On This Day, 1 July 1918

Birmingham Daily Post

Monday 1 July 1918

HOME DEFENCE SERVICE.

DEPARTURE OF BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEERS.

Four hundred volunteers (15 officers and 386 non-commissioned officers and men) drawn from the Warwickshire Volunteer Battalions left Birmingham on Sunday for three months’ home defence service. The battalions are the 1^st City (with headquarters at Witton), 2^nd (Leamington), 3^rd City (Thorp Street), 4^th City (Stoney Lane), and 5^th City (Witton). The men, who will be formed into three companies, under the command of Captain Lewis, Sadler, and Yates, paraded at their respective headquarters at eight o’clock, and, headed by a military band, marched to New Street Station, where shortly after eleven o’clock they entrained. Colonel D. F. Lewis (the county commandant) and the battalion officers were present to see the men off.

While away on home defence service the Volunteers will be on the ordinary army footing in relation to pay and discipline.