About 'on this day'

On this day is a listing of historical events associated with the actions of the Lonsdale Battalion, from formation in 1914 through to its disbandment in 1918. The Lonsdales were a 'Pals' battalion, volunteers answering Field Marshal Earl Kitchener's call to arms - to fight for King and Country.

The call to arms

On the 6th August Kitchener's plan to swell the ranks of the regular army with volunteers was approved by Parliament to an of increase of 500,000 men. Each man would sign up for no less than three year's service or the duration of the war (whichever the longest option) and thus, agree to be sent anywhere the army required them.^[1] On the 11th August 1914, the official 'Your Country Needs You' call to arms was publish and the first 100,000 men became known as Kitchener's Army. Just two weeks later on the 28th August 1914, Kitchener asked for another 100,000 men. These became K2 and with news of the British fighting in retreat on the front the number of volunteers enlisting in Kitchener's New Army increased. Soon after there were enough enlistees to fill K3 and some of K4, which were to be reserves. The number were filled along with men from Regular Army units serving elsewhere in the Empire. Details of Kitchener's Army are beyond the scope of this piece but suffice to say, K4 becomes a little convoluted at this point. K4 did not become a reserve force but were trained as regular fighting units. Then it was reconverted into reserve units. But by the 10th December 1914 an order was issued to create the Fifth New Army as it was apparent there were still enough volunteers coming in. The Fifth New Army was subsequently titled K4 and was made up of men raised from from localised communities, which were later referred to as 'Pals'. Men that grew up together enlisted together, trained together, fought together and in many cases, died together. K4 comprised of six Division - the 30th through to the 35th and the 11th Battalion Border Regiment belonged to the 97th Brigade of the 32nd Division.

Events comprise a variety of subjects including:

Births and deaths of officers, NCO's and other ranks;
Actions of individuals and small groups;
Battalion and Regimental actions;
Casualty figures, reports and war diary extracts.

This list is by no means exhaustive and remains open to the inclusion of other relevant information.

This site also includes many other articles and documents relating to the Lonsdales. These form the backbone of the project and have been used specifically to reinforce a seamless series of events.

Events are bulleted listing the oldest first. Each day lists events that occurred on that specific day over a period of many years. A month calendar is included on each page.

Daily events are bulleted with linkable dates (i.e. 1 July). Each Day lists the events of the heading of a specific year (i.e. 1915, 1916).

Notes, references and sources

The events are conveyed in a concise and coherent manner to ensure that what you read on this site is succinct and, more importantly, genuine. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy there may be events where dates appear misleading. This can result in conflicting sources although human is also a real factor to consider; errors can often be overlooked but in most cases this is not intentional.

Notes – are added to pages where additional information is required that do not fit within the body of event.
References – are added to pages when specific references to events are required.
Sources – are added to the sources page instead of individual pages.