British units in World War I

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'The battalion was the basic tactical unit of the infantry of the British Army in the Great War of 1914-1918. At full establishment it consisted of 1,007 men of whom 30 were officers. It comprised a Battalion Headquarters and four Companies.'[1]

There are three ways you can help share the experiences of soldiers in these units.

  • Help fill in the battalions for each regiment. A good source is the Long, Long Trail's page for the British infantry of 1914-1918
  • Add links for personal and official diaries, letters, memoirs and histories to regiment or battalion pages
  • Add detail for battalions through 'infoboxes' that describe how different military units were related to each other (this one is a bit more technical, contact Mia for more information.

I'm working on a definitive list of British battalions and regiments from 1914-1918, starting with the infantry, but here's a list of REGIMENTS and CORPS of the BRITISH ARMY in 1918 (via the Internet Archive as the site appears to have been down for some years). The Long, Long Trail site has several pages on The British Divisions of 1914-1918 and Chris Baker, the site's owner, has given permission to use information from the site, so populating this page from those is a high priority task. Please feel free to get stuck in if you spot a gap!

If you've got a diary you want to add now, please just click 'Edit' above, and add the name of the author's regiment. Add 'British infantry' or another appropriate label to help differentiate between units across different armies, then make it into a wiki link by putting two square brackets around the name of the regiment or battalion, like this:

[[Royal Warwickshire Regiment, British infantry]]

This makes it into a red link Royal Warwickshire Regiment, British infantry; you can click on any red-linked page name to create that page.

Uncategorised and miscellaneous regiments

This is a great place to add any units that aren't yet linked, so they can be slotted in later. Guards Machine Gun Regiment, British infantry (aka 6th or Machine Gun Regiment of Foot Guards)

The Household Battalion, British infantry

Royal Militia of Jersey, British infantry

Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, British infantry

The British West Indies Regiment, British infantry

Royal Newfoundland Regiment, British infantry


Regiments and battalions below added from the listings on http://www.1914-1918.net/regiments.htm (with many thanks to Chris Baker)

Coldstream Guards

1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, British infantry

2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, British infantry

3rd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, British infantry

4th Battalion (Pioneers), Coldstream Guards, British infantry Formed as Guards Pioneer Battalion, but soon redesignated.

5th (Reserve) Battalion, Coldstream Guards, British infantry Formed as 4th (Reserve) Battalion; redesignated as 5th (Reserve) Battalion.

1st Provisional Battalion, Coldstream Guards, British infantry

Grenadier Guards

1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, British infantry

2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, British infantry

3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, British infantry

4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards, British infantry

5th (Reserve) Battalion, Grenadier Guards, British infantry

1st Provisional Battalion, Grenadier Guards, British infantry

Irish Guards

1st Battalion, Irish Guards, British infantry

2nd Battalion, Irish Guards, British infantry

3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Irish Guards, British infantry

Scots Guards

1st Battalion, Scots Guards, British infantry

2nd Battalion, Scots Guards, British infantry

3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Scots Guards, British infantry

Welsh Guards

1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, British infantry

2nd (Reserve) Battalion, Welsh Guards, British infantry

Line Regiments

Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regiment, British infantry

Bedfordshire Regiment, British infantry

Black Watch Regiment, British infantry

Border Regiment, British infantry

Buffs (East Kent) Regiment, British infantry

Cameron Highlanders Regiment, British infantry

Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Regiment, British infantry

Cheshire Regiment, British infantry

Connaught Rangers Regiment, British infantry

Devonshire Regiment, British infantry

Dorsetshire Regiment, British infantry

Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry Regiment, British infantry

Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment, British infantry

Durham Light Infantry Regiment, British infantry

East Lancashire Regiment, British infantry

East Surrey Regiment, British infantry

East Yorkshire Regiment, British infantry

Essex Regiment, British infantry

Gloucestershire Regiment, British infantry

Gordon Highlanders Regiment, British infantry

Hampshire Regiment, British infantry

Highland Light Infantry Regiment, British infantry

King's (Liverpool) Regiment, British infantry

King's Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment, British infantry

King's Own Scottish Borderers Regiment, British infantry

King's (Shropshire Light Infantry) Regiment, British infantry

King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry) Regiment, British infantry

King's Royal Rifle Corps Regiment, British infantry

Lancashire Fusiliers Regiment, British infantry

Leicestershire Regiment, British infantry

Lincolnshire Regiment, British infantry

Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, British infantry

Leinster Regiment, British infantry

Manchester Regiment, British infantry

Middlesex Regiment, British infantry

Norfolk Regiment, British infantry

Northamptonshire Regiment, British infantry

North Staffordshire Regiment, British infantry

Northumberland Fusiliers Regiment, British infantry

Ox & Bucks Light Infantry Regiment, British infantry

Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, British infantry

Rifle Brigade Regiment, British infantry

Royal Berkshire Regiment, British infantry

Royal Dublin Fusiliers Regiment, British infantry

Royal Fusiliers Regiment, British infantry

Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Regiment, British infantry

Royal Irish Fusiliers Regiment, British infantry

Royal Irish Regiment Regiment, British infantry

Royal Irish Rifles Regiment, British infantry

Royal Munster Fusiliers Regiment, British infantry

Royal Scots Regiment, British infantry

Royal Scots Fusiliers Regiment, British infantry

Royal Sussex Regiment, British infantry

Royal Warwickshire Regiment, British infantry

Royal Welsh Fusiliers Regiment, British infantry

Royal West Kent Regiment, British infantry

Seaforth Highlanders Regiment, British infantry

Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment, British infantry

Somerset Light Infantry Regiment, British infantry

South Lancashire Regiment, British infantry

South Staffordshire Regiment, British infantry

South Wales Borderers Regiment, British infantry

Suffolk Regiment, British infantry

Welsh Regiment, British infantry

West Yorkshire Regiment, British infantry

Wiltshire Regiment, British infantry

Worcestershire Regiment, British infantry

York and Lancaster Regiment, British infantry

Yorkshire Regiment, British infantry

Territorial-only Regiments

Cambridgeshire, British infantry

Herefordshire, British infantry

Hertfordshire, British infantry

Highland Cyclist Battalion, British infantry

Honourable Artillery Company, British infantry

Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion, British infantry

Kent Cyclist Battalion, British infantry

London Regiment, British infantry

Monmouthshire, British infantry

Northern Cyclist Battalion, British infantry

Machine Gun Battalions

39 Machine Gun Battalion, British infantry

101 Machine Gun Battalion, British infantry

104 Machine Gun Battalion, British infantry

"A" Machine Gun Battalion, British infantry

"B" Machine Gun Battalion, British infantry

"C" Machine Gun Battalion, British infantry

"D" Machine Gun Battalion, British infantry

"E" Machine Gun Battalion, British infantry

"F" Machine Gun Battalion, British infantry