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Lot 110

WORLD WAR ONE – KITCHENER and McKENNA

17 April 2012, 11:00 BST
Oxford

Sold for £687.50 inc. premium

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WORLD WAR ONE – KITCHENER and McKENNA

Autograph letter signed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Reginald McKenna, to Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, calculating the number of recruits that will be needed to withstand the attrition rate on the Western Front: "The calculation which I made two or three weeks ago was as follows: Total casualties (i.e. casualties of all kinds) take place at the rate of 1 in 15 per month of all the men in France. Among casualties approximately 1/5th are killed, 1/5th are missing, and 3/5ths are wounded. Of the wounded 2/5ths do not return to the Army. The irrecoverable wastage is therefore 1/5+1/5+2/5 of 3/5 = 16/25 or 64 per cent. The figures I should be glad to have would be: (1) The rate of recruiting necessary to supply wastage and to furnish a total of 2,600,000 men at home and abroad in April (2) The rate of recruiting necessary to maintain 1,400,000 men in the field until the end of December 1916 making due allowance for wastage", 4 pages, marked at head "5526", on headed Treasury paper, paper-clip stain and some dust-staining, 8vo, Treasury Chambers, Whitehall, 23 July 1915

Footnotes

'RECRUITING NECESSARY TO SUPPLY WASTAGE AND TO FURNISH A TOTAL OF 2,600,000 MEN': the Chancellor of the Exchequer calculates for the benefit of Lord Kitchener the ratio of killing to recruitment on the Western Front during the Great War, and how many millions of men it is necessary to recruit in order to make up for the 64 per cent "irrecoverable wastage" on the Western Front. See illustration overleaf.

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