The Leeds Pals E-Book

Leeds Pals Volunteer Researchers

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 425

Beschreibung

Many men and boys from Leeds enlisted as volunteer soldiers at the outset of the First World War as part of the national phenomenon of 'Pals' that sprang up across the Britain. The Leeds Pals, who made up the 15th Battalion (Prince of Wales's Own) West Yorkshire Regiment (the City Battalion), trained in rugged Colsterdale and at Ripon, guarded the Suez Canal and were changed irrevocably by their experiences during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 when, on the first day, the battalion was devastated. Who were these men? How did their experiences resonate in Leeds? What impact did they have on the city itself? Using unpublished archive sources and original research, this book adds to our knowledge of The Leeds Pals through case studies and historical overview, revealing how the city treated this one battalion at the expense of others.

Leseprobe

First published 2018

The History Press

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© The Leeds Pals Volunteer Researchers, 2018

The right of The The Leeds Pals Volunteer Researchers to be identified as the Authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

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ISBN 978 0 7509 9017 2

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CONTENTS

The Leeds Pals Timeline

Introduction Lucy Moore and Tim Lynch

  1 Becoming Pals Sian Hibbert

  2 Training the Pals Tim Lynch

  3 Pals into Action Peter Taylor

  4 Jogendra Nath Sen Lucy Moore

  5 Pals in the Cage: Leeds Pals as Prisoners of War Peter Taylor

  6 Discipline, Crime and Punishment David Owen

  7 Social and Cultural Life of the Leeds Pals Jane Luxton

  8 The Leeds Bantams John Sigsworth and Jane Luxton

  9 Decorated Pals David Owen

10 Leeds Pals Association Laura Varley

Conclusion: A Historical Tour of Leeds

Further Research

Appendix: The Leeds Pals: An Alphabetical List

Sources

THE LEEDS PALS TIMELINE

Three years in France had cost the Pals. 773 were killed, 1,861 wounded, and 775 still missing or captured as prisoners of war. Men who lived and worked together had enlisted and fought together. No one had considered that they might also die together, leaving communities bereft. The whole idea of Pals’ battalions was recognised as a great mistake and never repeated.

INTRODUCTION

BY LUCY MOORE AND TIM LYNCH

The first shock of war almost dazed our people, but by no means to inertness. Leeds was very much on the alert. It could not belie its motto Pro Rege et Lege [For King and the Law] had now a profounder meaning than ever.

W.H. Scott, Leeds & the Great War, 1923

Early twentieth-century Leeds was a rapidly expanding city built on industry and had built a solid reputation for its textile production and expertise in heavy engineering that meant the ‘city of a thousand trades’ was booming. Raw materials entered the city along the River Aire and the Leeds–Liverpool Canal and were shunted along its busy railway tracks. The fortunes of the city went hand in hand with those of its industrialist magnates. It was a city where a Lithuanian immigrant called Montague Burton could establish a national menswear chain and a Polish Jew named Michael Marks partnered up with English cashier Thomas Spencer to create one of Britain’s best-known brands.

Postcard showing nine views of Leeds icluding Kirkstall Abbey, Boar Lane, Roundhay Park, Market Hall, Town Hall, City Square, Briggate and East End Park, 1915 (Copyright Leeds Museums & Galleries)

Yet behind the magnificent facades of booming businesses, success came at a cost. Across the British Empire, the gap between rich and poor became ever wider. In Leeds, workers’ living conditions in cramped terraced housing with poor sanitation and overcrowding led to major cholera outbreaks in 1832 and 1849 as the pace of development outstripped the infrastructure needed. As the century progressed, the standard of housing fell, with some terraced houses built as cheap one-up, one-down dwellings, tightly packed together around communal yards filled with rubbish pits and a fly-infested toilet shared by twenty or more families.

The workers who lived here were the engines of industrialisation in the city, working ten-hour days, six days a week. To try to ameliorate conditions in the city, the Improvement Acts established the Leeds Improvement Commission, which was concerned with street lighting, building pavements and cleaning up the streets. In 1842, the Improvement Act also built sewers, and during the following decade led to places for public recreation at Woodhouse, Holbeck and Hunslet Moors, widened streets and expanded Kirkgate Market. In 1866 the Act addressed the overcrowding of terraced housing and ensured that back-to-back houses would be built in no greater than four pairs, with a yard containing an ash-pit and a water closet between each set of four.

Moving between social class boundaries was difficult and for those born into poverty or those working in industry there were limited options for work. Joining the Army was one option; some signed up to avoid a prison sentence, while others looked to the Army for regular pay. Despite army reforms in the late nineteenth century, soldiering was not a popular career choice in the early twentieth century and finding enough men to maintain the overseas battalions at full strength often meant sending reinforcements from home. When war broke out in 1914 the ‘home’ battalions that would make up the British Expeditionary Force in France were, on average, 60 per cent below their expected wartime establishment. To make up the numbers, they had to rely on retired soldiers recalled from civilian life since they had a contractual commitment to spend time as reservists.

