The tragedy of the Pals' Battalions

Every town in the UK has a war memorial to list the names of those who lost their lives during the two great wars. I came across this one a couple of years ago in the small Cornish village of Tregony, near Truro,  and it struck me as particularly tragic. 

Just read the list of names. 

What we see here is undoubtedly evidence of a Pals' Battalion.

Pals' Battalions were a uniquely British phenomenon. Britain was the only major power not to begin the First World War with a mass conscripted army and it quickly became clear that the existing army was not large enough for a global conflict. Recruiters began to visit towns and villages and, in a wave of patriotic fervour, thousands of men volunteered for service. 

The War Office quickly realised that many more men would enlist if they could serve alongside their friends, relatives and workmates. And so, on the 21st August 1914, the first Pals' Battalion began to be raised from the stockbrokers of the City of London. In a matter of days 1,600 men had joined what became the 10th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. Lord Derby first coined the phrase 'battalion of pals' and recruited enough men to form three battalions of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment in only a week. The phenomenon soon spread around the country.

The first Pals' Battalions began to arrive on the Western Front in mid-1915. Most were not to see their first major action until the Battle of the Somme which began on the 1st July 1916. Many of the battalions sustained heavy losses. The men who all joined together died together. 

Tregony is a small town with a population of around 760 (2020 figures). Chances are the population was even smaller when the First World War broke out. You can therefore imagine the impact of losing so many men - many from the same families.

With the introduction of conscription in 1916, the close-knit nature of the Pals' Battalions was never to be replicated.

But, by then, the damage had been done.