In August 1914, on the outbreak of the First World War, there was
enormous pressure on men to enlist in Kitchener's New Armies,
supplementing the tiny regular army and Territorial Force. This
pressure was intense, and posters, the entreaties of local
worthies, and an apparently indiscriminate scattering of white
feathers, all exacerbated masculine sensitivity. We are all
familiar, if only through BBC TV's 'Dad's Army', with the Home
Guard of the Second World War. Far less is known of their First
World War equivalent: the Volunteer Training Corps (VTC). Like
their counter-parts in WW2, the VTC comprised those who were too
old, too young, too unfit or too indispensable to serve in the
regular forces. They fought for the right to be armed, uniformed
and trained; to be employed on meaningful duties; and at first, to
exist at all. This book explores the origins, development and
structure of the VTC, along with those who belonged to the many
supporting medical, transport, police and youth organisations who
kept the home fires burning or, in some cases, tried to put them
out. The VTC arose from the need of those men who were forced to
stay at home to be seen to be doing their bit. They saw the removal
of the bulk of both the regular army and the Territorial Force to
the Western Front as their opportunity to prepare to resist the
expected German invasion of Britain, and as a way of countering
accusations of shirking, or even cowardice.
General
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