The newly appointed Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, realised that an army set up to fight small wars against poorly equipped tribal forces would soon struggle against a large, modern and well-equipped European enemy. He began planning to raise and prepare a vastly expanded ‘New Army’ ready for a war he believed would last at least three years. It was an enormous undertaking. The various army regimental depots had been established to accept and train a combined total of fewer than 30,000 recruits per year but by the end of August 1914 that number were being enlisted every day. The success of the recruiting campaign quickly overwhelmed the system.1 By January 1915, the army was trying to find space for a million additional men. It was as though a class started the school year with thirty students but within months the teacher was faced with trying to teach 1,000 with the same resources. Across the UK, regimental depots were swamped with new recruits and barely able to house and feed them, let alone train them for combat. Adding to the organised chaos was the fact that not all the recruits were under War Office control.

It had quickly become apparent that soldiers were still regarded with suspicion in class-conscious Edwardian society, a view barely changed since Wellington described the men under his command as ‘the scum of the earth’ almost a century earlier. Respectable young men were reluctant to throw their lot in with ‘licentious soldiery’ and so a new idea was put forward under which men would be encouraged to join with their friends into battalions of men of a similar social standing – as ‘Pals’. Recruited by local dignitaries and funded by the great and the good of the area, Pals battalions would be made up of white collar workers from local offices, shops and businesses. Leeds was among many cities across the north of England responding to the call for volunteers and recruiting quickly got under way for the ‘City of Leeds Battalion’, to be made up of young men from the commercial sector.

The story of the Leeds Pals and their disastrous experience on the first day of the Battle of the Somme has entered the mythology of the Great War. The centenary of that terrible day brought with it an outpouring of stories about the battalion that relied more on story than history and showed how much about who they were and what they did has been forgotten. Yet whilst the first Pals battalion has received so much attention, the second is almost forgotten and the contribution of other Leeds battalions remains little known.

This book, then, seeks to expand the answers to some of the questions that surround the Leeds Pals battalion and its relationship with the city. The research journey has taken the authors from the streets of Leeds to the bustle of India, uncovering further information about the lives of the men who fought in the battalion, how its character altered during the First World War and the identity and sense of belonging membership of the Pals gave to veterans afterwards. This work is indebted to Laurie Milner’s major publication Leeds Pals and also draws on it, as well as items from Leeds Museums & Galleries, the West Yorkshire Archive Service and the families of many Leeds Pals. We have tried to look broadly at the history of the Leeds Pals and include chapters on prisoners of war, the first published account of the Leeds Pals Association and an account of the life of Private Jogendra Nath Sen, who was born in India, but died as a son of Leeds.2 The history of the ‘silent’ 2nd Leeds Pals Battalion – the Leeds Bantams – is examined too, not just in comparison to the Leeds Pals, but as a force raised by the city and yet largely forgotten by it.

Official history of the Leeds Pals, compiled as a school project, with interviews with former members. (Copyright Leeds Museums & Galleries.)

The Pals were not simply a force raised by the city of Leeds. They were a part of the city and the city was a part of them. They served overseas but never lost their links with their home. To understand the Pals is to understand something of what makes Leeds.

______________________

1 Beckett, I.F.W. and Simpson, K, A Nation in Arms: A Social Study of the British Army in the First World War (1986).,

2Research into the life of Jogendra Nath Sen is indebted to David Stowe’s work on the University of Leeds Roll of Honour.

1

BECOMING PALS

BY SIAN HIBBERT

Why not a ‘friends’ battalion?

Yorkshire Evening Post, 31 August 1914

By the time the declaration of war between England and Germany came on 4 August 1914, regiments and cities alike had begun preparing for the ensuing conflict.

In Leeds, the 7th and 8th Leeds Rifles battalions, the (Prince of Wales’ Own) West Yorkshire Regiment, were utilised straight away. Almost as soon as they had departed for their annual camp at Scarborough they were recalled to Carlton Barracks and embodied for active service. Volunteers were also invited to join Lord Kitchener’s army through the city’s newspapers: advertisements went to print as early as Friday, 7 August, just three days after the outbreak of war. This news was met with a keen eagerness throughout England. In Leeds, potential servicemen responded swiftly to the call for volunteers and hurried to recruitment centres, including one at Hanover Square: ‘One could not look at the Kitchener poster in the face, knowing that the straight, long finger pointed at you.’

The influx of potential soldiers in Leeds was so great that the recruitment facilities struggled to efficiently process them. ‘Staff [were] unable to deal quickly enough with the rush of young men,’ reported the Yorkshire Evening Post. The location of the recruitment centre was considered to be preventing an even greater number of men from joining up to serve their country. Hanover Square, just outside the city centre, was ‘hidden away in a residential district – existence unknown to many’ and it became a priority to relocate to somewhere more central. A few days later, the Leeds Tramways Committee ‘consented to their new depot at Swinegate to be used as a recruiting office’, doing their bit for the city’s war effort. The new recruitment centre opened on 3 September 1914. The Leeds Mercury reported that on 2 September, the Hanover Square office had successfully enlisted 218 recruits. It was hoped that the new centre would allow for at least double those numbers going forward.1

Caricature Toby jug, designed by cartoonist Sir F. Carruthers Gould, of Lord Kitchener (shown with pint mug in hand with motto ‘Bitter for the Kaiser’), Royal Staffordshire Pottery. (Copyright Leeds Museums & Galleries).

