on whom to draw for the reconstituted Force. A happy state of things indeed: ‘immense supplies, even immense surplus supplies of the very finest equipment in the world,’ and numberless recruits ‘versed in every aspect of war, who have the records of their achievements and of their experience vividly in their minds.’ How many members of Associations, remembering the days that were past, must have listened to Mr. Churchill’s words with more sorrow than anger in their hearts. The anger had faded and died in the fiercer emotions of the war, in part-preparation for which an earlier Secretary of State, just eleven years before, had reconstituted the old Yeomanry and Volunteers into the new Territorial Force. Now the new Territorial Force (after all, it was only eleven years of age) was to be reconstituted in another peace-time out of its own ‘war-trained veteran soldiers’. It had sent, as Mr. Churchill stated, 1,045,000 men to fight against the best troops of Germany and Turkey. Six thousand five hundred of its officers and a hundred and five thousand other ranks had laid down their lives in that fight, out of a total casualty list of nearly 600,000 throughout the Force. Twenty-nine of its officers and forty-two of its men in other ranks had won the supreme honour of the Victoria Cross; and there might well be sorrow in the hearts of many present at that meeting, not only for the dead, the missing, and the maimed, but for the ‘painfully limited Army Estimates’ from 1908 to 1914; for the ‘second- and third-rate weapons,’ or no weapons at all, with which Territorial troops had been armed; for the standing order to train for mobilization and the recurring refusal to provide the means, for all the unrecognized sacrifices of officers, N.C.O.’s and men, badly clothed, badly housed, badly equipped, and for the contrast between the generous recognition of what the Territorial Force had done and the ungenerous treatment meted out to it in its years of preparation for the doing. If Mr. Churchill’s audience that day agreed with him not to look back upon past grievances, at least they might welcome his praise of
‘The vital part which the Territorial Force played at the beginning of the war.... Had its organization been used to build up the War Army,’ he remarked, ‘as was originally intended and conceived by Lord Haldane, to whom we owe a great debt, we should have avoided many of the difficulties that confronted us at the outset, and we should have put a larger efficient force in the field at an earlier stage.’
Our account of the West Riding Troops in the period before the war were best concluded on this note. Up to the measure of their achievement, they are entitled to their share of the praise, and no useful purpose would be served by recounting in terms of drill-hall and barrack-room accommodation the same tale of official procrastination and delay, some features of which we have noted in relation to equipment and arms.
In September, 1911, General Baldock[16] succeeded Sir George Bullock as General Officer Commanding the Division, and his term of service extended into the war epoch. His summer camp in 1912 trained partly on Salisbury Plain (where the Mounted Brigade encamped for the first time outside Yorkshire), partly at Ad Fines, Buddon, Skegness, and other places, with the 2nd and 3rd General Hospitals at Netley. The weather was uniformly bad, so much so that a letter was addressed by the Army Council to Northern Command, expressing ‘their appreciation, and that of the Secretary of State for War, for the excellent spirit which was shown by the Territorial Troops in Camp this year. The weather has been most inclement, and the soldierly spirit in which the Troops bore their discomfort was most praiseworthy.’ The attendance of ranks below officers reached 85 per cent. of strength, of whom 60 per cent. trained for fifteen days. The corresponding percentages for 1913, when the weather was remarkably fine, rose to 88 and 66 respectively. Full arrangements were made for an Annual Camp in 1914, at dates between May 21st and August 16th, and many units, as we shall see, were in training when the summons came to mobilize.
We may note, for historical completeness, some of the activities of the Command which were interrupted by that sudden summons. The whole machine was working steadily and regularly, but with slightly diminished velocity, and a certain sense, which is developed in fine machinery, of insufficient encouragement from above. Probably, from the point of view of the rank and file, the call seemed likely never to arrive. Even the keener officers and more intelligent N.C.O.’s might not unreasonably have begun to believe that the leisurely methods of the War Office still corresponded, as politicians certified, to a clear sky in Europe and a firm friendship with all foreign Powers, so that they, too, might pick their way slowly. Such pressure as was exerted, at any rate, came from within, not from without. As late as April, 1914, the new Headquarters at Halifax for the 2nd West Riding Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, and at Ripon for the Detachment of the West Riding Regiment, still awaited inspection by the Army Council. These were the last of a long series of premises, the acquisition and building of which had given endless trouble to the Association, not without serious detriment to the efficiency of the Troops. At the end of May, 68 Voluntary Aid Detachments (19 men’s, 49 women’s) had been recognized by the War Office, covering the following districts: Settle (1), Skipton (1), Ripon (1), Harrogate (12), York (5), Otley (7), Leeds (4), Aberfordia (9), Halifax (1), Wakefield (9), Osgoldcross (9), Huddersfield (3), Doncaster (2), Sheffield (2), Rotherham (2). The number of National Reservists had reached a total of 10,853, including 2,404 not classified in respect to their service-value. But of all the statistics available, the most interesting, finally, are numbers. On May 31st, 1914, the Establishment of the West Riding Territorial Force was 574 officers and 17,680 other ranks, 18,254 in all. Its total strength on that date was 537 officers and 14,699 other ranks, showing a shortage of 37 officers and 2,981 other ranks. In real numbers, the shortage amounted to 58 and 3,082 respectively, the discrepancy in figures being due to occasional surpluses in certain units.
