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from volunteering to conscription
Some new soldiers took on specialist roles if they had a specific skill such as being
able to drive but most volunteers became infantrymen in new Battalions,each
numbering around a thousand men,which were attached to existing regiments.
A recruit’s transformation from civilian to soldier really began in one of the
many training camps that were set up all over the country. They learned military
discipline,drill and how to fight with rifle and bayonet.Many lived in tents.Men
from every walk of life,from clerks and teachers to factory and shop workers,were
crammed together. For many it was their first time away from home and the camps
sometimes bred tensions,with worries about drunkenness and relationships between
soldiers and local women.
20
7th Cameronians in training Grangemouth 1914