Leeds Pals recruitment poster. (Copyright David Owen)

General Sir Henry Rawlinson suggested that recruits might be more inclined to join up to the war effort if they were doing so alongside people they already knew. He appealed to the London stockbrokers, who promptly implemented the recruitment strategy. The idea was a resounding success and the stockbrokers managed to raise a ‘friends’ battalion of 1,600 men within a week (10th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers). Not long after, the Earl of Derby repeated the suggestion in Liverpool, coining the phrase ‘battalions of pals’, and 1,500 men joined up within two days.2 The news of the success of this encouragement to enlist quickly spread across England, the concept reaching Leeds at the end of August. In Leeds the idea was to recruit the battalion from ‘the middle-class population engaged in commercial pursuits, young men from the factories, the warehouses and the offices of the city, who desire to go to the front, but hesitate about enlisting lest they be sent to a regiment in which they will not have kindred spirits.’.3 This battalion became known as the 1st (City) Battalion Leeds Pals, although its correct title was the 15th (Service) Battalion (Prince of Wales’ Own) West Yorkshire Regiment. As a second force the 2nd (Bantam) Battalion Leeds Pals was formed in December 1914, and held the title 17th (Service) Battalion.

Up to that point, the majority of recruits to the Leeds Rifles were from working-class backgrounds. The idea of a Leeds Pals battalion couldn’t have come at a better time; many of the local battalions were beginning to turn volunteers away as they had already filled their ranks. Arthur Pearson, who later joined the Leeds Pals, experienced this soon after Kitchener’s advert reached Leeds: ‘I turned towards the local Territorial Barracks with a bashful step, only to be told – full up.’4 It was common for potential recruits rejected by one battalion to simply walk to a neighbouring town and try again there, often successfully. Arthur Wadsworth, for example, was turned down by the Bradford Pals Battalion as he was aged 16, which was below the age limit of 19. He therefore walked to Leeds, told them he was 19 and was accepted. It seems many used this trick to circumvent the age restrictions of the recruitment process.

‘Business Men of Leeds, Your King and Country Need You!’

During the initial recruitment buzz for the new Leeds Pals battalion, a number of adverts were published in the local newspapers detailing the ideal characteristics of their new recruits. The recruits were middle class, were occupied in non-manual work, and were aged between 19 and 35. Previous soldiers up to the age of 45 would be accepted, as well as former non-commissioned officers up to the age of 50. Single men were preferred and enlistment was for the duration of the war, or for three years; whichever was the shorter. Any candidate who felt they fitted the description was invited to register interest in a letter to Colonel Walter Stead at his offices, prior to the formal recruitment. Applicants to the Leeds Pals had to be literate to join.

Warrant Officer First Class, Thomas Connor (RSM), was an Irishman born in Cork in 1872. After completing a successful career in the armed forces, Thomas retired in 1909, aged 39. Having moved to Leeds around 1911 with his wife and children, Thomas responded to the advertisements for experienced soldiers, and re-enlisted in 1914. Thomas was one of the first to sign up for the new battalion in September. However, at 42 years of age, Thomas was deemed unfit for overseas service and thus spent some of the war training new Pals at their camp in Colsterdale.

Not all recruits with previous military experience were unable to serve abroad, however. Henry Preston, from Scarborough, had served twenty-three years with the Army, enlisting as a Private in the West Yorkshire Regiment in 1889, before working his way up to Regimental Sergeant Major prior to his retirement in Leeds in 1912. On 7 December 1914, aged 44, Henry re-enlisted as a Private with Leeds Pals. Recognised for his previous service, Henry was once more promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major in January 1915. He served with the Pals during their training at Colsterdale, Ripon and Fovant and their campaign in Egypt before fighting on the Western Front in France from March 1916. Sadly, he was killed in action on 1 July 1916 in the opening hours of the Battle of the Somme, a battle that was to prove devastating for the Pals.

Thomas Connors. (Copyright Christine Bull)

On 3 September 1914, the Victoria Hall in Leeds Town Hall opened its doors at 9 a.m. to begin the recruitment of the Leeds Pals Battalion. On that first day over 500 men had joined up, with candidates generally selected based upon social status with previous military experience, with examples of leadership qualities and physical prowess particularly welcomed. The process seemed to be exclusive, with a number of potential recruits being turned away due to their employment history. Many of those who were turned away were soon after recruited into the Leeds Rifles Reserve battalions. One clerk from Leeds, E. Robinson, was refused by the recruitment panel on the grounds that his father was a farm worker. He joined the Royal Artillery the same day.

Previous employment varied widely and included amongst the new recruits were schoolmasters, mechanical engineers, mill and factory managers and solicitors. Privates Horace and John Killen, who were both later killed in action, listed on their applications as being a piano maker and a teacher respectively.

Large numbers of recruits came from the schools and universities around Leeds, such as Private Charles Studley, a student of the University of Leeds, who was killed in action in France. Private Alexander William Poll had passed the final examination of Students in Training Colleges, becoming a fully certified Elementary School Teacher in 1912. Alexander was a member of Armley Cricket Club and is seen wearing white cricket shoes in some of the photos of him taken at Colsterdale Training Camp. Alexander was among the earliest recruits to enlist with the battalion, joining at the Town Hall on 5 September. He was ‘transferred from the Pals to the Machine Gun Corps and was discharged with the rank of Sergeant in Belgium on 26 February 1919’.

