The letter from King Henry is dated 1543 and is a call to arms to landlords to recruit troops from their tenants to go into battle against the Scots.

BBC: King Henry VIII letter found at Dunham Massey

Maj Spratley said his challenge would be to recruit more troops, keep the ones they had got and prepare them for operational tours.

BBC: Jersey TA unit wants more reserve soldiers

The army, groaning from over-stretch, cannot recruit the number of troops it needs.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot

The need to recruit more teachers was also a priority highlighted in the speech - with the governor saying that in the next eight years the state needed to recruit "more teachers than were troops in the allied forces that stormed Normandy on D-Day".

BBC: California offers cash to best pupils

America's priority at the moment is to recruit Iraqi police and militia for humdrum security duties, thus freeing its own troops to concentrate on the rumbling, sometimes lethal, combat operations.

ECONOMIST: Time for another UN resolution? | The