The Long, Long Trail

'Your King and Country need you: a call to arms' was published on 11 August 1914 explaining the new terms of service and calling for the first 100,000 men to enlist. This figure was achieved within two weeks.

Army Order 324, dated 21 August 1914, specified that six new Divisions would be created from units formed of these volunteers, collectively called Kitchener's Army or K1. It detailed how the new infantry battalions would be given numbers consecutive to the existing battalions of their regiment, but with the addition of the word 'Service' after the unit number.

Most line infantry regiments raised one K1 battalion, and a few, such as the Rifle Brigade, raised more. These first six Divisions were originally numbered 8 to 13. The first would be the 8th (Light) Division- composed of battalions from the Light Infantry and Rifle regiments. Each of the five Army Commands in Great Britain would also organise one Division. These K1 Divisions were administered and supplied by the War Office from the beginning. However, by September 1914 an 8th regular army Division was being formed, so the 8th (Light) was renumbered the 14th (Light) Division.

K1 thus consisted of

Enough men came forward not only to fill the ranks of K3, but to form reserves. Battalions of these formations were not necessarily formed at their traditional home stations (e.g. the 13th Highland Light Infantry was formed in Gosport, Hampshire). These were initially formed up into six Divisions of K4, and were initially numbered 27 to 32. Once again, however, enough regular units to create three additional Divisions had been withdrawn from service around the Empire, and took precedence in taking the Divisional numbers 27 to 29. Thus K4 was renumbered 30 to 35. A decision was subsequently taken to re-convert the battalions of K4 into Reserve units, breaking up the Divisions, and creating Training Reserve Brigades.

Eventually enough men had volunteered that on 10 December 1914, the order was issued to create a Fifth New Army. Its six Divisions were initially numbered 37 to 42. This was renumbered K4 when the original K4 was broken up, and the Divisions took the original numbers 30 to 35. Most of the units of this Army were locally raised, often referred to as Pals. All moved overseas in late 1915 or early 1916.

In December 1915 many Divisions and Brigades were reorganised by switching Regular Army units for locally-raised ones. The idea was that the regulars would 'stiffen' the new army battalions. In practice, by late 1915 even the original regular battalions had a large and increasing contingent of wartime volunteers who had replaced the losses among the professional soldiers.