Alexander Poll with son Bruce and grandson David. (Copyright David Poll)

Alexander Poll on guard duty. (Copyright David Poll)

Many of the initial members of the Leeds Pals worked for the Leeds Corporation. Arthur Pearson met many of them when he enlisted at the Town Hall: ‘they were mostly officials and clerks in the city’s Administration Offices.’5 It was commonplace for employers to encourage their employees to enrol in the battalion by sending them in groups to the Town Hall during the working day. The Yorkshire Evening Post reported that ‘they had been given special permission by their employers to leave their desks in order to get their names down without delay. Said one trio, ‘our boss told us to get out of the office and put our names down at once or he would kick us out!’6 This quotation leads us to perhaps question how willing and enthusiastic the new recruits were?

Albert Guttridge was a celebrated Yorkshire athlete and first came to prominence in 1911, when he won the Yorkshire Junior Championship at Queen’s Park, Castleford, beating a field of over 200 runners. He subsequently had success at Huddersfield, Brighouse, Malton, Bury and Hellifield, and became captain of the Leeds Athletic Club Harriers. Albert was one of the many casualties on the first day of the Somme. He was badly wounded when an explosion blew him out of one shell-hole into another. He suffered a broken leg and five other wounds, and was evacuated back to England. He was treated at Bethnal Green Hospital in London, where his leg was amputated. He died on 30 July 1916. His body was brought from London to Leeds and on 2 August 1916 he was buried in Lawnswood cemetery with full military honours. He is commemorated there on the War Memorial.

Recruitment continued apace with 800 men recruited by the end of the second day. Amongst those recruited were a plethora of well-known sportsmen. Efforts were made to utilise any potential source of recruits, and recruiting teams quickly realised that a good place to look for fit, eager young men could be sporting venues. Recruiters for the war effort were touring the Leeds football grounds by the end of August.7 Morris Fleming explained how he had joined up at the Town Hall alongside five others from his team, just one of many examples of the success of the recruitment campaign for the Pals in the early days of the battalion. Evelyn Lintott was another well-known footballer who enlisted. Alongside football, cricket was represented amongst the ranks of the battalion, with a number of notable local players enlisting. These included Roy Kilner, Major Booth and Arthur Dolphin.

Additionally, cross-country runners were numerous in the ranks of the Pals and the large proportion of sportsmen in the battalion later led to the formation of a Sports and Recreation Committee during the Pals’ time at their camp at Colsterdale.8 One such runner was Private George Colcroft, a former cross-country champion of Yorkshire who sadly became the first Leeds Pals casualty. He died of an illness on 19 November 1914 at Seacroft Hospital and is buried in the Bramley Baptist Graveyard.

Cross-country trophy awarded in 1918. (Copyright Leeds Museums & Galleries)

George Colcroft’s grave in Bramley baptist churchyard. (Copyright Bramley War Memorial)

Leeds Pals Recruitment Tramcar. (Copyright Leeds Libraries & Information Services)

Leeds Stockbrokers Memorial. (Copyright Leeds Museums & Galleries)

It is probable that the recruitment of such notable individuals in Leeds aided in encouraging young businessmen to join the same battalion, perhaps creating the image of a team of men engaging in friendly, sporting competition, rather than a battalion of recruits enlisting to fight for their country.

Throughout the recruitment process, a variety of methods were used both locally and nationally to encourage men to enlist. Of them, one best remembered in Leeds was an illuminated recruitment tramcar, which would progress, draped in banners and patriotic symbols, from the tramway depot in the centre of Leeds to a number of suburban destinations, carrying recruiters and public figures and flanked by men in uniform promoting the war effort along the way. The tramcar routes were published in the local newspapers and large crowds were reported. On 11 September 1914, the recruitment tramcar made its way to Morley, where it was met with a ‘patriotic concert by the Morley Brass Band’.9 According to the local newspapers, the turnout was so great that ‘it was with difficulty that the tram and general traffic was regulated by the police’.10

On 4 September, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that day’s tramcar route would begin at Victoria Square at 7.30 p.m., before proceeding to the Burley Hotel, on to Hyde Park, down to Briggate via Woodhouse Lane, over to Harehills, Canal Gardens and the Woodpecker before finishing back at the depot on Swinegate at 9.45 p.m. This route, like all of the tramcar’s ventures, was accompanied by much pomp and ceremony and distinguished guests, including the Mayor of Leeds and the Tramways Band.

The Mayoress of Leeds often rode on the top deck of the car, giving speeches to large crowds at each stop. The tramcar was such a success that it was still in use in June 1915, long after the Battalion’s departure for training camp.

Benjamin Clifford Wadsworth Bland was born in Garforth in September 1891. We know he was an early recruit to the Leeds Pals from his enrolment number of 15/93. Dropping his first name, Clifford worked as a stockbroker’s clerk on Park Row, Leeds, prior to the outbreak of war. He joined up aged 22 and was posted to B Company. During leave in March 1915, he married Lillian Brownridge in Leeds. Clifford went with the Pals to Egypt, then to France and was reported missing on 1 July 1916. On 15 July, Lillian appealed for any news of him in the Yorkshire Evening Post. His death was ultimately confirmed, but his body was never found and he is commemorated on the Stockbroker’s Memorial and at the Thiepval Memorial.

