The 8th Battalion was formed on the 1st April 1908 as a Territorial volunteer battalion.  This battalion was made up of men from the old Worcestershire Rifle Volunteer Corps, which had been established in 1860 (these Rifle Volunteer Corps had become the 2nd Volunteer Battalion by 1883).
  

At the out break of the Great War in 1914, the 8th Battalion (Territorial) of the Regiment were at their annual summer camp at Minehead.  They returned to Worcester by train the day after war was declared with Germany. They then spent the next four days busy with preparations. The 8th Battalion entrained on 8th August 1914 for their War Stations.

The existing arrangements for the defence of the country included the concentration of the greater part of the Territorial forces in the Eastern Counties to guard against invasion from over the North Sea; and the 8th Battalion Worcestershire, then commanded respectively by Lieut.-Colonel W. K. Peake, moved eastwards by stages to join the army which was gathering in Suffolk and Essex to defend the heart of England.

The Battalion moved first to Swindon and thence eastwards by way of Stony Stratford and Brentford to Danbury in Essex where they remained until the 19th September 1914.

On the 11th August 1914 whilst the Battalion was still at Swindon, the Territorial soldiers were invited to volunteer for service overseas and nearly all of the men of the Battalion gladly accepted. The spirit of patriotism was running very high;

Lieut.-Col. W. K. Peake

and the Battalion were soon filled to overflowing with eager recruits.

On August 31st it was announced that those who could not at once accept the obligation for service overseas were to be withdrawn from the Territorial units to form “Second Line” Territorial formations intended for Home Defence (The formation of the “Second Line” battalion was authorized on 31st August 1914). The “Second Line” personnel of the Worcestershire battalion was organized at Worcester into a new unit, the 2/8th Worcestershire, which was commanded by Colonel M. Dixon V.D.; and there followed an active campaign to recruit the new unit up to the strength of full battalion.

The original 8th Battalion now became known as the 1/8th Battalion.

Thanks to the energy of the officers appointed to command the new unit, the ranks of the new 2/8th Territorial Battalion was filled within only three weeks.  The “Second Line” battalion commenced their training; and later there arose behind them yet another formation, the “Third Line,” intended to train reinforcements for the “First Line” units when they should take the field of action.

As a result of the efforts of the County Association “Third Line” was formed into a complete battalion.

Colonel M. Dixon VD

The formation of the “Third Line” Territorial battalion was authorised on 13th January 1915.  The Battalion was named the 3/8th Worcestershire and was commanded by Lieut.-Colonel J. Garnett.

On the 19th September 1914, the 1/8th Battalion moved to Essex where they remained throughout the winter months of 1914, quartered in good billets at Maldon.  During that period the Territorial Battalions were reorganised, adopting the four company organisation of the Regular Army instead of the old organisation in eight small companies which the Territorial battalions had hitherto retained.

By the spring of 1915 the Territorial battalions of the 48th Division were ready in all respects to take the field, and on the 30th March 1915, the move to France began.  The 1/8th Worcestershire bade farewell to their billets of the winter, entrained at Maldon East station and after dusk and began their journey to the Western Front.  The Battalion embarked at Folkstone on the ship SS “Invicta” and sailed to Boulogne.

Lieut.-Col. J. Garnett

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