Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914 and it wasn’t long before a plea was made for volunteers to sign up and join the Army.

The 5th Earl of Lonsdale, known as the Yellow Earl, was one of the first people in the country to be given permission by the War Office to raise a battalion of “pals”.

Recruitment across Cumberland and Westmorland began in earnest.

Among those to sign up just two months after war was declared, according to research, were 11 men from the Stead McAlpin textile factory who were recruited “during the dinner hour”.

The printworks have been a key feature of the landscape at Cummersdale, next to the banks of the river Caldew on the western outskirts of Carlisle, for almost 200 years.

War has left its mark on the factory, as its archivist and local historian and archaeologist Alan James has discovered.

Mr James retired as printing manager of the Cummersdale works in 1999 after almost 40 years of service.

The 76-year-old, of Richardson Street, Denton Holme, now maintains the factory’s detailed archive of all its specialist designs and developments over the years.

His most recent research has involved tracing what happened to the men whose names appear on two rolls of honour.

One lists those from Stead McAlpin who served in World War One, the second is a similar list but is of men from the parish of Cummersdale.

Twenty five of the 69 men named on the factory’s roll of honour joined the so-called Lonsdale Pals.

“We’ve got the original roll of honour from the factory in our archive and so with the commemorations for the war going on I started doing a study on it to find out what had happened to everyone,” Mr James said.

“It is only then that I’ve discovered so much about some of the workers that I’m now putting together as part of the displays we have. So many were in the Lonsdales and have links with the Somme.”

One of the most startling was the discovery of an etching by a soldier on the wall of a tunnel below the battlefields at the Somme.

Scrawled in capital letters “W CARR, XI BATT, BORDER REGT, 16/3/16”, it is the name and details of Private William Carr.

Mr James said: “I’ve only just come across a lot of this detail recently but Private Carr was a colour mixer from Steads.

“It turns out that he helped in the tunnels that were used during the Battle of the Somme. He was also among those who were wounded on the first day of the battle and hospitalised back home in Carlisle.

“After he came back home to recuperate he was sent back to war and was shot again but that time it was fatal.

“He was 35 in 1911 so he must’ve been nearly 40 when he went to war.”

He added: “It is also strange to think that there was a group of men who worked here who all decided to sign up during their dinner hour.”

Private Carr was killed on June 24, 1917. He was fatally injured in the Battle of Arras and his grave can be seen at the British cemetery in Grevillers in north-eastern France.

Private Carr was one of three local soldiers whose messages were revealed in early 2014.

La Boisselle Study Group archaeologists discovered the inscriptions as they explored the tunnels, which had been sealed up and untouched for almost a century.

The others were Privates William Chard and Obadiah Henderson.

All three were members of the 11th Border Regiment Lonsdale (Pals) Battalion who had been sent, from Carlisle, overseas in November 1915.

They also took part in the first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916.

Private Chard was a joiner from Longtown while Private Henderson was from Riding Mill, Northumberland.

A labyrinth of tunnels was dug around 80 feet below La Boisselle in northern France.

Known by British troops as the Glory Hole, the tunnels allowed soldiers to plant explosives below enemy lines.

Most of the work was done by miners, many from the north of England. Infantrymen – like those from the Border Regiment – also helped in the preparations.

Another Stead McAlpin man to join the Lonsdale Pals was Tom Dobinson, who went on to be Mayor of Carlisle in 1938-39.

“He was a block printer,” Mr James said. “He was wounded at the Somme but he obviously survived and returned home and later went on to become Mayor of Carlisle.”

The departure of many skilled workers from the textile factory to serve on the front line led to a major change at the Cummersdale printworks: the arrival of women.

Due to the labour shortage, they were taken on as block printers – a manual role – for the first time.

Mr James said: “At the turn of the century Stead McAlpin probably had about 100 block printers, roughly about a quarter of the workforce. The war is when we started seeing female block printers being taken on.

“Many of the men had started as apprentices and worked up to different positions. Many went on to be killed [in the war]. It must’ve been a difficult time for everyone because everyone would’ve been aware of what was happening and women were being taken on for these roles that traditionally belonged to men.

“The workforce was depleted so women were recruited. It was the same during the Second World War. War takes a lot of young men away and you end up with a shortage of labour. There was an opportunity for women to come to the front for the first time.”

Two brothers who worked at Stead McAlpin also have their names on the factory’s roll of honour, Mr James has discovered.

He said: “There was Frank, who was wounded in October 1916 at the Somme – he was only 18 in the 1911 census – and his brother William who was a couple of years younger and was down as being 16 in 1911.

“Another of the names is Private Edward Ruddick. He must’ve progressed from being a tearer to being a colour mixer and was the same profession as William Carr. They must’ve known each other, they both joined the 11th Lonsdales too. Edward Ruddick lived in the beerhouse where the Spinners Arms is now.”

The Cummersdale rifle range also played an important part in training the Lonsdale Pals soldiers as the battalion developed during 1914 and 1915.

The growing battalion, based at Carlisle Racecourse, was led by Lieutenant Colonel Percy Machell, a distinguished soldier from Crackenthorpe Hall near Appleby.

The opening day of the Battle of the Somme – July 1, 1916 – was horrific; 20,000 British soldiers lost their lives.

For the men of the Lonsdale Pals – it was awful. Of the 800 who went into action on at first day, there were 500 casualties, including 23 out of its 26 officers.

Despite the heavy losses inflicted on that first day, soldiers from the Lonsdales remained at the Somme throughout the battle, which continued until November 18.