2. What are Pals’ Battalions?
• Pals’ (or Chums’) Battalions were
whole towns or villages encouraged to
sign up by the thought that the
townspeople would be serving as a
whole.
• Pals’ Battalions originally arose from
the need to recruit more British men to
dispatch around the globe.
• Examples included Pals’ Battalions of
Glasgow, in which alone three were
raised.
3. Motives for joining
• Most men who signed up did so
with promises of post-war
employment on their minds.
• Men believed that they would be
fighting with their friends and
relatives in battle, the reason
being that they thought it was an
honorable thing to do.
4. Facts
• Over three million men
volunteered through Pals’
Battalions in the first two years of
the war alone.
• 50 towns boasted Pals’ Battalions
by September of 1914.
• On the first day of battle, 585 men
out of the 700 who signed up
perished together.
5. Was it a good strategy?
• No, as the price paid
by both countries
themselves and the
communities the
soldiers left behind
was too immense.
• Many men were killed
in battle as they were
untrained for battle.
