The newly-appointed Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You', urging the first 100,000 volunteers to come forward.

The 'Pals' phenomenon quickly spread across the country, as local recruiting committees offered complete units to the War Office (WO).

[3] Alderman Archibald Dawnay, Mayor of Wandsworth, and his council offered to raise a complete infantry battalion of 1350 officers and men.

[4][5][6][7][8][9] Dawnay proposed to Kitchener that the battalion should have its own version of the East Surreys' cap badge, and somewhat unexpectedly this was authorised by the Army Council.

[10][11][12][13] Recruitment was slow at first, only 55 men having enlisted by the end of June, but then picked up, partly because of the fame of 19-year-old Lance-Corporal Edward Dwyer of 1st Bn East Surreys, who had just been invested at Buckingham Palace with the Victoria Cross (VC) he won at Hill 60 at Ypres.

He was accompanied by Colour-Sergeant James Smith, who had won the VC on the North-West Frontier in 1897 and was now running the Wandsworth Battalion's recruiting offices.

However, the Pals battalions of 118th Bde had not completed their training, so it was decided to replace them with more advanced units and leave them behind to join 40th Division at Blackdown Camp.

[5][8][7][17][21][22][23][24] 40th Division continued with its training, and in May was warned to prepare to move to the Western Front and join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

13th East Surreys, with a strength of 34 officers and 970 other ranks (ORs), marched to Frimley station on 3 June and boarded two trains for Southampton Docks.

On 16 June it moved closer to the front so that units could be sent up the line for attachment to 15th (Scottish) Division in the Lens sector for their introduction to trench warfare.

B Company amused themselves by going out at night and placing notice bards in the enemy wire giving news of Allied successes.

When the battalion was relieved on 31 December it took 7 hours struggling along mud-filled communication trenches to meet the lorries waiting to take the exhausted men back to camp.

The battalion went back into the line on 8 January 1917 in the Rancourt sector, where the defences consisted of a string of small posts surrounded by mud, and 120th Bde had to organise mule trains to bring up supplies each night.

Brigade HQ ordered 13th ESR's transport officer, Lt Beecroft, to take up ammunition and supplies to the battalion heading in the direction of Péronne, but could not tell him where it might be found.

By chance he managed to find 13th ESR spending the night in abandoned farm buildings and dugouts at Allaines, having passed by Péronne.

40th Division continued to hold the Villers-Plouich sector through the summer, the battalions alternating between the front, support and reserve lines, carrying out patrols, raids and working parties, and suffering a trickle of casualties.

Lieutenant-Col Newton was away on sick leave again 1–11 July, when Maj West commanded the battalion, and Lt-Col Atkins officially left in August.

As A and B Companies fell back from the village Warden added them to the HQ strongpoint, which protected the left flank of 119th Bde fighting in the wood.

By then the Germans had brought up heavy trench mortars to fire on the strongpoint and he was informed that his companies were occupying the barrage line for a major British attack next morning (27 November).

By 10 December the battalion was back holding frontline trenches at Fontaine-lès-Croisilles in severe winter weather and under regular mustard gas shelling.

During the first day 119th Bde was around Mercatel at half an hour's notice to move; as it grew dark about 17.30, the brigade was ordered towards the threatened Henin Hill in the second line of defences.

Crozier later alleged that at this point he had to order the unnamed CO of 13th ESR (Lt-Col Warden) to press on even when he reported being held up by machine gun fire.

In the morning (24 March), when the Germans moved in mass up the valley below, 119th and 4th Guards brigades' small-arms fire from enfilade, together with 40th Divisional Artillery, overwhelmed them and stopped the movement.

173–9.[78] After the first phase of the German spring offensive, 40th Division was sent north to Merville to join First Army in a quiet sector to rest and refit.

Here they took up positions south of the River Lys where Crozier had improvised a line with the remnants of 119th Bde and the divisional pioneer battalion (12th Green Howards).

[27][89] They were marched back through the German lines, narrowly avoiding being hit on the road by 12-inch shells being fired by a Royal Navy battery.

The badly wounded were sent to hospitals, the officers were separated and sent directly to Germany, and the remaining ORs were marched back by stages to Lille where they were held in Fort Macdonald for a few days.

Until the Armistice they were put to work, for example in the coal mines, while facing severe malnourishment (the Allied blockade was causing food shortages across Germany).

From 27 April 'B' Battalion joined 'No 2 Composite Brigade' under Brig-Gen Crozier employed in digging the Poperinghe Line in case of further German breakthroughs.

40th Division was among those selected, and its infantry battalions were each reduced to TCs of roughly 10 officers and 45 ORs: their surplus personnel were drafted as reinforcements to other units.