So what was George Davison doing with Burnley Volunteer Training Corps in 1914?

Now I wonder what George Davison was doing in Burnley in the autumn of 1914.

I know he was a clerk who had variously worked for a solicitor and later a “mineral water manufacturer” and that he had moved from Chorlton-cum-Hardy to Hulme and by 1911 was living in Romiley.

All of which makes his presence in the Burnley Volunteer Training Corps a bit of a mystery but that was where he was in 1914.

The Volunteer Training Corps was a voluntary home defence militia made up of men who were over military age or engaged in important occupations and units sprang up all over the country in the months after the outbreak of the Great War.

Although there was a central committee which was recognised by the War Office the individual volunteer training units were not and had to be financially self supporting providing their own uniforms which could not be Khaki.

Later during 1915 these units were recognised as Volunteer Regiments and in the following year the War Office decided to include them into the County Infantry Regiment and they became “Volunteer” battalions of their local regiments.

But by then George had enlisted in the regular army and was in the Royal Artillery first in Woolwich and later in Ireland and then France.

So I am intrigued at his connection with Burnley not least because the family were in Romiley in 1911 and well into the early years of the war

Of course the family may have temporally relocated and later Mrs Davison did sublet the cottage when she moved to London and Ireland to be close to George so it is possible that for a bit of 1914 he or they were in Burnley.

The street directories and electoral roll along with the rate books may provide an answer but that will involve a lot of research.

In the meantime it is another example of just where you can end up.  Until I saw the enamelled badge for the Volunteers I had no idea that the organization had existed or of the part it played during the Great War.

The Burnley Volunteers were active in the early months of the war and this we know from Mr Davison’s participation but also from an advert which appeared in the Burnley News on November 28 1914, in which

“The Committee of the Burnley Volunteer Training Corps have undertaken to Register the names and addresses of those who wish to join a Burnley Pals Battalion.  

To ensure the success of the proposal leave your names and addresses at the Offices, 2 St James Row, Burnley”*

Now that with a bit of digging might offer up a name of an individual linked to the Volunteers and one day I may be able to place that with one of the men from parading sometime in later 1914.

But that for now is about it.

I went looking for the Offices, of 2 St James Row, Burnley but sadly they have long gone, but then until recently the existence of the Burnley Volunteers were unknown to me so who knows what might turn up and with that something more of Mr Davison’s connection with Burnley will come out of the shadows.

Well we shall see.

Pictures; enamelled badge for the Volunteers, and the BVTC C Company on parade, circa 1914 from the collection of David Harrop

*Rushton William, The Accrington Pals, 1993