The First World War - known in the years following as the Great War - broke out in August of 1914. Very soon a recruiting campaign covered the length and breadth of the British Isles and extended to the rest of the British Empire as the country anticipated the need for the biggest army in its history.
As it turned out, there would never be enough men to replace the appalling toll in human life that characterized the trench warfare of continental Europe and other fields of battle. Britain alone lost nearly a million men. France lost substantially more, and the Germans nearly twice that number. Names like the Somme, Ypres, Passchendaele and Gallipoli have come down to us associated with this tragic loss of an entire generation of young men.
On December 12, Robert Otterson joined the line of volunteers with brother-in-law Jacob Forrest, the husband of his eldest sister. They were issued sequential numbers - 18491 for Jacob and 18492 for Robert. The following day, Robert’s brother James also joined up - his number was 18497 and all were posted to 3rd Battalion of the Green Howards Regiment on 4 January 1915. The 1st and 2nd Battalions were regular army units. The 3rd Battalion was a militia regiment raised because of the war and was sent as replacements and reinforcements to the 6th Battalion.