Tyneside Irish: 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th (Service) Battalions of Northumberland Fusiliers

The Pals battalions were a phenomenon of the Great War, never repeated since. Under Lord Derbys scheme, and in response to Kitcheners famous call for a million volunteers, local communities raised (and initially often paid for) entire battalions for service on the Western Front. Their experience was all too frequently tragic, as men who had known each other all their lives, had worked, volunteered, and trained together, and had shipped to France together, encountered the first full fury of ...