The Wolds Waggoners - page 8
Image details
| Corps | RPC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Books |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | The Wolds Waggoners |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1988 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | Yes |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1908 |
| Late date | 1983 |
| Transcription |
was as solid and impenetrable as ever, every argument that iron skulls could adduce from iron regulations was hurled at my head.' It was only when he became an M.P. in 1911, that he was able, in his own words, *to harry' the Secretary of State for War, until the War Office finally agreed to his scheme. The wagoners were admitted into that part of the Territorial Army called the Special Reserve, which was principally made up of men with specialist skills. When war broke out, the wagoners would not serve together as a unit, but would be sent to other units of the Army Service Corps, called Reserve Parks. The men who joined were appointed to one of three grades - wagoner, foreman and roadmaster. Every man received a bounty of £1 on enrolment, and a further £1 each year if he rejoined the scheme. A foreman received an annual sum of £2, and a roadmaster, £4. The money was an important attraction for some of the men. One pound represented the equivalent of about a fortnight's wages for most wagoners, but more important was the fact that it was cash in hand, in direct contrast to their farm wages. Farm workers were hired on an annual basis, and paid only in a lump sum at the end of their contract, which by long established custom expired on Old Martinmas Day, 23rd November. Until that date, all a man received during the year was his board and lodging at the farm where he worked. The foreman (there were some sixty-three men of this rank) was to take charge of eight or ten wagoners, and was the equivalent of an Army corporal. The roadmaster was the equivalent of a sergeant. To be eligible to join the Yorkshire Wagoners, Army Service Corps Special Reserve (to give the organisation its full title), a man had to be under forty-five years of age, used both to working with horses and to driving pole wagons, willing to serve at home or abroad when called out, and, of course, to take the oath of allegiance. There was no military training in peace time. It is interesting to note that these conditions of service were wider than those accepted by ordinary Territorial Army soldiers, who were only obliged to serve at home, and had to volunteer for service abroad. As Sir Mark had many other duties at the time - both as an MJP. and as the commanding officer of the 5th Battalion, Green Howards - he was unable to devote as much time as he would have liked to the Wagoners, so much of the actual work of recruiting fell to other Army officers. Particularly active was Captain Harry Sykes of the Army Service Corps (no relation to Sir Mark), who was, in effect, in command of the Wagoners' Reserve. Sykes was a Regular Army officer who had seen service in Sierra Leone in the 1890s, and in South Africa during the Boer War. In 1913 he was stationed at the Army Service Corps depot in Bradford, before being moved to York in the following year. By July 1913, four hundred men had joined the Wagoners, but Sykes continued to make his rounds of the countryside, recruiting men from at least ten different towns and villages from Warter to Langtoft. At least one of Sir Mark's subordinates in the 5th Green Howards also helped in the recruitment drive. Lieutenant Wadsworth must have been a particularly eloquent speaker - for after listening to him at one meeting, held at the Pigeon Pie Hotel in Sherburn, on 18th December 1913, thirty-one men joined in one evening, to be followed by a further twenty eleven days later. |
| Book number | R0398 |