8th (Service) Battalion Border Regiment: Difference between revisions

|notes=}}The '''8th (Service) Battalion Border Regiment''' was formed at Carlisle in September 1914 as part of [[Glossarygw:Kitchener's Army|Kitchener's K3 Army]]<ref>A call for a further 100,000 men (after K1 and K2) to volunteer for service, due in part to news from the front regarding the British regulars and their subsequent retreat.</ref> and came under orders of the 75th Brigade in the 25th Division. At this time the Battalion moved to Codford, to billets{{gw|billet}}s in Boscombe in November 1914, to Romsey in May 1915 and eventually onto Aldershot following month. During the latter part of 1915 the 8th Border Regiment was involved in fighting in what was to become their first action in the Battle of Loos. However, their journey to this point was the accumulation of the previous twelve months from the formation of the Battalion, through to training and ultimately their arrival in France. It was the [[27 September]] 1915 when the Battalion landed on French soil; their first stop was Boulogne.

Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener called for 100,000 men on [[8 August]] 1914 to help expand the British Armies in a fight against a formidable enemy. This enemy was greater in number and these numbers needed to be matched as closely as possible. A challenging task was set but within a short space of time scores of men enlisted to do their part and take on the might of the German Army and {{gw|Central Powers}}, whether they were ready or not, mentally or physically. The appeal for men was answered far sooner than anticipated and the rush to clothe, arm, house and feed these numbers proved to be more of a problem than the call for recruits in the first place. Thousands of recruits made their way to the Depot at The Border Regiment in Carlisle and the process of forming Service Battalions and assigning men to them began with haste. At first this would have been chaotic but with the implementation of re-enlisted {{gw|NCO}}'s and Civil Police Instructors, and all under the watchful eye of Major Nash of The Depot Staff, the organisation of such an undertaking brought The Border Regiment Service Battalions into being. The 8th Border Regiment was one of these battalions.

The [[6th Border Regiment|6th]] and [[7th Border Regiment|7th]] Battalions were both raised and at full strength only one month after the outbreak of war. The 8th Border Regiment, made of men from Keswick, Kendal, Windermere and other towns and villages from both Cumberland and Westmorland, was different from the previous two battalions insofar as it was the first 'Pals' battalion of the Regiment. As soon as the Battalion was at strength they were sent off for training on the 10th[[10 September]] 1914 to Codford at Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire under the command of Colonel H.R. Brander, C.B., along with his second in command, Colonel Sir Henry Lennard. Other officers, Captain Wilkinson (who was the Battalion's Adjutant), Captains Satow, Miller and Lyell, as well as Majors Birt and Strahan also joined either from retirement or from civil life soon after the Battalion's formation. A battalion so young had a great deal of work ahead with many goals to achieve in a relatively short period of time. This work was, as with any other new military unit, met with enthusiasm by all. The men had to work long days to develop their varying skills and to keep their attention focussed on the tasks at hand. Training would have included the discharge of their weapons, [[gw:Bayonet|bayonet fighting]], {{gw|entrenching}}, close-quarter fighting and physical exercise amongst others, and with the prospect of soon fighting an enemy far away from home, the men also had to work hard on honouring their Battalion and importantly keeping their spirits high.

The 8th Battalion World War One casualty list has been compiled using the publication ''[[Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19, Volume 39, The Border Regiment]]'' and cross-referenced with the [[{{gw|Commonwealth War Graves Commission]]}} database. The number of casualties compiled to date does not necessarily reflect the total number of casualties for this battalion due to the possibility of missed names and the (current) exclusion of officers and other ranks that were attached to the Border Regiment. This listing is a work-in-progress.