| Home | Reserve list page 2 | Reserve List page 3 | Reserve list page 4 | Reserve List page 5 | National Reservists |     

5th (1st Reserve) Battalion, Gordon Highlanders

Shortly after the start of the war, the Army Council made the decision to duplicate the Territorial units in which a majority of the men had volunteered for foreign service. The new unit of the 5th Gordons was originally called the  5th (1st Reserve) Battalion, Gordon Highlanders. This recruiting for the Reserve Battalion began in September 1914 and in January 1915 the local newspaper printed a roll of the men who had volunteered. In March 1915 an additional roll was published with other smaller lists appearing in the months before and after that date.

An examination of the names on the list (there are approximately 1000)  reveals the following:

 1. Many of the men did eventually serve overseas either with the 5th Battalion or another Territorial Battalion
 2. A number were transferred, after June 1916 when the rules were changed, to one of the Regular Battalions
 3. Many were rejected due to bad health or age
 4. Some did not serve overseas and spent the war on home service guarding ports, railways or prison camps, or were  transferred to units such as the Royal Defence Corps, or the Labour Corps. These are often the most difficult to research as they received no medals and unless their service record has survived, they are virtually untraceable.

FROM THE BUCHAN OBSERVER:

RESERVE TERRITORIAL UNITS
Aberdeenshire needs 2500

The Army Council's decision to duplicate units of the Territorial Force to take the place of those which had volunteered for foreign service...affects the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine to a marked degree.
The 5th, 6th and 7th Battalions of the Gordon Highlanders will have to be duplicated, and a new force of some 2500 is needed for Aberdeenshire alone to complete the established units, at present stationed at Bedford, for foreign service, and to fill up the reserve battalions.
The new units will be organised with the following objects:-
To take the place, when called on, of the general service unit if the latter is ordered abroad.
To act as a feeder to replace wastage in the general service unit.
To carry out the above function, the reserve unit will be composed of all men from the general service unit who cannot go abroad, and recruits enlisted both for general and home service.

Note: I may in time be able to include all the additional information I have found on most of these men. In the meantime, if you would like further details, please contact me at cmorrisey@hotmail.com

 OFFICERS AND NCOs

(Names in Bold later joined the 5th Battalion overseas.)

RANK AND FILE

These names are include here in the order they appeared in the newspaper, which is roughly by order of enlistment. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
| Home | Reserve list 2 | Reserve List 3 | Reserve list 4 | Reserve List 5 | National Reservists |