An old soldier during the Great War

Sergeant John Longmire of Bouth was too old to serve abroad during the First World War. He had joined the Territorials in March 1909, just a year after it's formation from the old 'Volunteers' under the Haldane army reforms in 1908. Instead, his experience was put to use training new recruits for the 1st/4th Battalion in its second-line feeder formation, the 2nd/4th Battalion. The photogaph below, where he is pictured with his wife, and dating from 1919, was taken after he had completed ten years' service in the 4th Battalion, as evidenced by the two stars on the right sleeve of his tunic, one for every five years.

Little information is available about the home service second-line Territorial battalions of the King's Own. They did not keep a war diary and receive only fleeting mention in the published regimental histories. The best way of determining their movements appears to be to track the casualties they incurred through accidents and illness, and where they occurred.

The 2nd/4th Battalion was formed in Blackpool in February, 1915 and was based at Weeton Camp, although I believe some soldiers were billeted in the town. The reason for the fomation of the second-line unit in the heart of west Lancashire rather than at Ulverston, the peacetime base of the 4th Battalion, was the lack of a large enough recruiting pool in the Furness and south Cumbraland area to provide the flow of reserves necessary to maintain the 1st/4th Battalion at full strength, a problem which was to bedevil the first-line battalion for the whole of the war.

A third-line battalion, the 3rd/4th was formed in June, 1915, but it did not remain in existence for long, being absorbed into the 2nd/4th Battalion the following year. Leaving Blackpool, the 2nd/4th Battalion moved down to Sevenoaks and then onto the south coast, being employed guarding strategic coastal locations in Sussex around Rye. Eventually it moved to Oswestry, where it was re-designated the 4th (Reserve) Battalion. It never managed to garner enough strength to be in the position where it could be deployed abroad with the British Expeditionary Force.

I suspect that many men like John Longmire probably felt somewhat disappointed that they could not serve abroad, instead having to kick their heels in 'Blighty'. However, the mounting 1st/4th Battalion casualty lists of the future - and the impact on local society - would soon dispel any romantic illusions they may have entertained, although he was hospitalised with pneumonia while serving in Wales with the 2nd/4th Battalion.

His son, John Longmire Jnr., served in France during the war, first as 49814, The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) and then 68499, Lancashire Fusiliers,  and, thankfully returned unscathed. Another son, William, was also in the 1st/4th Battalion, and was wounded (I think) near Rue d'Ouvert on June 15th, 1915. I suspect that the photograph at the right probably shows John Snr. with William, both as members of the 4th Battalion.

To-day, the service of all three men is commemorated on the triptych war memorial in Colton Curch, Cumbria.