Seaforth Barracks was the main recruiting centre for men resident in the north-end suburbs of Liverpool — Bootle, Litherland, Seaforth and Waterloo - with many thousands of locally born and non-local men enlisting at the barracks in Claremont Road.
   The official Army casualty figures for 'officers' and 'other ranks' published by HMSO in 1921 by authority of the War Office show there to have been 1330 deaths in the conflict of men that enlisted at Seaforth Barracks.
   For the above districts of men resident in the area that enlisted at the barracks and lost their lives - it gives the following figures: Bootle 618, Litherland 120, Seaforth 94 and Waterloo 81. The figures for men enlisted at Bootle Town Hall 103 and enlisted in Litherland 3.
   The above casualty figures do not include officers or men born in the above districts that were resident in other areas of the UK or served in the Commonwealth forces, Royal Navy, Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force and Mercantile Marine.

 THE RECRUITING OFFICE

The recruiting office was manned by both military and civilian personnel. The photographs below were taken in 1917, and come from the family collection of Kathleen Travis of Sandringham Road, Waterloo. Kathleen was the daughter of Joseph and Sarah Travis. Joseph Travis was a coal merchant - his coal-depot being at Blundellsands Railway Station.

 
Seaforth Barracks opened in 1882 and closed 1958, originally being constructed as a cavalry barracks with accomodation for officers; married men, barrack blocks for 128 other ranks and stabling for 80 horses.

The barracks also became a Royal Artillery Depot with the Royal Garrison Artillery and Royal Field Artillery of the regular army being based there, and also the headquarters of the Lancashire Artillery Militia; the militia being equivalent to the present day artillery wing of the Territorial Army.

Artillery men from the barracks manned Seaforth Battery sited at the present day Gladstone Dock. It formed part of the Mersey defences – No.1 Sub-Depot; Seaforth Barracks, Southern Division. The barracks later became a depot for the King’s Liverpool Regiment sometime after 1911, becoming the depot for the 3rd and 4th Reserve Battalions of the King's Liverpool Regiment.