Liverpool Territorial Battalions
 

I've just been reading through a very interesting website concerning the Liverpool Territorial Battalions.
http://liverpoolremembrance.weebly.c...regiments.html

It came as a surprise to learn that the Battalions recruited according to class!

"The pre-war territorial Battalions of The King's Liverpool Regiment will also show that the social class within the city was still divided. The King'sLiverpool had six territorial battalions within the city, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th. The 6th catered for the middle class, 5th, 7th and 9th for the respectable working class, while 8th ( Irish ) and 10th ( Scottish ) recruited men with links to the respected country".


Also that members had to pay to join!

"To join you paid an annual subscription of 10 shillings, and an entrance fee of £2".

It is an interesting site that you have given a link to, I discovered it fairly recently and admit that I do keep on going back to it but there are a few general statements on it that are not quite 100% correct.

Certainly I understand that one company of the 6th Kings ( Liverpool Rifles ) had a lot of former members of Merchant Taylors School Crosby OTC in its ranks.

There is a book "Citizen Soldiers- The Liverpool Territorials in the First World War" by Helen McCartney which looks at the 6th and 10th battalions in some detail including the social background of its members.

If you look at the list of members of the Liverpool Scottish who were commissioned in WW1 in Hal Giblins book"Bravest of Hearts" you will see that a lot of the rank and file in the Liverpool Scottish would probably have been officers in other units.

I do know of a book on the Insignia of the Liverpool Volunteers and Territorials, if of interest ( sorry couldnt resist putting that in )


http://www.sellmymilitaria.com/site/...ets&Itemid=477

P.B.

What an interesting collection of photographs.
Sadly, they appear to agree with what I read a few years back that Liverpool and Hull shared the distinction of destroying (no doubt in the name of progress) more fine old buildings, private and public, than anywhere else in the country !
(not confirmed)

"It came as a surprise to learn that the Battalions recruited according to class!"

I've found this to be true of pretty much all Regiments that had multiple TF Battalions drawing from an urban area. Collecting RPPCs, I noticed that some units were fairly common, others less so, and some quite scarce. With The King's Regiment, for example, the 6th and 10th Battalions are pretty easy to find, as are officers of the 8th (ORs being less common). 7th and 9th Battalions are scarcer, 5th even more so. With the London Regiment, a "Hackney Gurkha" (10th Battalion) is a rare bird, whilst the Civil Service blokes of the 15th appear so frequently one wonders if having a portrait taken was a requirement of service!