‘New Armies: New Officers' | Dr Roger Pritchard

This presentation will look at the process of finding new officers during the first eighteen months of the War in the context of the fundamental problem of expanding the British Army so that it was capable of fighting a major continental campaign.
It will focus on a single, line infantry regiment, the Glosters, and will examine the sources from which new officers were drawn, differences between categories of units - Regular, TF and New Army - and how far the process led to changes in the social composition of junior officers.
The talk will also look at the problems faced and how these led to the important changes in the selection and training of junior officers introduced at the beginning of 1916.
We hope you enjoyed this presentation which was one of six talks given during the 'President's Virtual Conference' of 2021.
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[@johnneil4777]

Once WW1 ended the British Army's officer recruitment policy reverted back to predominantly seeking cadets from private schools. This recruitment policy continued largely until the late 80's & to some extent still exists today. Although it now recruits more directly from Universities as it no longer finances in-service degrees for already commissioned officers.

[@FilipDePreter]

What is a K1 or K3 battalion?

[@johnguest1919]

K1 were the first 100,000 volunteers.

[@charlescth]

This will explain - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchener%27s_Army