"but by Christmas 1914 the army was in a desperate manpower state."
Yup -my grandfather rejoined the Coldstream's at the age of 33 ( that's about equivalent to 50 today) in Aug '14 - he'd done over 10 years full time back in the 1900's so was fully trained etc etc . On the 29th Oct 1/Coldstream's had been reduced to the Quartermaster (a Lieutenant) and 80 OR at Ypres. He was in the first set of reinforcements - circa 116 men and 2 officers - on the 31st. They lost 50% of the men 2 days later in a German attack. He lasted a month before being wounded - went back, gassed in 1915 and saw most of the war out in a training battalion.