When we think of a great war and the men who fought in it, were often drawn to the volunteers of 1914, the men of the new army, Kitcheners mob and the POWs.

But there were other volunteers in the Great

War and units that were in many ways Pows long before they were even thought of. And tonight,

I'm joined by a trio of historians to discuss the Saturday night soldiers, the territorial force

units connected to the city of London.

Charles Fair is a military historian with a lifelong interest in the First World War

and a personal connection to the 19th Battalion, the London Regiment.

Richard Hendry, after a background in law, did an MA in First World War Studies at Wolverhampton

and specialises in the history and units of the

London Regiment and Dr Tom Thorpe, a military historian, his PhD, focused on the London Regiment,

is now the presenter of the Western Front Association's excellent podcast mentioned in dispatches.

So thank you, gentlemen, for joining us here. And welcome to the old Frontline podcast.

Thanks, Paul. Thanks for having us. In terms of kind of looking at this subject, the territorial

force, it's for a modern audience, perhaps a bit of a clumsy word. Most people think of the

TA, the territorial army, or just the territorials. In terms of what that was, because it predated the First World War, didn't it?

Perhaps you'd like to say a little bit about the kind of development of the territorial force

and what it was there for.

Well, the territorial force was, in a sense, the successor to the volunteer arrangement that had applied through the 19th century.

It was set up under the Aldane reforms of 1908 and was administered through a set of territorial force associations

and the ones we're particularly concerned with here are the london associations

the county of london and the city of london it was the various units infantry artillery

engineers whatever administered by those two associations or other forces that were part of the London's four divisions as they had in the 47th, 56th, 58th and 60th divisions as they ultimately became named.

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