2 Birth

pp. 24-26 The background to the outbreak of war is mainly drawn from Richard Overy, The Road to War (1989), pp. 62–104.

pp. 26-27 The pre-war expansion of the TA is covered by Peter Dennis, The Territorial Army 1906-1940 (1987) pp. 227–251; David Fraser, And We Shall Shock Them (1983), pp. 16–23; Tim Lynch Destination Unknown (2010), pp. 21–36, and an unpublished paper submitted to the Royal College of Defence Studies by (then) Brigadier K. J. Drewienkiewicz, (1992) kindly made available by General Drewienkiewicz and the Defence Academy.

p. 26 The original 5th SF had its HQ and one company in Derby, and three other companies in Ripley and Belper, Ilkeston and Church Gresley.

p. 27 Recruitment numbers from Derby Evening Telegraph, Monday 24 July 1939, p. 5; Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, Friday July 21, 1939, p. 15 and Friday 28 July 1939, p. 5. The papers did however note that the total contribution of Chesterfield to the TA was equal to or better than the national average.

p. 27 The renaming of the battalion was suggested in the Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, Friday 16 June 1939, p. 5.

pp. 27-28 Details of the summer camp from Derby Evening Telegraph, Friday 16 June 1939, p. 13; Thursday 10 August 1939, p. 4; Saturday 19 August 1939, p. 5

p. 28 IWM Sound Archive, #13561, Reg Markham interview with Peter Hart, (n.d.) Reels 1–2; Reg Markham in Wally Binch (ed.), On Active Service (unpublished, c. 1990), p. 36.

p. 29 Recruitment numbers in Derbyshire in 1938 were 422 for the Regular Army and the Supplementary Reserve (Infantry), compared to 192 in 1937 (Derby Evening Telegraph, 5 January 1939, p. 6)  Other recruitment details from Derby Evening Telegraph, Wednesday 03 May 1939, p. 6; Saturday 18 March 1939, p. 4 and Thursday 20 April 1939, p.10; and Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, Friday 21 April 1939, p.26; Friday 05 May 1939, p.26.

pp. 29-30 The full daily pay scales advertised were:

• Sergeants 6/- to 8/3

• Corporals 4/- to 6/9

• Lance-Corporals 3/3 to 6/-

• Private 2/- to 5/-

Family allowances were 17/- per week for a wife but no children, 22/- for wife and one child, 25/- wife and two children and 27/- for a wife and three children. There was also a weapons training grant of 10/- and extra drills grant of 30/- after the first year.

Modern values calculated from <https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/relativevalue.php>. 2021 is the end date for the Office of National Statistics table of wages,

<https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/adhocs/13877e arningstimeseriesofmeangrossweeklyearningsfrom1938to2021 >. 2023 Army pay rates from http://www.armedforces.co.uk/armypayscales.phpand https://jobs.army.mod.uk/army-reserve/life-in-the-army-reserve/pay-benefits/[all sites accessed 3 August 2023]

p. 30 Descriptions of recruitment fairs from Derby Evening Telegraph, Wednesday, 22 March 1939, p. 1; 01 April 1939; Saturday 29 April 1939, p. 5; Saturday 19 August 1939 p. 5; and Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 31 March 1939, p. 19. Details of raising money to pay for new band instruments from Derby Evening Telegraph, Monday 05 June 1939 p. 6; Wednesday 16 August 1939, p. 5. £298 in 1939 is around £20,000 today. Places visited by the 2nd Battalion in the summer of 1939 included Derby, Mansfield, Ripley, Chesterfield, Nottingham, and Matlock, Derby Evening Telegraph, Thursday, 29 June 1939, p. 6.

p. 31 Mobilisation of TA units from Jones, “Pinchbeck Regulars? The Role and Organisation of the Territorial Army,1919-1940?”, PhD dissertation Oxford University (2016), p. 337; and Ian Beckett The Amateur Military Tradition 1559–1945, (1991) p. 258.  Territorial officers were regarded as having assumed their wartime ranks for purposes of precedence as of 24 August.

p. 32. Crewdson’s appointment calls into doubt a statement by Drewienkiewicz, ‘Build-up of the TA’, pp. 20–21, that all the commanders were between 51–60, based upon the minutes of the Army Council on 15 November. Lord Gort, the commander of the BEF asked for all brigadiers sent to France to be to be less than 45, a criterion met by Crewdson.

pp. 32-33 Jack Schofield unpublished manuscript, pp. 10–11. Quin was killed at the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia on 22 February 1942, and Poyle by mortar fire at Salerno on 15 September 1943, while serving with the Army Catering Corps.

pp. 36-37 Darwent’s accident from Sheffield Telegraph and Independent, Thursday 14 September 1939 p. 5; Derbyshire Times, Friday, September 22, 1939, p. 14

p. 37. Private Hill was the son of Ernest and Nora Hill, of Chinley near Chapel-en-le-Frith, and is buried in the White Knowle Methodist Chapelyard, Chinley. For the impact of meningitis see Edward J Wawrzynczak, ‘Treatment of military cases of cerebrospinal fever during WWI: the concerted efforts of the RAMC, MRC and Lister Institute to make serum therapy work’, Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 2019 <https://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/early/2019/05/23/jramc-2019–001226>[accessed 2 August 2020].

p. 38 IWM Sound Archive, #21600, Alan Orme interview with Tom Tunney, (n.d.) Reels 1–2; IWM Sound Archive, #16086, Frank Offiler interview with Peter M Hart (1995), Reel 1. also Alan Orme, ‘The Bridge- Part one’ on BBC’s Peoples War website <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/77/a7187277.shtml> [accessed 13 June 2019], (this is an online version of NCA, DDSF 3/12, Alan Orme, ‘Some Experiences of War’, pp. 1–5).

p. 38 For background see ‘The Severe Winter of 1939–40’ Nature 145, (1940), pp. 376–377.

p. 38 Horace Hansell had earlier enlisted in 1935 with the Leicester Regiment but was discharged after 8 months when it was discovered that he was only 16 (More Sherwood Foresters Memories p. 16).

p. 38-39 For NDC recruitment see Derby Evening Telegraph, Tuesday 13 June 1939 p. 5 and Friday 16 June p. 7; and Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, Friday 21 July, p.3 and p. 13.