It was a sight indeed to see Kitchener's Army drill. The rush was far too great to be met by the Army clothing factories, and for many weeks there were no uniforms, and the men drilled and were drilled by other men in ordinary civilian clothing.
One could see the varied occupations of the men who had enlisted. Here is a man, great of girth, who will need to have his size reduced considerably ere he rushes at German trenches, and he still wears the leggings with which he trudged across his fields. Here is a man who evidently a few days ago held in his hand the yardstick with which he measured his calico. He is bent on sterner work now.
Here, again, is one from the pit and another from the mill, and a third who looks as though he had been a lawyer or a lawyer's clerk. And drilling them all is a man who evidently a few days since was hewing coal from a Welsh mine. He is back to the colours now, but will have to wait for his transforming uniform.
But all eager, all intense. No work for pay this. "Mercenaries" the Kaiser called them, but no mercenaries these—England's best and noblest ready to give their lives for the land they love so well.
It was a happy thought which allowed men who had been accustomed to live and work together to form their own battalion or regiment; and so we had the Public School Corps, and the Pals' Brigade, and many another. Fastidious young men from West End drawing-rooms proved that they had the hearts of true Englishmen, and worked hard as the rest. Later on, in one hut were men whose income was said to average £2000 a year. They were just privates.
From the religious point of view it was a great opportunity. Nearly every church in the land had sent of its best and had done its best to honour those who went. "Rolls of Honour," containing the names of those who had gone from that particular church, hung in the porches. In many, Sunday by Sunday, the names on the Roll of Honour were read out and special prayer offered for them.
The young men had left their homes and churches with the voice of prayer ringing in their ears. They knew that they were going to serious work and that many of them would never return. The most careless of them were serious now, and were ready, if the impression did not pass away, to give themselves not only to their King and Country, but to the King of Kings.
And right earnestly was the work begun in the Home Church continued in the camps. These camps were established all over the country, for Aldershot and Salisbury Plain were altogether inadequate. To all such camps chaplains were appointed, and, for the first time, the Baptists, Congregationalists, Primitives and United Methodists, who, except in the great military centres, had stood out of the Army work, had their appointed chaplains—not many as yet—but sufficient to show that they also felt the need and were ready to do the work. They have since joined forces for this service, and are carrying on their united work by Free Church chaplains.
The entry of the Free Churches into the Army work is of such general interest that I asked the Rev. J.H. Shakespeare, M.A., Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, to send me a brief account of the facts. Mr. Shakespeare replied under date of February 10, 1915.
"Up to ten years ago, the sentiment among Baptists and Congregationalists was not very sympathetic towards the Army, and there was no provision on the Attestation Sheet for the entry of men as belonging to these two denominations. I then secured a column for this purpose, which has been in use ever since, but I do not think it has been very effective.