recruitment

• reasons why Scottish men signed up for WWI

  • propaganda
  • short war theory
  • sense of adventure
  • peer pressure
  • patriotism
  • pals battalions
  • need for employment
  • anti-German sentiment
• propaganda


  a huge recruitment campaign was launched, using propaganda to make men feel patriotic, duty bound and guilty if they stayed behind. they worked best by emphasizing certain words, and by making it sound like they were addressing the person looking at the poster specifically.

  • 54 million posters were issued.
  • 8 million personal letters were sent to encourage men to enlist.
  • 12,000 public meetings were held.
  • 20,000 speeches were made by military officials.
• patriotism

  Scotland had a long military tradition, and men loved the appeal of being able to wear a kilt into battle while representing their country. furthermore, propaganda played into this in great depth. patriotism convinced many men to enlist as it was seen as their 'duty' to their king and country.
• peer pressure


  men who had not volunteered would face an immense amount of pressure from their friends and family, leading them to feel embarrassed or ashamed. women would hand men who were not fighting large white feathers as a sign of their cowardice in public places.
• pals battalions

  pals battalions meant that you could join up specifically with people from your town, your work place or even your favourite football team. pals battalions meant that more men would enlist because they could fight and serve with people they knew. the 16th royal scots was based around the hearts football team, 16 first team players joined the battalion and fought at the battle of the somme together.
• need for employment

  by 1911, 45% of scots lived in urban industrial areas, such as Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Fife. their jobs could often be uncertain, wages low and conditions poor. there was always a fear of unemployment, for example many miners feared the loss of jobs due to the collapse of the trade, leading to many turning to the army for employment opportunity.
• anti-German sentiment

  scots were not overly fond of Germans at this point in history. they had been fed stories of German atrocities in Belgium and German spies, and they couldn't stand for it. many things with German names were renamed, such as German shepherds being known as Alsatians.
• short war theory

  many at the time believed that the war would be a short one, as it was assumed it would be 'over by Christmas'. many men signed up because they didn't want to miss out and didn't believe they would be away for long.
• sense of adventure

  many young men at this time in Scotland had never left the country. enlisting gave them the opportunity to see new places and preform heroic deeds. it also gave them the chance to leave a 'boring' life behind, as the war wasn't taken seriously towards the beginning.