at the Headquarters of units, supervising the mobilization and arrangements. These have been described as “hectic days.” Improved though the organization was as compared with that of the Volunteers, it was anything but complete. Animals and vehicles for transport, harness, and an infinite variety of requisites had to be procured by free purchase or by commandeering in great haste. This was the weakest part of the scheme, and though much ingenuity was displayed by officers unaccustomed to this sort of thing, the waste was great. To such shifts were they reduced that street watering-carts were bought from Urban District Councils, and actually taken to Egypt. Among the weird varieties of carts thus acquired one of the best remembered is the “Black and Green” van which did duty as a Medical Officer’s vehicle, and was last seen bleached by the sun, but with the original lettering still traceable under the service grey, at Gabari Docks, Alexandria in February 1917. Nothing could better illustrate the inability of a large and patriotic section of the public to grasp the significance of events than the expectation freely expressed by vendors that their horses or carts would be returned to them in the course of a few weeks. In some cases the drivers of requisitioned animals joined the Territorial unit in order to remain with their horses.
On August 10 Lord Kitchener invited the Territorial Force to volunteer for foreign service. By August 12 the three Infantry Brigades had accepted the invitation, and within a few days ninety per cent. of the East Lancashires eagerly seized the opportunity. England saw with pride the keenness of the Territorials to meet the enemy, and knew that her sons were true to the breed. For more than fifty years she had treated her citizen-army as something that must not be taken too seriously, but that is England’s way. The response was magnificent, but it was expected, for the nation never doubted that they would answer the call. It was no small gift they offered. The most powerful army the world had ever seen was moving forward victoriously towards Paris, remorseless and apparently irresistible; and the Territorials offered their bodies for death and mutilation, and gave up parents, wives, children, homes, prospects, and all they held most dear. At a later period such sacrifice was demanded as the nation’s right, but in August 1914 a lead had to be given, an example set. Old volunteers were not content to look on while the younger generation fought and suffered. Daily a stream of old members, N.C.O.s and men, many in the autumn of their lives, besieged the Headquarters of their old corps and clamoured to be allowed to join up, lying cheerfully and brazenly in respect of their age. Many gained their object; more were almost broken-hearted by their rejection. The example set in those dark days was a stimulus and incentive to recruiting all over the country, and especially so in the great towns of Lancashire, where the “Pals” battalions were soon to be raised. It was the vindication of the Volunteer. “Defence, not Defiance,” had been their motto, but who among the prescient founders and bulwarks of the movement could ever have conceived the idea of the glorious rôle to be filled by the corps they had helped to raise—of the old Volunteer units from every county and city, at full strength, fighting and laying down their lives in Belgium, France, Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine and Greece, and taking an inspiring part in the greatest of all crusades against the Turk?
Until August 20 officers and men remained within easy reach of their Headquarters. The Division was then moved into camps in the neighbourhoods of Bolton, Bury and Rochdale, and anxiously it awaited the summons. Another fortnight passed, and the rumour that Egypt was to be the destination began to gain ground. Rumour was, however, at this time a discredited jade, fit subject for scorn, for was she not responsible for the passage through England and Scotland of myriads of Russian soldiers, the ice and snow of Archangel still clinging to their boots and beards, who had been seen by thousands of British optimists at every railway junction in the land? But in the training camps of East Lancashire she was restored to public favour when a telegram, dated September 5, was received by the Divisional Commander from Lord Kitchener—
“Inform the Division from me that I hope that they will push on hard with their training in Egypt, as, before they are ready, there will be plenty of troops from India to garrison Egypt, and I hope they will be one of the first of the Territorial Forces to join our Army on the Continent. All will depend on their fitness for service against the enemy in the Field.—Kitchener.”