Training and recruitment over time
How Britain Raised Its Armies
Across the centuries, Britain has recruited soldiers in fundamentally different ways. The medieval period relied on feudal obligation and religious duty; the early modern period introduced professional armies; the industrial era used propaganda and conscription; the modern era has moved to a voluntary professional force. Tracing this change reveals how the relationship between the state, society and military service has been transformed.
Feudal Duties and Chivalric Codes
In medieval England, military service was embedded in the feudal system. The king granted land to barons and lords in exchange for their promise to provide a set number of knights for a fixed period of service (typically forty days per year). Lords sub-granted land to knights, who were similarly obliged to serve. Below the knights, the fyrd — a levy of ordinary freemen — could be called up in emergencies.
Chivalry provided the cultural framework within which medieval knights understood their military role. The ideal knight was not merely a warrior but a Christian protector, loyal to his lord, his Church and his king. The reality was often more brutal, but chivalric codes shaped recruitment, motivation and the conduct of war throughout the medieval period.
Medieval armies were raised through feudal obligation: barons owed knights to the king in exchange for their land grants; ordinary freemen could be levied into the fyrd. The chivalric code gave knights a shared set of values that combined religious devotion, loyalty and martial skill.
Tudor Armies and the New Model Army
Tudor monarchs moved away from exclusive reliance on feudal obligation. The Statute of Winchester (originally 1285, reinforced in Tudor practice) required men to keep weapons according to their wealth and to be available for the county militia. Tudor armies for overseas campaigns — such as Henry VIII’s expeditions to France — combined retained household troops, contract soldiers (hired for specific campaigns) and impressed men.
The most significant early modern development was the creation of the New Model Army in 1645. Parliament’s Self-Denying Ordinance removed MPs from military command, creating a professional officer corps that was promoted on merit rather than social rank. Soldiers were paid regularly, drilled intensively and motivated by strong religious conviction — many were Puritans who believed they were fighting for God as well as Parliament. The New Model Army was England’s first recognisably modern professional army.
From the late seventeenth century, the Royal Navy faced persistent difficulty recruiting sufficient sailors. Press gangs were authorised by the Impress Service and operated most intensively during wartime. The press gang had the legal power to compel any able-bodied man deemed ‘seafaring’ into naval service — though this power was contested, and men with certain trades or civic roles could claim exemption. Press ganging was deeply unpopular and was largely abandoned after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, as voluntary enlistment and improved pay made it unnecessary for peacetime.
Propaganda Recruitment in the First World War
At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Britain had a small professional army. Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, immediately began a massive recruitment campaign. His famous poster asking “Your Country Needs YOU” became an iconic symbol of voluntary recruitment. By early 1915, over a million men had volunteered.
A distinctive feature of this campaign was the formation of Pals Battalions. Men were encouraged to enlist with friends, neighbours and work colleagues. Cities and towns raised their own battalions — the Accrington Pals, the Sheffield City Battalion, the Leeds Pals, and hundreds of others. This produced excellent esprit de corps, but when battalions suffered heavy casualties, the human cost fell disproportionately on single communities. The 1st Accrington Pals suffered approximately 585 casualties on the first day of the Somme alone, devastating the town of Accrington.
Voluntary recruitment in 1914–1915 produced over a million soldiers, including the famous Pals Battalions. As casualties mounted, voluntary recruitment proved insufficient, and the Military Service Act (January 1916) introduced conscription for the first time in British history, requiring all unmarried men aged 18–41 to serve.
Conscription, National Service and Career Soldiers
Conscription was extended to married men in May 1916 and continued through the end of the First World War. It was re-introduced at the start of the Second World War in September 1939. After 1945, the National Service Act (1947) required men aged 18 to complete eighteen months of military service (extended to two years during the Korean War). National Service ended in 1960, when the last conscripts were discharged.
From 1960, Britain moved to an all-volunteer professional army. Soldiers today enlist voluntarily, sign fixed-term contracts, and receive specialist technical training far beyond anything available to earlier armies. The modern British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are small but highly trained — a stark contrast to the mass citizen armies of the two world wars. This shift from conscription to professionalism is one of the most significant changes in the history of British military recruitment.
The key change across the eras is from obligation (feudal service, press gangs, conscription) to voluntary enlistment. However, voluntary service has been the model in two quite different ways: the genuine enthusiasm of 1914’s volunteers, driven by patriotism and propaganda, and the career-based professional model of today. A significant element of continuity is that training has always been essential: whether drilling New Model Army pikemen in the 1640s or training paratroopers today, British armies have consistently recognised that discipline and practice determine effectiveness on the battlefield.