December 16, 1914

Dundee Evening Telegraph & Post

COMMANDER OF SPORTSMEN’S BATTALION

Wants Scotsmen to Join the Regiment.

The sportsmen of Dundee and district have an excellent opportunity of securing admission to the crack regiment, 1st Battalion Sportsman Royal Fusiliers.

Private James McRitchie, of the battalion, who is a native of Coupar Angus, is making a tour of the district with the object of securing 200 recruits to bring the battalion up to strength to be ready for active duty.

Colonel Maitland, who is in command, wants Scotsmen, and Private McRitchie has been sent on the mission of obtaining the required men. To-day he was in attendance at Lamb’s Hotel, Dundee, interviewing men who wished to join. The battalion has in the ranks many of the finest exponents of all kinds of sport – cricketers, footballers, scullers, &c. Two of the privates, it is interesting to note, are each worth £100,000¹, and yet they take their turn at scrubbing the floors and doing the necessary work about the barracks, which are situated at Grey Towers, Hornchurch, Essex.

They are all strapping men, many of them being six feet 3½ inches, and the average is 5 feet 9 inches.

Colonel Maitland is also desirous of getting a pipe band. They already have two pipers, but they want a full pipe band.

¹Approximately £10,000,000 today.

SPORTSMAN’S BATTALION.

Coupar Angus Native Recruiting in Dundee.

Mr James McRitchie, a native of Coupar Angus, is recruiting in Dundee to-day for the Sportsman Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, the City of London Regiment. He is desirous of getting 200 recruits from this district.