AS THE centenary of Armistice Day approaches, it’s poignant to see this photograph of these Monmouthshire Regiment soldiers looking straight into the camera as they line up outside Chesptow’s Drill Hall.

At the hall’s opening in July 1913, there had been an appeal for new Territorial Army recruits. At that time the company were 70 strong, under the command of Capt C A Evill.

In peace time the Territorial Army was seen by young men as an escape from the drudgery of working life. When war came these men already had skills, training, and a sense of duty to King and Country.

See the wartime government’s propaganda prints in the Making Soldiers exhibition at Chepstow Museum.