Recruitment in Goole

 In terms of archival records very little has survived to document Goole’s involvement in the First World. Fortunately the town has a newspaper which published a weekly newspaper and a twice a week short local news editorial. The Goole Times printed details of nearly every service man from the town killed, awarded gallantry medals, weekly feature articles with pictures of Goole men and also recorded how Goole men were enlisted. It is thanks to the Goole Times that over 3000 men have been listed of a database of Goole men who served in the First World War. Below are two articles extracted from the 1915 Goole Times detailing the impact of the Voluntary Enlistment Scheme established in 1915, naming men whose service record would otherwise have been lost.

Goole Recruiting Returns – 19/03/1915

Response to the Household Circular

Capt. Featherstone, recruiting officer for Goole and district supplies us with the following figures relative to the number of recruits obtained as a result of the issue of the “Household Circular” by the Parliamentary Committee last November. It will be remembered that the circular was accompanied by a form to be filled up by men of eligible age who were willing to serve in the Army when required, if called upon. The 405 men who assigned the form have all been called upon, but only 64 have been enlisted. The following are the figures:

Town	Called	Fit and Enlisted	Medically Unfit	Rejected Under Standard	Already enlisted or working for Government	No Response
Goole	203	22	73	26	92	48
Rawcliffe	30	7	8	3	5	7
Snaith	35	4	11	3	5	12
Askern	27	8	9	3	2	5
Whitley Bridge	15	5	2	3	2	5
Thorne	63	12	25	12	4	10
Airmyn	12	4	3		2
Swinefleet, etc	18	2	9			7
Drax	2		1		1

Recruiting at Goole – 14/05/15

Goole Scoutmaster Enlists

Goole Town F.C. Goalkeeper Enrolled

Since the recruiting demonstration at Goole on Tuesday last week, there has been a steady flow of men to the local Recruiting Office at the Labour Exchange, Goole, to offer their services to fight for King and country, and a number of local men have also gone to enlist at Hull, and others have been secured by the Territorial Regiment, now at York.

In “The Goole Times” last Friday we gave a list of thirty names of men who had been enrolled after medical examination, at the Goole Recruiting Office. Since then twenty-nine others have offered themselves and been enlisted, besides a number of others who were willing to join, but had to be rejected on medical grounds.

Among the recent enlistments are Mr Arthur Florence, scoutmaster of the 1^st Goole Troop of Boy Scouts, and himself a “King’s Scout”; C. Guest, another Boy Scout; J C Garner, goalkeeper for Goole Town Football Club; three men from Goole Gasworks; two clerks from the Goole Urban District Council Offices, etc. The following are the names of the recruits accepted since Friday:

Forename	Surname	Record
Herbert	Crosby	Survived
Albert	Walker	Survived
Robert	Johnson	Survived
Arthur	Florence	Survived
Cass	Guest	Underage - discharged
John G	Garner	Survived
Frank	Temple	Survived
James	Ricks	Survived
A W V	King	Survived
George H	Barrow	Survived
John W	Bowman	Survived
Alfred G	Turner	Survived
H C H	Hargreaves	Survived
Louis	Cook	Survived
John A	Edmondson	Survived
Albert	Jackson	KIA
George A	Beavors	Survived
John	Hitchen	Survived
Pike	Henry	Survived
George A	Lane	KIA
George	Gill	Survived
C. Duncan	Miler	KIA
George E.	Isle	Survived
William Oscar	Wright	Survived
Harry	Simms	Survived
George	Glew	Survived
Ernest	Wilson	KIA

In addition to the fifty-nine who have enlisted at Goole since the demonstration and whose names have been published, there are at least five or six who have enlisted at Hull, and another dozen have gone to York, making a total of eighty.