25 September

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 25 September.
For events that took place elsewhere, see our sister project The Great War On This Day

1914 (Friday)

Three men are recruited in Aspatria. The Recruiting Office opens at 7 Devonshire Street, Carlisle.^[1]
14 men enlist into A Company.^[2]
Enlistments: Charles Johnston (13279 Sgt.)
Use of Blackhall Racecourse (Battalion Headquarters) starts with Major Binning, Captain Sale and 75 recruits, forming the nucleus of A Company and B Company of North Cumberland men.
Lt-Col. P.W. Machell takes over command of Battalion Headquarters.^{[note 1]}
Newspaper article Workington Committee for Lonsdale Recruiting is published in the Workington Star and Harrington Guardian
Major Binning writes to J.W. Barker, manager of the racecourse:
“I have arranged with the Boys Scout Authority to provide 10 Scouts for orderly work in connection with the new Camp.” ^[3]
Letter from the Y.M.C.A. in Kendal:
“We give them [Lonsdale Battalion] a most hearty welcome to use our Rooms during their stay in Kendal. We have Reading & Writing, Billiard & Smoking, Miniature Shooting & Gymnasium Rooms.” ^[4]

In reserve at Le Quesnoy finding working parties for the front line trenches and Royal Engineers.

↑ Col. Machell becomes the heart of the Battalion and the men come to revere him. He turns the varied farm servants, miners, clerks etc. into soldiers, initially on his own, as he does not even have an Adjutant until December when Captain P.G.W. Diggle is appointed.

Sources: Various sources contemporary to the war have been used to compile the Lonsdale Battalion on this day... (hover to read more)

Various sources contemporary to the war have been used to compile The Lonsdale Battalion On This Day. The majority of the events shown on this day (25 September), including any supplementary notes, enlistments and statistical data etc., have been primarily sourced from the Lonsdale Battalion War Diary (November 1915 to June 1918), Record of the XIth (Service) Battalion (Lonsdale) and abridged material from Timeline and Chronology of the Lonsdale Battalion (September 1914 - May 1915), which are sourced from the original DLONS/L/13/13 Lowther Estate Archives. Events from that chronology are reproduced here with kind permission of Jim Lowther (2016). They are identified and referenced separately by their unique DLONS numbers. Please do not publish these events without prior permission from the Lowther Estate. All casualty names, numbers, ranks, date of deaths and places of burial/commemoration have been sourced from Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19, Volume 39, The Border Regiment and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database respectively.