The First Hundred Thousand

“Form fours!” The recruits stand fast to a man—apparently, every one of them is an odd number. Private Mucklewame, a butcher’s assistant from Wishaw, is sure he has the drill figured out. He hasn’t.

On a dusty Hampshire parade ground in the warm September sun, Britain’s new volunteer army is still learning how to march. In Ian Hay’s wry chronicle of the First World War, raw recruits in borrowed-looking hats and fatigue clothes face bewildered instructors, green young officers and a formidable daily grind. Mucklewame and his fellow civilians must master military discipline before they can become the Seventh (Service) Battalion of the Bruce and Wallace Highlanders. Their retired, suddenly recalled colonel believes they’re rough, tough and stout—but can this awkward battalion be made a credit to the Old Regiment?

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