The subject of recruiting for the British Army during the wars with Revolutionary then Napoleonic France is a large and at times a confusing topic. This is especially so with reference to the varied Acts and Reforms by which the then British Governments tried to find men for the army without resorting to universal conscription. The whole panoply is enough to fill a book. The reader might find some indication of this in the following short article, which concentrates on the 68th Durham Light Infantry. As can be seen, recruiting was much more than the traditional Sergeant regaling a crowd of onlookers with tales of high deeds, full stomachs and copious amounts of ale.

68th Recruitment Poster (slow: 178K)

The 68th Foot had been one of those unfortunate Regiments which had suffered much in the West Indies during the earlier part of the Great War with France. In fact the Regiment had at one point been two battalions strong before disease and yellow fever had whittled its strength down. Between January 1801 and May 1806 the 1st/68th lost 1071 men whilst, before it was disbanded, the 2nd/68th lost between January 1801 and August 1802, 423 men out of a total of 1,494. It was thus a very depleted Regiment which landed at Portsmouth on the 16th August 1806. The return to England found the unit numbering just 23 Officers, 39 Sergeants, 15 Drummers and 109 Other Ranks. The Regiment would have to be rebuilt and that would take time.

After disembarking, the 68th marched by stages to Yorkshire where it was to stay for the next eighteen months, first at Leeds, then Ripon. Recruiting parties were sent out by the 68th within a short time of its return in order to bring the regiment back to strength again. These recruiting parties usually consisted of an Officer, Serjeant and a few trusted men, and sometimes a Drummer, the main work usually falling to the Serjeant.

By November 1806 fifteen recruiting parties were out, operating in in such diverse places as : Limerick, Tullamore, Dublin, Mullingar, Lisburn, Belfast, Edinburgh, Crieff, Glasgow, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, Freston, Doncaster, Blanford and Durham. Some of these recruiting parties travelled from place to place, others became virtual fixtures in certain towns. [1] The recruiting parties had some success in bringing the 68th back to strength, by October 1808, the number of rank and file in the regiment stood at 436 men.

The 68th though, in common with the Army in general, would have found recruiting difficult for a variety of reasons:

1. A career in the army was looked down upon by many in society both rich and poor, which meant the "better" sort of recruit was hard to come by. This was possibly coupled with a distrust of the army. In the absence of a properly organised civilian police force the army had to be called in to keep order. This was particularly so during the Luddite disturbances. The army was seen as enforcing the distress caused by the emerging factory system of the Industrial Revolution.

2. A further reason why recruiting was difficult was the relative poverty of the ordinary soldier. For example, in 1800 the wage of a soldier was 7s 7d a week, while an artisian's was 18s. In 1806, the soldiers weekly wage was still 7s 7d, whilst an artisians had risen to 28s. It was suggested that if Britain was to have an army by voluntary enlistment, then it had to improve the vocation of the soldier and bring it into fair competition with other trades and callings. The most simple way of improving soldiers conditions. was to raise his pay. It was further suggested that any improvements in pay were to be coupled with improvements both in pensions and compensation for those disabled from further service. Nevertheless, it would take some time before these measures were endorsed. Britain, involved in an expensive war, and being paymaster of the Allies, was to maintain her own army on a tight budget.

3. Potential recruits also feared army service in the West Indies, where fever had taken an appalling toll of lives, as the 68th well knew to its cost. In just the first four years of the war with France, from 1793 to 1796, the West Indies had cost the army 80,000 men lost to the service, including 40,000 dead. No wonder some lads thought twice or more about joining.

4. The army's discouragement of marriage was also detrimental to recruiting. There was no allowance for many regular soldier's wives or accommodation for them. And, though the era saw a great expansion in barrack building, married quarters were virtually non-existant. Wives often had to share the communal barrack rooms with the rest of their husband's comrades. Wives were expected to help in camp or barracks by cooking, taking in laundry, sewing or even nursing if they wanted to stay on the regimental strength and qualify for an allowance. But many wives were left with no support if their husbands were posted overseas and they were not chosen to go with him. Orders printed in 1808 [2] stated that : "Women, Only in the proportion of six to every hundred men, will be permitted to embark. They should be carefully selected as being of good character, and having the inclination and ability to render themselves useful : It is very desirable that those who have children should be left at home. All women above the number prescribed must be sent to their respective homes, previous to their Regiments marching for embarkation." [3]

5. The greatest deterrent to recruiting though was the fact that men enlisted for life. It was a daunting prospect to sign all your life away. Once in, that was it, unless fever, a bullet or some such soldier's bane put an end to future prospects. The survivors' careers ended when a Medical Board deemed them unfit for further service and returned them to civilian life. Though in most cases a small pension was granted to such men many found themselves too old to learn a new skill or trade with which to supplement this entitlement. [4]