Royal Warwickshire Volunteers

Description:This picture is of the Royal Warwickshire Volunteers during the First World War. The photograph is dated 1914. It has been has pointed out that: "the vague semblance of military uniforms the men (as opposed to the officers) are wearing suggests that this is likely to be quite late in 1914 or possibly even 1915. Most of the men appear to have no rifles, belts or webbing for equipment, for example".
The following useful information relating to the recruitment of 'volunteers' has also been supplied:
"Lord Kitchener called for an expansion of the Army through a recruitment of a large number of volunteers almost immediately after he became Minister of War in August 1914. Each man would sign up for three years or the duration of the war, whichever was shorter, and would agree to serve either at home or overseas. The first 100,000 volunteers were recruited in two weeks. These became known as 'K1'or the first of the 'new armies'. Subsequently,K2,K3 were called for in September 1914 and K4 was also raised.These men were initially held as a training reserve but enough men had volunteered by December 1914 that a 'fifth (and later a sixth) new army' were subsequently raised. Furthermore, a number of battalions of different regiments were raised by local initiatives - and, indeed, this happened in Birmingham (see below). The new battalions that comprised the Kitchener 'armies' were usually termed 'service battalions'.
According to Brigadier EJ James's book British Regiments 1914-1918, The
Royal Warwickshire Regiment raised the following 'New Army' battalions:-
9th (Service) - at Warwick - August 1914 (K1)".
10th (Service) - Warwick - Sep 1914 (K2)
11th (Service) - Warwick - Oct 1914 (K3)
14th (Service) - Birmingham - Sep 1914 (1st Birmingham - raised by the Lord
Mayor & a local committee)
15th (Service) - Birmingham - Sep 1914 (2nd Birmingham - ditto)
16th Service) - Birmingham - Sep 1914 (3rd Birmingham - ditto)".