Kitchener's Mob

Since I was little, growing up with very studious, super intelligent Older brothers, 3 of them, I took so much interest in their activities. When I was 10 years old, I became increasingly interested in a subject they took at school and that was HISTORY. I now have a major in history and after raising my children, I found time to indulge in the vast domain of history.

All or most of us have that "thing" in our lives that fascinates us. Whilst raising my children, they often had history assignments and I just loved helping them, providing ideas and knowledge. After such assignments, both of us felt that we had learned so much and been awarded with 100% and to this day the assignments are still displayed in the relevant history classes. Doing this together enhanced our relationships.

I feel that the more I learn, I realize that I know but little. I am mostly interested in The 1st and 2nd World wars. The British Monarchy is also rather interesting and the Vikings, Normans, Romans activities in Europe. In my initial Steemit articles, I did post mostly about historical events. I will post more articles on aspects, ( there are so many) of WW1, which I'm studying at the moment. I do hope that fellow Steemians will find these interesting or become interested. To follow ; Kitchener's Mob.

Something needed to be done - and fast.
Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, then the British Secretary of War, anticipated that the conflict could last as long as 3 years and boil down to the last million fighting men. He rapidly set about raising a "New Army" of volunteers with his face staring out of posters that bore the blunt statement "Your country needs you".

The bestial German behavior in Belgium, combined with a wave of sheer patriotism, resulted in a huge tide of volunteers from the outset. Recruitment offices were regularly overwhelmed by queues of volunteers over a mile long. There were nowhere near enough uniforms or rifles to keep up.

Men were signed up at mass rallies, at their work places and at football matches. The stars of music hall did their bit too. Marie Lloyd held recruiting drives at her shows, singing : "I didn't like yer much before yer joined the army, John. But I do like yer looky now you've got yer khaki on".

There were Pals battalions, friends, artists, sportsmen battalions and even public school boys battalions. Kitchener hoped for 500,000 volunteers. He got 2 and a half million!!

Sources : WW1 battles book of study, Wikipedia, Pixabay, Google Images