HEROISM IN EVOLUTION, 1915–1916 141
rate. The men who entered the Army on the outbreak of war were of a very
different mold than the pre-war establishment.
While there were those who anticipated a quick end to the War, the top
officers in the field and back in England knew from the outset that the BEF
was no more than a token force as it sailed from the Channel ports in the fall
of 1914. The War Office itself was vacant at the declaration of war. Despite
some ministerial misgivings, the position was offered to Earl Kitchener that
very afternoon.^31 Kitchener lost no time in calling for more troops; the next
morning, 6 August, he sought and gained parliamentary approval to expand
the Army by a further 500,000 men. Newspapers nationwide carried the
appeal for volunteers the morning of 7 August.^32
The young men of England responded admirably to the call for soldiers.
At the same time, there was a strange mix of intensity and casualness to the
response. Many did hurry off to enlist straightaway, fueled either by patriotic
enthusiasm, righteous indignation, or the desire to escape the humdrum life
of office or factory. Others hesitated, either due to a moral quandary or to
settle business or family affairs before embarking on a new course.^33 In the
Dominions, too, young men responded to the call of King and Empire:
When Alf Bastedo left Pembroke [Ontario, Canada] in August 1914 to join
his regiment in Milton, Ramsey and Basil [Morris] had already discussed
the matter of enlistment with their father. Both wanted to join the overseas
army at once. Although sympathetic to his sons’ eagerness, his advice was
both practical, in terms of the family’s well-being, and ironical, as things
turned out: as the eldest son, he said, Ramsey should have the privilege
of going overseas first; Basil should return to the university to complete
his course in engineering.^34
Those who did enlist swamped the recruiting stations and competition for
the ‘better’ regiments was keen. Fully 300,000 took the shilling before the
end of August. Even more signed up in September, with over 450,000 more
men responding to the news of Mons and Le Cateau. Although monthly
totals dropped below 200,000 for the rest of the year, by 31 December
1,186,357 men had joined the armed forces.^35
The men who flocked to the recruiting stations in the fall of 1914 were
disproportionately middle class in origin.^36 The public school ethos of ‘play
up and play the game’ that inspired them was not limited to the upper
class, but rather disseminated widely through the middle class as well. As
the Victorian plutocracy grew in strength, increasing numbers of their sons
were enrolled in public schools. For those who had not the means to gain
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