Local businesses were also keen to involve themselves in the recruitment drive for the war. As Arthur Pearson noted in his diaries of his time as a Pal, both the Ben Wade Pipe Factory and Messrs Tetley & Sons provided products as an incentive to join up:

Every man, whether he was a smoker or not, was presented with a pipe sent to him with compliments of Ben Wade, the Leeds Pipe makers, and to go with it, an ounce of Tetley’s ‘Golden Pelican’ tobacco, which was a nice gesture by both Leeds firms.11

These recruitment efforts had been so successful in encouraging the city’s potential recruits to join the war effort that, on 8 September, a worker’s battalion was proposed in the Yorkshire Post to include those who did not reach the elitist standards of the Pals commercial battalion. It was thought this battalion would allow the manual workers of Leeds the opportunity to do their part for their country. The Yorkshire Evening Post later reported plans to establish two new pals’ battalions for workers that would replace the 7th and 8th Leeds Rifles as Home Defence.12 However, these did not materialise. Instead, potential recruits were redirected to the Leeds Rifles because territorial battalions had been ordered to double in size to form first and second line battalions. The first lines were trained and ready to go, the second acted as a pool of reinforcements. It was a convenient compromise that meant the War Office would pay, rather than Leeds Corporation (or indeed a private individual).

Leeds born and bred?

Recruits for the Leeds Pals battalion were not restricted to those from Leeds alone. From the list of 1,281 initial applicants to the battalion, there are recruits from across Yorkshire and further afield. The recruits were largely local to Leeds and this certainly aided in the creation of the image of the Pals as the City of Leeds Battalion.

Research into the initial recruits’ addresses at the time of enlistment illustrates the areas of Leeds which contributed most heavily towards the Pals battalion. When the data is input into charts, the demographics of the Pals’ residences clearly show hotspots of recruitment which centre on what is now the university area of Leeds.

Additionally, of the 1,281 names, roughly sixty addresses were unidentifiable due to various reasons, including house names provided instead of the full address. Many recruits simply gave a business address: bank names were among the most common given in place of residential addresses, and as there were often multiple branches, it is difficult to identify the exact location the recruit intended as his address without additional information. Private Dodd simply gave ‘Pygmalion, Leeds’ as his contact address – which was a department store! Furthermore, throughout the twentieth century, Leeds underwent several stages of significant redevelopment that resulted in many streets being demolished and subsequent changes to the planning of the city mean many no longer exist.

One such area is the modern-day Burmantofts area to the east of inner-city Leeds. Well known for its textile industry during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Burmantofts was completely redeveloped in the middle of the twentieth century, eradicating many of the terraces that had housed a number of Leeds Pals’ families. As the map used is thought to have originated in the 1940s, many street names listed by the Pals were simply not in existence at the time of the map’s production. While some images and accounts exist of such terraces, and thus some addresses have been verified, not all could be confirmed. Human error also had a part to play in the original transcription of addresses: both Gathorne and Gawthore, and Bagby and Blagby feature as street names and could therefore either be entirely different streets, or could simply have been due to spelling errors.

As the number of unidentifiable addresses is relatively small in comparison to the overall sample size, it is unlikely that the exclusion of this information would largely affect the patterns displayed in the table below, though it is worth noting that the list of initial recruits is not complete and therefore only provides a glimpse into the backgrounds of the Pals recruits. Furthermore, following initial application to the battalion, many Pals swiftly transferred onward. The statistics here provide a snapshot of the make-up of the battalion at its very beginning, but do not necessarily reflect its make-up for the subsequent war years.

Area

Number of Recruits

Area

Number of Recruits

Centre / University

234

Yeadon

6

Hyde Park / Burley

169

Bradford

6

Harehills

119

Farsley

6

Headingley

112

Wakefield

5

Chapel Allerton

96

Rothwell

5

Hunslet

69

Guiseley

5

Armley

56

Batley

5

Roundhay

50

Calverley

3

Beeston

50

Rawdon

3

Horsforth

21

Oulton

2

Bramley

20

Adel

2

Stanningley

19

Harrogate

2

Kirkstall

19

Ossett

2

Osmondthorpe

18

Mirfield

2

Holbeck

18

Dewsbury

1

Moor Allerton

17

Selby

1

Morley

13

Castleford

1

Wortley

12

Wetherby

1

Meanwood

11

Barnsley

1

Pudsey

11

Bramhope

1

Whitkirk

9

Otley

1

Cross Gates

9

Kippax

1

Halton

8

London

1

Area

Number of Recruits

Centre

234

Inner-city Leeds

663

Greater Leeds

290

Wider Yorkshire

35

Rest of UK

1

The data collected has been input into a chart to illustrate in which locations the Pals recruits were living at the point of their enlistment during the initial months of recruitment for the battalion. The graph demonstrates the proportion of Pals recruits enlisted from central Leeds, wider Leeds and from further afield.

While 663 recruits were from the inner city Leeds areas such as Harehills and Headingley, 234 recruits came from the much smaller area of Leeds city centre. The density of these addresses within such a small area is remarkable and lends significant weight to the inaccurate perception that during the First World War every street in Leeds suffered a loss.

Of these recruits, the majority were located around the university area; out of the 234 central Leeds recruits, 118 resided in the streets immediately surrounding the university campus. Within this there were two major hotspots: Blenheim Square and the adjacent streets boasted thirty-three recruits, while Blackman Lane and the immediate vicinity contributed at least seventeen of the 118 university area recruits.

