Roni Wilkinson - Pals on the Somme 1916

The definition of a Pals/City battalion: a unit raised by a local authority or private body which undertook to organise, clothe, billet and feed the recruits. The provision of weapons was the responsibility of the Army. Official acceptance of the battalion by the War Office was when reimbursement for expenditure took place.

Privately raised formations numbered and were broken down as follows:

This information is based on the book, Your Country Needs You, Expansion of the British Army Infantry Divisions 1914-1918 by Martin Middlebrook.

T WO ANCIENT EMPIRES with dominion over numerous Balkan states were in terminal decline. Especially so was the case of the Ottoman Empire which had held sway over south-eastern europe for an incredible six and a half centuries. Traditionally they considered their Christian subjects as second class citizens (rayas or beasts) and for centuries had used them merely to work and pay taxes. With the arrival of the twentieth century a more enlightened attitude might have been hoped for by the subjugated peoples. Understandably, a population that had suffered for so long under the Muslim Turkish yoke, seized upon the opportunity to form fully independent states as their masters once iron grip slackened. On October 1912 the impoverished country of Montenegro declared war on Turkey and was soon seeking aid in its fight from neighbouring Serbia. Greece and Bulgaria joined the fight against the common enemy.

When war broke out, the whole of Macedonia, Albania and Epirus still formed part of the Ottoman Empire. In order to hang on to their territories the Turks were compelled, by the geographical situation, to fight three distinct campaigns simultaneously. The inevitable result of the First Balkan War was that Macedonia and Thrace were freed from Turkish domination. However, after peace was declared, Bulgaria was assailed by her former allies, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia for grabbing the lions share of the territorial spoils. Yet another conflict, The Second Balkan War, was fought in which Turkey succeeded in recapturing a toe-hold in her old territories, the town of Adrianople in Thrace, which resulted in Bulgaria having to withdraw from her conquered ground. By July 1913 Greece and Serbia were marching on the Bulgarian capitol of Sofia, and when Rumania joined in against Bulgaria, it was soon over.

Meanwhile in the northern territories the ailing Austro-Hungarian Empire had seized the opportunity to annex the formerly Ottoman province of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which it had occupied since 1878. That had brought upwards of a million Orthodox Serbs under the control of the Hapsburg dynasty. As a result of the Balkan Wars Serbia gained the Kosovo region and extended into northern and central Macedonia. Albania was made an independent state under a German prince. Inevitably there were political consequences of the wars. Bulgaria, frustrated in Macedonia, looked to Austria for support, while Serbia, which had been forced by Austria to give up its Albanian conquests, regarded the Hapsburgs with greater hostility than ever and sought closer ties with Imperial Russia.