D Company.
- Capt. J. Kekewich.
- „ W. D. Johnson.
- Lieut. J. L. Samuelson.
- „ V. S. Daniell.
- „ S. Vaughan.
- „ B. H. Pickering.
VIII. 2nd and 3rd Line Territorials
In addition to the troops sent from our country to the various war theatres, there was a very considerable army kept up at home during the whole four years of war. The main duty of this force was, of course, to find reinforcements for the units abroad, but the safety of our own shores had all the while also to be considered.
Invasion, properly so called, may have been an impossibility, at any rate, till the British Fleet had been sunk, because an invasion takes time: armies and enormous quantities of munitions, stores and horses must be landed and arrangements made to keep up connection between the invading troops and the country they come from. But this is not the case with raids: comparatively small forces can sometimes be landed in an enemy’s country, do an infinity of damage and destruction for a day or two and then re-embark. To guard against a possibility of anything of this sort happening was another and very important duty of the home army, and there were other reasons for its maintenance. When the bulk of the 4th and 5th (Territorial) Battalions of the Buffs volunteered for foreign service, those who did not do so were still willing enough to fulfil their original undertaking to aid in guarding their native shores, and these men formed the nucleus of new battalions for home service only, called the 2/4th and 2/5th.
The 2/4th was formed at Ashford, Kent, under Lt.-Colonel Skey, and the following month proceeded to Sunninghill and Ascot, but its station during the first portion of 1915 was Rochester, and its vicinity and later on it went to Sevenoaks. The intensive training which had necessarily obtained in the case of the battalions required for immediate war service was not in the nature of things pressed so persistently on units of the home army, and their training was of a steadier and slower description. Regular garrison duties were carried out, which included a considerable amount of guard work when at Strood and Rochester. In May, 1915, the 2/4th and the 2/5th Buffs each furnished one company complete for a Kent composite battalion to serve in the Gallipoli Peninsula, which unit will be referred to later. Lt.-Colonel Atkinson was in command about the middle of 1915, and a year later the 2/4th went back into the Ashford district. There were very numerous drafts found and sent overseas by the 2/4th. These generally went to the 1/4th in India, but there were notable exceptions; for instance, in August, 1916, nearly four hundred men went to France to the 18th and 19th London Regiment and to the King’s Royal Rifles. The battalion was disbanded in August, 1917.
Colonel C. Hawley Williams, V.D., Honorary Colonel of the 4th Battalion of The Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent) Regiment was appointed, when the 5th Buffs went to India, to command the home keeping remnant which made the 2/5th. He had Major (Hon. Colonel) the Viscount Goschen, V.D., as his second-in-command. The battalion belonged to the Second-line Kent Infantry Brigade, and like its neighbour the 2/4th, it underwent several moves, and was at Ashford, Ascot and Bracknell successively. Recruiting was carried on, but as the Weald of Kent is not very thickly populated, the number did not increase as rapidly as in the case of some other units, though very considerable efforts were made. The progress of training was retarded by lack of instructors, lack of equipment and lack of rifles, but the officers and men neglected no effort to become efficient and difficulties were gradually overcome. The history of the 2/5th was much the same as that of the 2/4th. It, too, went through a period of service near Chatham and was worked heavily at the guard duties, and it, too, as has been stated above, sent a company to Gallipoli.
The 3/4th Battalion of the Buffs was raised by Major L. C. R. Messel, T.D., at Canterbury in July, 1915, and Lieut. G. C. Bateman from the 2/4th was appointed adjutant with the temporary rank of captain. The establishment was originally only one company, commanded by a major, but this was shortly increased to two and an excess of strength up to fifty per cent permitted. Lieut. R. Smith, late of the Buffs and Army Pay Department, became Quarter-Master, and that well-known and greatly respected veteran, J. Bennell, Regtl. Sergt.-Major, up till February, 1916, when he was relieved by C.S.M. C. Brown. On the 31st December, 1915, the battalion moved to Cambridge, together with other units of the third-line groups (as they were called) of the Home Counties Division. Later on the whole went to Crowborough.
The 3/5th was raised by Major Charles P. Kingsland of the 2/5th. The original description was Third-line Depot 5th Battalion The Buffs, but this was soon altered to 3/5th The Buffs, and in 1916 to 5th Reserve Battalion The Buffs. The establishment was the same as that of the last-mentioned unit, but in 1916 it was increased to 750 men in consequence of the 1/5th being in Mesopotamia. At this time also the commanding officer was given the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel. Major A. Stuart Elmslie was at first the adjutant, but later became second-in-command. R.S.M. Bolton, 1st Battalion The Buffs, was regimental sergeant-major. This unit also joined their third-line group at Cambridge at the very end of 1915, and it was accommodated in Trinity College, and it also went to Crowborough in 1916, having sent a large draft from Cambridge to Mesopotamia. On the 1st September, 1916, the battalion was amalgamated with the 3/4th, and with it became the 4th Reserve Battalion of The Buffs, under the command of Lt.-Colonel L. C. R. Messel, T.D. It was part of the Home Counties Reserve Brigade, and had a strength now of no less than 1,560 men. A little later it became the reserve unit for the 10th Buffs, of whom we shall hear later. In October, 1917, Lt.-Colonel Messel was succeeded by Major W. D. Sword from the North Staffordshire Regiment.