It fell least heavily on the Royal Navy and the Regular Army, which proceeded to or were found at their appointed stations, in calm reliance on the traditions behind them and without fear of the ordeal in front; and next only to the service-men, who turned from peace to war as from one day’s work to another, and changed their habits of life as quickly as a man might change his clothes, were the citizen-soldiers of the Territorial Force: landowners and tillers of the soil, doctors, lawyers and business-men, clerks, warehousemen and factory-hands, all the components of a great country’s complex mechanism, united by the Haldane scheme to serve side by side in a ‘people’s army.’ The evidence may be sought from many quarters, but it is the source not the stream which varies. Take, summarily, General Bethune’s tribute to the Force which he directed from 1912 to 1917[17]; ‘A few days after mobilization, the Territorial Force were asked by telegraph the number that would volunteer for foreign service. Ninety-two per cent. responded within a few weeks, and the complete total, I think, rose to ninety-six per cent.... Before the end of September, we had doubled the Territorial Force, and were proceeding to form 3rd Lines.... Recruits from August 4th, 1914, to January 19th, 1916, amounted in round numbers to 732,000.... The Territorial Force Associations, composed, as they are, of representatives of every class in a County, were eminently adapted for the work which they undertook and carried out so well.... They relieved the War Office of an enormous amount of work which would not have been done in any other way.’ We shall have occasion to return to this official document. Take, summarily, again, Lord French’s tribute to the Territorial Force, based on his experience in Command at the front, in his book, _1914_ (pages 293-94):— ‘It is true that by the terms of their engagement, Territorial Soldiers were only available for Home Defence;... The response to the call which was subsequently made upon them shows quite clearly that, had they been asked at first, they would have come forward almost to a man. ‘However, as it turned out, they were ignored.... Officers and men alike naturally made up their minds that they were not wanted and would never be used for any other purpose than that for which they had originally taken service, namely, the defence of the United Kingdom. ‘But the time for the employment of troops other than the Regulars of the Old Army arrived with drastic and unexpected speed.... It was then that the Country in her need turned to the despised Territorials. ‘The call came upon them like a bolt from the blue. No warning had been given. Fathers and sons, husbands and brothers left their families, homes, the work and business of their lives, almost at an hour’s notice to go on Active Service abroad.