The 12th (Service) Battalion (Bristol's Own) of the Gloucestershire Regiment (the 'Glosters') was a 'Pals battalion' of 'Kitchener's Army' raised immediately after the outbreak of World War I through the initiative of the City of Bristol. It saw action at the Somme, Arras and Ypres, before moving to the Italian Front. It returned to the Western Front to fight in the German spring offensive and the victorious Allied Hundred Days Offensive.
Recruitment
On 6 August 1914, less than 48 hours after Britain's declaration of war, Parliament sanctioned an increase of 500,000 men for the Regular British Army, and 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. This group of six divisions with supporting arms became known as Kitchener's First New Army, or 'K1'. A flood of volunteers poured into the recruiting offices across the country and were formed into 'Service' battalions of the county regiments. However, the Bristol Chamber of Commerce considered that the city's response was inadequate and formed a Bristol Citizens' Recruiting Committee under the leadership of the former Lord Mayor, Sir Herbert Ashman, to encourage enlistment. The city's Colston Hall was opened as a recruiting centre on 14 August, and 2274 men enlisted by 2 September. Eighty men calling themselves the Weston Comrades Company also joined from Weston-super-Mare. It was clear that many of these men wanted to serve together in a special Bristol battalion, similar to other 'Pals battalions' being formed around the country. The War Office (WO) gave the committee authority to form the Bristol Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, on 30 August. Later in the year it became part of Kitchener's Fifth New Army (K5) and was officially numbered as the 12th (Service) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment (Bristol), but the subtitle was usually rendered as 'Bristol's Own'. The recruiting committee encouraged 'mercantile and professional' men to apply, both through reasons of social exclusiveness and with a view to Kitchener's directive that workers in vital industries could not be spared. The first commanding officer (CO) was William Burges, who had retired from command of the 3rd Militia Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment some years before. Several of the other officers appointed had experience in the Regular or Auxiliary forces, and a number of junior officers had been members of their school or university Officer Training Corps.
Training
The rush of recruits had overwhelmed the Army's ability to absorb them, so the Pals Battalions of K5 were left for some time in the hands of the recruiting committees. Initially the Bristol men lived at home and drilled by squads at Colston Hall in their civilian clothes, distinguished only by a lapel badge bearing the words 'New Bristol Battalion Gloucestershire Regt'. They then began battalion drills at the Artillery Grounds in Whiteladies Road, the headquarters of the I South Midland (Gloucestershire) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery of the Territorial Force. But in late September the recruiting committee persuaded the WO to buy up the site of the abandoned Bristol International Exhibition in Greville Smyth Park, the buildings of which were converted into barracks by the Royal Engineers and Army Service Corps. The 'Weston Comrades' joined the rest of the battalion here in November and were posted to D Company. Some of the battalion's best men were already being posted away, for officer training for example, and on 30 November the WO authorised the recruiting committee to raise a fifth, reserve company (E Company); F Company was raised as a further reserve in April 1915. Old rifles had been issued to the battalion for drill purposes, with just a few modern Lee-Enfield .303 SMLE rifles for musketry training. Uniforms were finally received in December 1914. In March 1915 the battalion began field training by companies at Chipping Sodbury.
The locally raised units to form K5 were assigned to brigades on 10 December 1914: the Bristol Battalion was brigaded with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Birmingham Pals (later 14th, 15th and 16th (Service) Battalions, Royal Warwickshire Regiment). The brigade was initially numbered 116th Brigade in 39th Division, but in April 1915 the WO decided to convert the K4 battalions into reserve units to train reinforcements for the K1–K3 units, and on 27 April the K5 divisions were renumbered to take up the designations of the K4 formations. The short-lived 39th Division thus became 32nd Division and 116th Brigade became 95th Brigade.