Before going further it may be worth setting forth the reasons which prompted the War Office to create ours and similar battalions. The Territorial Force was planned for Home Defence, and presumably it was considered that there would be time and opportunity to train recruits to replace the casualties and normal wastage of war. The wholesale volunteering of battalions for Foreign Service altered the situation completely, and it became necessary to create Reserve Battalions. Their duty was twofold: first, to replace the battalion that went abroad and relieve it of its function as a defensive force; and, secondly, to supply it with the necessary drafts. Consequently enlisting for the Reserve Battalion included both men for Home and Foreign Service, and it was not until the following spring that the success of the Territorial Battalions abroad prompted the authorities to go one step further, and make the Second Line Battalions, as they were then called, into Overseas Battalions. To make this possible, Home Service men were transferred to Home Defence units, known as Provisional Battalions, while Third Line Depots were created for training drafts for the battalions on active service. A clear understanding as to the position is necessary, so that the reason why we remained in England till February, 1917, may be grasped. Owing to the call on us for drafts throughout 1915 and early 1916, our strength was much reduced. The Third Line Depots, however, owing to the falling off in recruiting, were never strong enough to repair the wastage of the First Line Battalion already overseas, much less bring us up to strength. The necessary troops had, therefore, to be raised from broken-up divisions in England, and it was from one of these in 1916 that we were to receive the necessary men to complete our strength. However, the terrible casualties of the Battle of the Somme diverted to France as reinforcements the men that we were to have had (some of them found their way to us in 1917 at St. Hilaire), and we found ourselves with a couple of hundred "Derby men" in their place, with a promise that we should go overseas as soon as these were trained.