Introduction to Frank's letter of Aug 4th 1914

Introduction to Frank’s letter of the 4th Aug 1914.

We should like to include some background information about Frank’s regiment, in an attempt to make the first paragraph in the letter easier to understand.
It had been planned for some time that the TA unit would attend a training camp at Rhyl and that they would march from Walsall to Rhyl. In the first two days the covered a distance of 34 miles.
It was on the 4th Aug that Britain declared war on Germany (same day as letter was written).
It was at this point the regiment had an urgent recall to headquarters to prepare for mobilization.
Frank had been looking forward to attending this camp at Rhyl for some time and was very disappointed that it didn’t take place.