Many of the city’s recruitment efforts took place within this area. The recruitment tram travelled up Woodhouse Lane, stopping at the steps of the Parkinson Building to gather recruits. Blenheim Square and adjoining terraces, situated on the opposite side of Woodhouse Lane to the university buildings, was particularly highly represented on the list of residences for Pals recruits. Within walking distance from the university, the area had been a popular residence for the middle classes from the Victorian period. In the 1911 census, however, only one house had a student in residence. Much of Leeds’ middle-class had moved to Headingley. Yet by 1914 a fair number of ‘respectable’ young men live there. It is noteworthy that so many recruits came from this small square in Leeds. It is important to note here that the community of Blenheim Square, not unlike the rest of Britain, must have felt the losses from the war greatly; from a small square, thirty-three men joined the Pals and it is likely that many did not return to Leeds. This figure does not reflect the many others from the area who may have joined and fought with other battalions across Yorkshire and Britain.

Since the outbreak of the war, the city’s churches had been integral in many of Leeds’ recruiting efforts. This is due, in part, to a number of notable churchmen who involved themselves heavily in recruitment across the city. Of these Revd Samuel Bickersteth, the vicar of Leeds Parish Church, whose own sons volunteered, is well known.13 As an active member of Colonel Stead’s raising committee for the Leeds Pals, Reverend Bickersteth aided wholeheartedly wherever he could. He was often found on the tramcar, touring the suburbs of Leeds encouraging recruitment, and he continued his efforts through his work within the Church community. The parish church has become the focus for commemoration, and today memorials to the Pals and the Bantams can be found within this same church.

By charting the data, it is clear that the ongoing recruitment campaign and tactics used by Colonel Stead and his team were particularly successful in certain areas. Other recruitment hotspots that stand out include Spencer Place and Mount Preston, with twelve and seven recruits from each road respectively. Spencer Place is located between Chapel Allerton and Harehills and the high volumes of recruits from this road could be related to the influence of the recruitment tramcar, which made regular journeys between the university and Harehills. It begs the question as to whether the tramcar route was targeting middle-class areas. Mount Preston is within close proximity to the university and therefore its high contribution to the Pals can be explained in the same manner as Blenheim Square and Blackman Lane. However, with the University also encouraging students to volunteer, the tram route cannot have been the only cause.

By 10 September, the Yorkshire Post recorded the Pals had processed 4,223 applicants just one week after recruitment for the battalion had begun, roughly four for every place available.14 The medical examinations were taking place in the Town Hall alongside the standard recruitment paperwork, ensuring the speed and efficiency of the process as eager recruits continued to come forward in large quantities. Despite this, the local newspaper reports from mid-September compare the recruitment turnout of Leeds in comparison to the other large cities of the England in disappointed tones. It was claimed in the Leeds Mercury on 11 September that of the 439,000 volunteers that had come forward in England, Leeds had contributed a mere 5,000 from across its emerging three new battalions.15

With London contributing 57,000, Manchester 30,000, Birmingham 24,000, Sheffield 20,000 and Leeds at 11,000, including the previously established battalions in the city, the press reported that Leeds men had ‘scarcely risen to the occasion’.16 Recruitment figures refer to all servicemen, not just the Pals, and it must not be forgotten that the war had created a jobs boom in the city, resulting in little unemployment. Part of this may perhaps have been due to the very strict social criteria of the Pals. In addition, the medical examinations were particularly rigorous, with many promising recruits turned away due to ailments such as poor teeth. In order to slow the flood of applicants, medical standards were more strictly applied. It was reported that approximately 8 per cent of applicants to the battalion were rejected due to failed medical examinations.17 However, the Pals continued to come forward in their hundreds and just a few days later, on 15 September, the newly formed battalion assembled at the Town Hall amongst crowds of proud spectators, family and friends to take their oaths of allegiance.18 Arthur Pearson remembered that moment clearly: ‘We swore to be true and loyal soldiers, to serve King and Country.’19

Wilkinson Brothers

Frederick, a stationmaster at Dent and then Ulleskelf, and Elizabeth Wilkinson had five sons – Harry, John Earle, Gerald, Reginald and Wilfred. When war broke out Gerald and Reginald were among the first to sign up at Leeds Town Hall in September 1914, both joining B Company in number six platoon, five section. On 1 July, during the attack on the village of Serre, both Gerald and Reginald were killed. Neither man’s body was ever found. Both men are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. The Yorkshire Herald reported that ‘Mr and Mrs F Wilkinson have suffered a heavy bereavement … their comrades, in letters of sympathy to the parents, state that both were splendid soldiers and fought with great bravery.’

Decline in recruits

By 25 September the Pals were up to full strength, a battalion of ‘glowing, enthusiastic Youth’.20 Despite the battalion departing for camp at Colsterdale, recruitment continued in Leeds with the aim of building reserves for Pals battalions across England. However, the local press began reporting a decline in recruitment from October onwards. An article published in the on 2 October commented on the decline in Leeds men coming forward for the battalion, linking the trend to the exclusivity of the Pals and the special attention this regiment had received over others.21 It was thought that the battalion was elitist and undeserving of the grand send-off that they had had, when so many other battalions had left without any significant ceremony. The Pals, in training at Colsterdale, had developed a reputation for being a ‘featherbed battalion’, a slur on the middle-class, office-based origins of the men serving with the Pals.

Leeds Bantams

The Lord Mayor of Leeds raised another volunteer battalion on 8 December 1914. This new unit was the 17th Battalion of the (Prince of Wales’ Own) West Yorkshire Regiment. They were referred to at the time as the 2nd Leeds Pals, but quickly became known as the Leeds Bantams. These men were under 5ft 4in in height, and many had been previously refused at recruitment offices on this basis. Many had worked in the mills of Holbeck and initially their drilling took place on Holbeck Moor.

