By the time war came in 1914 there was already a long tradition of voluntary military service in Glasgow. When the threat of Napoleons invasion had seemed a reality, nine regiments of Glasgow volunteers were formed, including the Glasgow Light Horse (1796) and the Glasgow Volunteers (1803). Although they never had to fire a shot in anger, they were called out more than once upon rumours and alarms, and until Napoleon was finally defeated, slept with their muskets and their uniforms to hand.
During 1848, Europes year of revolution, a volunteer cavalry force was formed. This became the Queens Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry.

After the Crimean War, menacing noises from the Paris of the Third French Empire resulted in renewed efforts being made to revive the volunteers, and in 1859, the Old Guard of Glasgow became the forerunners of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Lanark Volunteers, the 1st recruiting from the West End, the 3rd from the South Side. The twenty-first birthday of the Volunteers was the occasion of Queen Victorias Wet Review on Glasgow Green, held in i8 8i during torrential rain, which subsequently resulted in the deaths of some of the less robust of the 40,000 officers and men who had been on parade. This was also the year in whiGh the voluntary forces were first grouped under territorial regimental designations, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th Lanarkshire Volunteers becoming the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and the 5th, 6th, 8th, gth, and ioth forming the Highland Light Infantry.

It was a Lieutenant W. A. Smith of the First Lanark Rifles, a volunteer later to become Sir William Smith, who in 1883 founded the Boys Brigade. The B.B., whose members until recently wore the original blue pill-box hats wrapped with a band of white, was organized on military lines and run in conjunction with a Sunday school, aimed at inculcating militarystyle discipline into working class lads.

The Boer War produced eleven serving companies from Scotland. Many Glaswegians enrolled as regulars. In 1908, those who had volunteered became the core of the new Territorial Army. At
the same time the Officers Training Corps scheme, which was designed to produce what used to be called officer material began to operate in public schools.*

Field Marshal Earl Roberts, whose equestrian statue still looks
exultingly across Kelvingrove Park towards the university,
addressed the students and others in May 1913, warning them of
the need for a citizen army capable of engaging with the Germans
at short notice should war come as a result of the German Kaisers
scarcely concealed belligerence. But it was not easy for Lord
Roberts to make his message carry conviction, because earlier in
the year, Lloyd George had been thundering away about the folly
of expenditure on armaments. While an audience in St. Andrews
Halls attending the last of Lord Roberts series of meetings passed
a resolution which, had it been implemented, would have
amounted to compulsory service in the Territorial Army, the
war when it did come nevertheless took the British by surprise.
On the British side, there was a belief that Germany could not
stand up for long against the combined forces of Britain, France
and Russia. War, if it should come, would be a short-lived affair,
over by Christmas, a belief it seems, also held by the Germans,
though they, of course, envisaged winning it. Glasgow, like the
rest of the United Kingdom, was quite unprepared for the long
years of struggle and of fearful slaughter which were unleashed by
the declaration of war on Germany by Britain, her Dominions and Empire, on 4th August 1914.
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*In Scotland, public schools are, in fact, private schools!

The British Expeditionary Force of the regular army at first consisted of one cavalry division and four infantry divisions, later supplemented by a further two. Known as the Contemptible Little Army, it not only turned the first thrust of the German horde but secured the Channel ports, giving Britain time to arm.
Because the country was thought not to be ready to accept conscription, the first appeals were for volunteers to fill additional Territorial battalions. The Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, appealed for 200,000 volunteers, using the famous finger-pointing poster. By 1915, Glasgow had contributed substantially more than its quota. The regiment most closely associated with the city was the Highland Light Infantry. Members of professions and trades formed their own fighting groups. Thus the 17th Battalion was largely recruited by the Chamber of Commerce and the 15th by the Corporation Tramway Department, spurred on by its manager, James Dairymple, who used illuminated tramcars, banner posters round the Transport Departments offices in Bath Street and other startling publicity methods as part of a highly persuasive advertising campaign.











All in all, the H.L.I. had twenty-six battalions in action during the First World War. The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), naturally also attracted Glaswegians. So, rather surprisingly, did the Cameron Highlanders, many Glasgow men responding to an appeal in The Glasgow Herald by the clan chief, Cameron of Lochiel, which had really been aimed at the men of the north-west.
The war had immediate effects on the wives and children of the private soldiers who responded to the call. The inadequate state of the national welfare arrangements resulted in numerous cases of hardship and privation, epitomized by a newspaper headline drawing attention to the plight of The 12/6d. Woman. The Prince of Wales immediately organized a National Relief Fund, to which Glasgow alone had subscribed nearly 240,000 within six months. It was the first of several such charities, a later one having the catch-phrase title of ''Jocks Box''. The extent of the need for such arrangements was made plain by Lord Provost Dunlop, who, in September 1915, announced that 1oo,ooo women and children had already received relief.


Amongst those who stayed at home, there was at first an attempt to carry on ''business as usual''. But the wars grip soon tightened. The German U-boat blockade began in February 1915, conscription was introduced in January 1916, and by early 1917 compulsory food rationing had replaced voluntary meatless days.

Frederick Sleigh Roberts Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar, V.C., K.G., K.P., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E. 1st Earl Roberts of Kandahar, Pretoria, and Waterford