Germany having violated the neutrality of Belgium by attempting to utilize that country as a high road to Paris, Great Britain declared war on Germany on the 4th August, 1914, and on the night of the 4th/5th, orders were issued throughout the country for the Mobilization of the Territorial Force. The Mobilization telegram reached Headquarters about 6 p.m. on the 4th, and notices were at once issued, and the Battalion began to assemble at 5 a.m. on the 5th, for Medical Inspection. At 7 a.m. the Headquarter Companies had been medically inspected and at once left to guard the Kent and Leven Viaducts and by 4.30 p.m. that day, with the exception of the guards left by the Ulverston Detachment to protect the Kent and Leven Viaducts and by the Millom Detachment to protect the Duddon Viaduct, the Battalion had assembled in Barrow, and, under the command of the Officer Commanding Barrow Coast Defences, taken over important duties in connection with the protection of the works of Messrs. Vickers and the Harbour and Docks of the Furness Railway Company. Headquarters were established in the Holker Street Schools, and the surplus men, not required for guards, were billeted there.
Little of any importance or worthy of note occurred during the time the Battalion was stationed in Barrow, an air-raid scare, involving the standing to arms of all ranks for several hours in the middle of a very cold night, forming the only excitement.
The time was chiefly devoted to obtaining mobilization stores, ammunition and equipment (not forgetting transport, which, in these early stages of the war, was a most heterogeneous selection, varying from a milk float to a motor lorry, with water carts commandeered from the Local Authorities). The animals necessary for their haulage were an equally varied selection, including about every kind of “hairy” from a polo pony to a Clydesdale.
It was generally expected that the Battalion’s next move would be to Ireland, and the advance party started off for that destination on the morning of August 8th, only to be recalled from Liverpool later in the day, owing to an order having been received cancelling the move.
On the 10th the Battalion was relieved from all duties in connection with the Barrow Defences, these being taken over by another Battalion, and on the 11th orders were received to move to Ulverston that day. The Battalion left Barrow at 6.15 p.m. on the 11th, and proceeded by road to Ulverston, arriving about 9.15 p.m.
In Ulverston the men were billeted in the Victoria Grammar School and the Dale Street Schools, Headquarters being established in the former. Whilst stationed at Ulverston the fitting out with equipment and drawing of mobilization stores was continued, drill and route marching filling up the time. On the 15th August orders were received (at 2.45 a.m.) to move to Slough for the purpose of guarding the Main Line of the Great Western Railway, between Paddington and Maidenhead.
The Battalion left Ulverston on the 15th, in two trains (the first at 10.30 a.m. and the second at 12 noon), and arrived at Slough at 7.30 and 10.30 p.m. respectively. The second train was delayed owing to one of the horse boxes falling to pieces at Crewe, thereby causing serious injuries to the animals it contained, and our first casualty, one of the horses being so seriously damaged that it had to be shot.
On arrival at Slough the Battalion was billeted in various schools for the night, and the following morning divided up by Companies. These were distributed amongst the different stations on the length of line—from Paddington to Twyford—allotted to the Battalion. Headquarters were established at Slough, in a large empty house with spacious grounds surrounding it, which quickly acquired the soubriquet of “Black Lead Castle,” owing to one of its former occupants having rejoiced in the name of Nixey. A black cat, “which went with the place,” succeeded to the title of the former occupant.
At the stations along the line the officers and men were accommodated in the waiting rooms, without bedding, furniture, or comforts of any description, and lived in these comfortless places for rather more than three months, during which period the Battalion was carrying out the duties of patrolling the line and guarding the bridges, etc., their food being sent through from Slough in dixies.
Great ingenuity was displayed by the members of the various detachments on the line in their endeavours to make their quarters, if not comfortable, at least habitable. The palm must be awarded to the Millom Detachment at Langley Park, where, under the able direction of the Company Cook, and with the assistance of a refuse tip alongside the railway, on which every conceivable kind of kitchen utensil seemed to have found its last resting place, a quite substantial and up-to-date kitchen was erected, and, with the aid of a huge Beecham’s Pills (or other) advertisement board and some borrowed (?) waggon sheets, a commodious lean-to shelter was constructed. The homeliness of the shelter was completed by the addition of a tame fox, with which, contrary to the usual laws of animal affection, an Airedale terrier used frequently to indulge in gambols like those of a pair of kittens.