Recruitment continued into 1915 with Colonel Stead and his team employing differing techniques to fulfil recruitment requirements, both in terms of numbers and the type of recruit. On 1 June 1915, Stead successfully gained new recruits by speaking to the crowds gathered at a cricket match in Headingley. Later that month the Pals were themselves involved in the recruitment effort, when a march was organised from Ripon to Leeds, with the Pals dressed smartly in full military dress. The joyful young Leeds men who had volunteered to fight for their country some ten months prior were barely recognisable; their time in training at Colsterdale had convincingly transformed them into definite military men. The march was successful and gained a further eighty recruits for the battalion.22

Trying to recruit spectators at sporting matches was a popular strategy to gain new recruits and was adopted throughout Britain. Nearby, in Barnsley, Mr Joseph Hewitt, the original commander of the First Barnsley Battalion, utilised a sporting crowd to raise awareness in the early days of the war for the recently announced Barnsley Pals. During a football match between Barnsley and Grimsby he addressed the crowds, pointing out that whilst they were enjoying that day’s match, their fellow townsmen were fighting at the front, a tactic that indeed attracted a few members from the crowd to enlist after the game.23 In Leeds this strategy had a proven track record of success as, in early September 1914, the Lord Mayor had announced to the crowds of a Leeds United v. Fulham match the arrival of the Leeds Pals battalion. This effort alone encouraged some 200 men to sign up for the duration of the war.24

The tramcar was still used in 1915, more determinedly than before. The stops on the route had become more frequent, with many potential soldiers being attested on board before being hurried down to the city centre to pass medical examinations.25 In July 1915, recruitment for the Leeds Pals Battalion formally ended. Any new soldiers that might be needed for the Pals’ ranks would be enlisted through a more centralised system.

From the autumn of 1915, recruitment in Britain changed from being reliant on volunteer enlistment to a new scheme, introduced by the same man who had strongly supported the Pals scheme; Lord Derby. The Derby Scheme was designed to determine whether the war effort could be sustained on volunteer recruits or whether conscription would be needed to meet the demand for new soldiers. While the Derby Scheme was not intended as a forceful method of gaining recruits, it was designed to be more intrusive than the posters and adverts used during the opening year of the war. The scheme was introduced to the public through a committee who handed letters from Derby to any eligible young man, outlining the country’s situation against Germany and that it was their duty to aid in the effort. Many men enlisted as soon as the scheme had been announced, rather than waiting to be confronted in the street. From this point onwards, new recruits were allocated a regiment as opposed to self-selecting to enlist with their townsmen. However, as the Derby Scheme failed to gather enough new recruits by 1916, a new, more forceful policy was introduced: conscription.26 This change in recruitment procedure during the war highlights the significance of the original 1st Leeds Pals, as opposed to the Pals that followed after conscription in 1916. In the initial year and a half of the war, Leeds men had joined up together and thus could call themselves the 1st City of Leeds Battalion in good faith. From the introduction of the Derby Scheme and then full conscription in 1916, however, losses to the Leeds Pals were replaced from across the country, thus the original connotation of the ‘Pals’ battalion was diluted throughout the war, thereby further strengthening the bond and camaraderie of the initial recruits to the Pals.

______________________

1Leeds Mercury, 3 September 1914

2 G. Maddocks, Liverpool Pals: 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th (Service) Battalions, Pen & Sword (2008)

3Yorkshire Evening Post, 31 August 1914

4 Pearson, A.V., A Leeds Pal: Memoirs, pp.6

5 Pearson, A.V., A Leeds Pal: Memoirs, pp.8

6Yorkshire Evening Post, 3 September 1914

7 Milner, L., Leeds Pals, pp.6

8 Milner, L., Leeds Pals, pp.47

9Morley Observer, 11 September 1914

10 Ibid.

11 Pearson, A.V., A Leeds Pal: Memoirs, pp.12

12Yorkshire Evening Post, 8 September 1941

13 Milner, L., Leeds Pals, pp.3

14Yorkshire Post, 10 September 1914

15Leeds Mercury, 11 September 1914

16Yorkshire Evening Post, 12 September 1914

17 Milner, L., Leeds Pals, pp.18

18Leeds Mercury, 15 September 1914

19 Pearson, A.V., A Leeds Pal: Memoirs, pp.9

20 Ibid.

21 Milner, L., Leeds Pals, pp.42

22 Milner, L., Leeds Pals, pp.89

23 Cooksey, J., Barnsley Pals: The 13th & 14th Battalions, York & Lancaster Regiment, pp.34

24 Ibid.

25 Milner, L., Leeds Pals, pp.86

26 Knight, J., The Civil Service Rifles in the Great War: ‘All Bloody Gentlemen’, pp.67

2

TRAINING THE PALS

BY TIM LYNCH

Respectable young men were reluctant to throw in their lot with the ‘licentious soldiery’ until Sir Henry Rawlinson, Director of Recruiting, gained permission to establish a whole battalion drawn from a specific line of work to ensure that they would be able to serve, as he put it, ‘among friends’. The model created by the resulting 10th ‘Stockbroker’s’ Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers proved popular and was quickly copied around the country. In Liverpool, Lord Derby began recruiting a ‘Pals’ battalion with an advert that emphasised that the battalion would be for ‘young business men’ and explicitly stated that ‘no undesirables’ would be accepted. The idea was that the War Office would provide weapons and other items but that local citizens would meet the costs of raising and maintaining the battalion until it was formally adopted into the army at the end of its basic training.

