Editing Islington (section)

===Islington Pals===
At the beginning of [[World War I]] the enthusiastic response to [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]]'s call to arms, 'Your King and Country Need You', overwhelmed the ability of the Army to absorb the volunteers. Soon local committees were recruiting complete units, often from men from particular localities or backgrounds who wished to serve together: these were known as '[[Pals battalions]]'. In February 1915 Kitchener approached the 28 [[Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London|Metropolitan Borough Councils]] in the [[County of London]], and the 'Great Metropolitan Recruiting Campaign' went ahead in April, with each mayor asked to raise a unit of local men.<ref>Paul McCue, ''Wandsworth and Battersea Battalions in the Great War, 1915–1918'', Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84884194-9, pp. 10–1.</ref> The [[Metropolitan Borough of Islington|Mayor and Borough of Islington]] agreed and on 18 May they were authorised to raise the [[21st (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Islington)]]. The 'Islington Pals' served on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] from 1916 to 1918 as part of [[40th Division (United Kingdom)|40th Division]], seeing action against the [[Hindenburg Line]] and at [[Battle of Cambrai (1917)|Bourlon Wood]]. After the huge casualties it suffered during the [[German spring offensive]] of March–April 1918, the battalion went back to England to be reconstituted from men of lower medical category, and never returned to the Western Front. It was disbanded soon after the [[Armistice with Germany]].<ref> Brig E.A. James, ''British Regiments 1914–18'', London: Samson Books, 1978, ISBN 0-906304-03-2/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1-84342-197-9, p. 94.</ref><ref>[http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/the-duke-of-cambridges-own-middlesex-regiment/ Middlesex Regiment at the Long, Long Trail.]</ref>