This book is a study of the importance and significance of community
identity to a fighting unit in the First World War. In this case the
unit in question is primarily 7th King's Regiment and more widely the
55th West Lancashire Division, 1914-18. The book is based upon the
author's own PhD thesis "The 1/7th Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment
and the Great War - the experience of a Territorial battalion and its
Home Towns". It is an analysis of the relevance of the local communities
to the battalion and its division and its combat effectiveness; the role
played by the army in the local communities' involvement in the War; and
the post-War ramifications of this relationship. In focusing on 1/7th
Battalion Kings Liverpool Regiment, a Territorial battalion based in
Bootle, Southport and the surrounding area of south west Lancashire, the
thesis follows a typical Territorial unit and its home towns from
recruitment and establishment to demobilisation and beyond. A wide range
of primary sources have been examined including local newspapers, local
Council records, official War Diaries of the various units, battle
reports and private papers of several of the combatants in an extensive
compilation of research. New perspectives are presented on several
aspects of the First World War including the Lusitania riots; the
battles of Festubert, 1915, and Givenchy, 1918; and the role of
charities in post-War reconstruction work. It also raises general issues
about the role of the Territorial Force and draws attention to several
gaps in the social and military historiography of the War.The conclusion
of the book is that local and community identity contributed
significantly towards the 1/7th Kings' morale, organisation and hence
battle effectiveness. This contribution initially stemmed from the local
recruits themselves but was actively nurtured and encouraged by
commanders at Battalion, Brigade and Divisional level throughout the
War. It also establishes that by putting the local Battalion at the
centre of its concerns, the rather disparate communities were able to
organise, coalesce and maximise their War effort and support. Finally,
it demonstrates in the post-War years, that, despite the fluctuations in
this mutually important relationship, the local identification with the
Battalion was maintained in memorialisation, remembrance and
reconstruction.