Victorian Soldiery

During Queen Victoria’s reign the British Empire had spread across the globe, establishing military garrisons to maintain control over the local populations and protect British business interests as far afield as the Caribbean and China. As a result, the British army evolved a regimental system designed to meet the need for small, independent units able to operate far from home with the minimum of support. A typical regiment at the turn of the twentieth century comprised two battalions, each of around 1,000 men, alternating between ‘home’ service in the UK or Ireland and ‘overseas’ in one of the outposts of empire, most typically in bases across India. From 1880, in an effort to improve recruitment, regiments were re-organised to create local ‘county’ regiments with a regimental depot based in the regiment’s designated county. Acting as the administrative hub, these regimental depots housed a third reserve battalion whose job it was to keep the first and second up to strength by recruiting and training replacements for men who had completed their service.

As we have seen, on 1 September 1914 the Yorkshire Post announced that J. Walter Stead, a Leeds solicitor and former commander of the 7th Battalion of the Leeds Rifles, had contacted the local Territorial Association for permission to raise a new battalion of Leeds men for Kitchener’s Army. The next day, Mayor Edward Brotherton told the monthly meeting of the Leeds Corporation that a telegram had arrived giving the War Office permission to begin recruiting. This would be, Brotherton assured the councillors, at his own expense – an estimated £6,000. Immediately, hopes were raised that membership of the planned battalion would be limited to men of the local business community but a committee quickly formed to oversee the recruitment of ‘non-manual’ workers into the Leeds City Battalion. On 28 September the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that there were ‘misconceptions as to the purpose of the two workers battalions which the Lord Mayor and Alderman Wilson are raising in Leeds’. The article goes on to state the applicants’ names were actively being passed on to the Territorials. In effect there was no attempt to actually form another Pals battalion, but to encourage recruitment into what had long been working-class battalions.

Invitation to civic dinner held in honour of Leeds Pals. (Copyright Leeds Museums & Galleries)

Menu for dinner. Copyright David Owen.

Leeds Pals recruits in August 1914. (Copyright Leeds Museums & Galleries)

On 3 September, Victoria Hall in Leeds Town Hall was opened for recruiting. By 9 p.m. over 500 men had enlisted and two days later, on 5 September, the Yorkshire Post was able to begin publishing the names of 1,275 volunteers who had come forward.1

To organise the volunteers, Colonel Stead needed to find men to act as officers – a difficult task in an entire battalion recruited from the sort of men usually regarded by the army as officer material. In a situation unthinkable in the pre-war regular army, the Michaelmas term edition of the Wakefield Grammar School magazine recorded that Colonel Stead and no fewer than eight of his lowest ranking soldiers were all alumni of the school.2 Many of the eager recruits had served some time with their University Officer Training Corps (UOTC) but the pool of men with any real military background was small. Among the most experienced men available were Joseph Poignant, a twelve-year veteran of the Swedish navy, and Charles Wilson, who had served eleven years in the Leeds-based part-time Royal Engineers Volunteer Company.3 None had led troops in battle.

Finding accommodation was another headache for the authorities. At first the volunteers had to be sent home to await instructions until a base could be found – fortunately it was not long in coming. The rapid expansion of the industrial towns of the West Riding during the nineteenth century had increased demand for reliable water supplies and by 1901 Leeds was estimated to need at least 15 million gallons per day. To manage the problem, the Leeds Corporation made plans to build three reservoirs in the Dales: at Colsterdale, Leighton and Healey at a cost of £2,200,000. Work on the first of these, Leighton, finally began in 1904 and a temporary village housing up to 1,000 workers and families had been constructed on a site known as Breary Banks in Colsterdale.

As work started, it was quickly discovered that the original plans were riddled with mistakes and the area itself was unsafe for the construction of a reservoir because of the old coal and lead mines. Despite this, Breary Banks continued to house workers during the construction of Leighton reservoir and work was still going on when war broke out. Having spent a great deal of money on the land around the camp, the Corporation decided to make use of it to house their newly formed Pals battalion and on 16 September Colonel Stead informed the newspapers that the battalion was to head to Colsterdale for training.

Volunteers with practical skills were sent ahead as an advance party to prepare the camp for the arrival of the main body. Recruits with backgrounds in construction were put to work maintaining and expanding the camp, those with retail skills put to work organising the stores and cooks were selected to ensure the men would be adequately fed. Once the practical and logistical problems were sorted out, the remaining recruits received orders to join the battalion for the train journey up to Masham and the 6-mile march to Breary Banks.

Arriving at the camp in late September, the battalion set about organising itself. Groups of friends formed themselves into platoons and companies and settled into their new accommodation, many seeing it as an extension of the Scout camps they had enjoyed just a few years before and letters home show an atmosphere of excitement as the men set out on their great adventure. Private Arthur Pearson recalled how ‘men who had any experience of drill and discipline in the Boys’ Brigade, Boy Scouts etc. were asked to step forward and see what sort of army NCOs they might make. “Some are born to greatness – some have greatness thrust upon them” – and some members of the battalion who stepped forward as embryo NCOs climbed the giddy heights to even become Generals.’4

Breary Banks. (Copyright David Owen)

Colsterdale Huts 1914–15. (Copyright David Owen)

Underage recruitment in Colsterdale