Finally, we reproduce below a tabulated statement of the designations and peace-stations of the Corps which formed the Territorial Force of the West Riding shortly after the outbreak of war, and in the third column of that table we add the names of their then Commanding Officers. This, in fine, was the outcome of the six and a half years’ work of the Lord Lieutenant and his colleagues in the Association. These Corps of gallant officers and other ranks were the open and visible sign of the response of the West Riding to the appeal of 1908. The Association might not have succeeded in discharging fully the duties numbered from (a) to (l) in Section II., Sub-section (2) of the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act. They might not have provided all the necessary buildings, nor have arranged with all employers of labour as to holidays for training, nor have supplied all the requisites on mobilization, nor have done half a dozen more things which they tried to do in the face of obstruction, and would have liked to do if they had been allowed. Their shortcomings were their misfortune, not their fault, and they have served since as a warning to the Army Council to prevent their repetition in the future. But in the spirit of the officers and men who were on the strength of the units in 1914, the West Riding had given overrunning measure. ‘Any part of the Territorial Force,’ it is written in Section XIII. (1) of the Act, ‘shall be liable to serve in any part of the United Kingdom, but no part of the Territorial Force shall be carried or ordered to go out of the United Kingdom.’ The Act of Parliament limited the liability; we shall see how the action of West Yorkshiremen broke those limits, when the day came.
WEST RIDING TERRITORIAL FORCE
AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT WAR.
| Unit. | Peace Station. | Commanding Officer. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yorkshire Mounted Brigade. | |||
| Yorkshire Hussars (less 1 North Riding Squad.) | York | L.-Col. E. W. Stanyforth, D.L., T.D. | |
| Yorkshire Dragoons | Doncaster | Lt.-Col. W. Mackenzie Smith, T.D. | |
| W.R. Roy. Horse Artillery | Wentworth Woodhouse, Rotherham | Capt. H. Walker. | |
| Mounted Brigade. | |||
| T. and S. Column | York | Capt. J. Brown, I.S.O. | |
| Field Ambulance | Wakefield | Lt.-Col. W. K. Clayton. | |
| Divisional and Army Troops. | |||
| 1st W.R. Brigade, R.F.A. | Leeds | Lt.-Col. E. A. Hirst. | |
| 2nd ” | Bradford | Lt.-Col. E. N. Whitley. | |
| 3rd ” | Sheffield | Lt.-Col. C. Clifford, V.D. | |
| 4th ” | Otley (Howitzer) | Lt.-Col. W. S. Dawson, T.D. | |
| W.R. Div. R.G.A. | York (Heavy Battery) | Major W. Graham. | |
| W.R. Div. R.E. and Telegraph Cos. | Sheffield | Lt.-Col. A. E. Bingham, V.D. | |
| 5th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt. | York | Lt.-Col. C. E. Wood, V.D. | |
| 6th ” | Bradford | Lt.-Col. H. O. Wade. | |
| 7th | } (Leeds Rifles) | Leeds | Lt.-Col. A. E. Kirk, V.D. |
| 8th | Lt.-Col. E. Kitson Clark, T.D. | ||
| 4th Bn. W.R. Regt. | Halifax | Lt.-Col. H. S. Atkinson, T.D. | |
| 5th ” | Huddersfield | Lt.-Col. W. Cooper. V.D. | |
| 6th ” | Skipton | Lt.-Col. J. Birkbeck. | |
| 7th ” | Milnsbridge | Col. G. W. Treble, C.M.G. | |
| 4th Bn. K.O. Yorks. L.I. | Wakefield | Lt.-Col. H. J. Haslegrave, T.D. | |
| 5th ” | Doncaster | Lt.-Col. C. C. Moxon, T.D. | |
| 4th Bn. York & Lancs. Regt. | Sheffield | Lt.-Col. B. Firth, V.D. | |
| 5th ” | Rotherham | Lt.-Col. C. Fox, T.D. | |
| R.A.M.C., 1st F.A. | Leeds | Major A. D. Sharp. | |
| ” 2nd | Leeds | Lt.-Col. W. Macgregor Young, M.D. | |
| ” 3rd | Sheffield | Lt.-Col. J. W. Stokes. | |
| Div. T. and S. Column | Leeds | Lt.-Col. J. C. Chambers, V.D. | |
| Northern Signal Cos. | Leeds | Lt.-Col. J. W. H. Brown, T.D. | |
| 2nd Northern Gen. Hospital | Leeds | Major J. F. Dobson, M.B., F.R.C.S. | |
| 3rd ” | Sheffield | Lt.-Col. A. M. Connell, F.R.C.S. | |
| W.R. Div. Clearing Hospital | Leeds | Lt.-Col. A. E. L. Wear. | |