Did you know there was a Bankers' Battalion in WWI?

[charlie_cochrane]

I guess I should have known, as there was a bicyclists' battalion and the artists' rifles.

Read about them here and here. (And if you fancy a rather nifty postcard commemorating them, nip into your nearest branch of Lloyd's.

Comments

[sandra-lindsey.livejournal.com]

So many different battalions were formed during WW1 to help the fight. Today I learned there was a Transport Workers Battalion, which was formed of enlisted men who were then trained & posted to work with civilian companies to keep transport services running.

Definite plot-bunnies, but putting them aside for later as I came across it while reading up for a story about women in WW2...

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Heartbreaking to think of quiet young men being thrown into that when they just wanted to make loans and calculate interest. My grandfather was born in 1885. He was a banker, married with a kid by 1917. Over here that was sufficient to keep him safe. Not so, of course, where you live. So here I am, when I otherwise might not be.

The young guys who moved paper from here to there on a desk are an incalculable loss-- just not as visible a loss as the artists, and without the books about them.