When the call came from Lord Kitchener for volunteers, the headmaster of Wintringham Grammar School in Grimsby decided to raise a 250-strong company of former pupils which would be offered to one of the local Territorial battalions. When other Grimsby men expressed a wish to join, the process was handed over to the town council which set about recruiting sufficient men to form an entire battalion. Men were accepted from neighbouring towns such as Boston, Louth and Scunthorpe. In order to complete the battalion, a group was sent from Wakefield in Yorkshire.