Further to
previously made lowered standards,
Comes debate on a
system of new recruitment.
Suggestion is
Britons are to be happy in results
For Earl
Kitchener’s appeal to this great nations
Fighting spirit,
- as all the right men are stepping
Forward in high
numbers - yet a daily question
Asks if best men
are actually being secured?
Suggestion is if
recruiting is not being too rigid
In sticking to
rule-of-thumb – Lord Kitchener’s
Army has had age
variations, from 19 to 35 years,
Over 16 years
when men are most fit and active,
Yet how to mark
the end of a man’s fitness at 35
As much as a
man's mental activity at age of 60-
To quote ‘I am as
old as I feel, not as old as I look’.
It is fact that
many men over 35 can, as at 25 years,
Endure campaign
hardships and swing a bayonet.
But the iron
bound rule, shuts out such men from
Kitchener’s army,
unless a man hides his conscience
And declares a
fictitious age at the recruitment desk.
The argument is
that many men have already done
This - running a
risk of a penalty, if it is overlooked.
As it likely is,
surely is some better flexible standard
Than a rigid age
limit? Only the day before occurred
An example of a
trained, capable and willing man
A few months over
the fixed age was to be rejected
While a youth of
just twenty who was yet untrained,
Physically his
inferior was completely accepted -
This leads king
the comment that the country loses
The services of
the more able, better man in war time.
This fact is seen
particularly in relation to officers,
With the facts of
cadets, in limited drill knowledge,
Are being taken
on, while rejecting the trained able
Willing men, both
being as fit as the other, the issue
Has not been
weighed - So advantages are argued
For the slightly
older man who has gained knowledge.
Knowledge yet to
be made by the younger man
Is surely an
asset of influence in commanding men
He leads? A
proposal is made that if an army Doctor
Passes a man as
fit and active, and a battalion officer
Is satisfied with
him, he should be enrolled, regardless
Of his age - therefore opinion is reconsideration
needs
To be made in
high quarters to amend this imbalance.
In London
recruiting headquarters of Scotland Yard
Came a stream of
men, around 200 conductors and
Drivers, Of the
London General Omnibus Company
Enlisting as
drivers in Army Services Corps, there
Was also a
competition For the Army Clerks posts,
At 4 shillings A
day - all such posts were quickly filled.
The United Arts
Force are to have headquarters,
Clerical and
Regimental, at the Royal Academy
Piccadilly, as
the Earls Court Exhibition grounds
Have been
assigned to house Belgian refugees.
With the Corps
number in the region of 1,300 men,
Regular drills
will then be made at one of the main
London Parks, but
for some days parades continue
To be at Earl’s
Court, at the North End entrance.
Meanwhile the
Sportsman’s Battalion are at camp.
Having marched
through West-end and city, their
Greatly
benefitting from such short training evident,
In being put
through exercise at the Guildhall.
Elsewhere a
Tyneside Infantry Brigade are to form;
Including Irish,
Scottish and other battalions to be
Complete, when
the Lord Mayor of Newcastle
William Waite, at
20 stone, enlisted as Artilleryman
While 4 eager
‘deaf and dumb’ men were rejected.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1914. Age
in Recruiting - Test of ‘Fitness’
– Suggested Alteration. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 16 Oct. p.12. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11165436/Daily-Telegraph-October-16-1914.html
[Accessed: 16 October 2014].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 15 August 2014).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered
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