HUNDREDS of Furness men who went off to the First World War did so in the uniform of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment.

The story of the regiment and the city at war is told in a new book which has been launched by Lancaster Mayor and Mayoress, Roger and Joyce Mace, at the City Museum, home of the King’s Own regimental collection.

In September 1914 Lord Richard Cavendish, of Holker Hall, joined the likes of industrialist Herbert Storey at a military recruiting meeting in Lancaster.

Storey said a lot about patriotism and duty but pointed out examples such as a Manchester factory where just 200 of the 5,000 workers had signed up for the army.

The book notes: "Lord Cavendish addressed the same meeting, using similar language, describing it as the solemn and bounden duty of every man who could bear arms to come forward.

"He also appealed to local patriotism, describing the enthusiastic response of the men of Morecambe and Fleetwood to the call to join up."

Lt-Col Lord Cavendish was the commanding officer of the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the King's Own and is pictured in the new book around 1907 with his motorcycle.

The early days of the war saw all sorts of unusual and temporary arrangements to get men where they were needed for training or service overseas.

The 5th Battalion of the King's Own acquired a motor lorry from Barrow Corporation in August 1914.

It went with the battalion to Didcot and was in regular use by Regimental Quartmaster Woodcock and his men to obtain supplies for the troops.

The book deals with all the fundraising efforts which were set up to send warm clothes, cigarettes and other "comforts" to troops serving overseas.

From November 1914 a series of weekly sales of farm produce was held for the Mayor of Lancaster's Relief Fund.

The first, outside the town hall, featured two live turkeys, a prize-winning leek and a 40lb cheese.

Lancaster Remembering 1914-18 is the work of Ian Gregory, professor of digital humanities in the history department of Lancaster University; Corinna Peniston-Bird, senior lecturer in cultural and gender history at the university; Michael Hughes, professor in modern history at the university and Peter Donnelly, curator of the King's Own Royal Regiment in the Lancaster City Museum.

Mr Donnelly told the book launch event: "It is amazing what you find out as you go along."

The regiment's early casualties had included young soldiers killed by 90mph London express trains while guarding the Great Western Railway lines at Didcot.

He said: "Not everyone dies through a bullet."

Much of the information for the book came from very detailed accounts carried in wartime newspaper articles.

He said: "The local newspapers during the war are a fascinating source of information."

Ian Gregory had been involved in mapping the streets where lives had been lost in the war and the research through up stories suh as that of Matthew Farrell who was killed in action by shell fire wih the 5 th Battlion of the King's Own during the Second Battle of Ypres on April 13 in 1915.

Matthew, of Little John Street, near the modern Argos store, was aged just 16.

He said: "He was one of the youngest casualties from Lamcaster.

Corinna Peniston-Bird looked at several of the myths of the First World War and found that there had been no feeling that the war would have been "over by Christmas" as many Lancashiire families remembered the long struggle of the Boer War less than 20 years earlier.

It was also clear that men were just as likely as women to be working on the production of shell for the war effort, despite the popular impression of an army of women "munitionettes".

The Lancaster mother of one 20-year-old Seaforth Highlander casualty kept all his clothes long after the war in the hope that he would return one day.

Westfield War Memorial Village, opened in 1919, provided an early form of sheltered accommodation for King's Own soldiers - and local men of other regiments - returning with serious wounds from the war.

She said: "It is one of the few settlements which was erected which continues to have the original function it was set up for."

Lancaster Remembering 1914-18 is part of the Great War Britain series from the History Press and costs £12.99.