British units in World War I
See how you can help to find out how you can help collect experiences of those in the First World War in their own words; you can also help by filling in the battalions for each regiment. A good source is the Long, Long Trail's page for the British infantry of 1914-1918 and on The British Divisions of 1914-1918. Chris Baker, the site's owner, has kindly given permission to use information from the site. We now have pages for most infantry battalions, but please feel free to get stuck in if you spot a gap!
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).
If you've got a diary, letters or other personal narratives you want to add now:
- if the page for the author's unit already exists, you can add it straight to the page. See below for which British units do and don't currently have pages.
- if the page for the author's unit doesn't yet exist, you can create it.
- if you don't want to create a page or you don't know which unit the author belonged to, you can add the narrative to Lists of personal diaries, letters, memoirs.
To create a new page:
Type the name of the unit, add ", UK" to the end if it's a British unit, then make it into a wiki link by putting two square brackets around the name of the regiment or battalion, like this:
[[1st Battalion Example Regiment, UK]]
This makes it into a red link 1st Battalion Example Regiment, UK; you can click on any red-linked page name to create that page. You can also create a page by entering its name in the search box. If it doesn't already exist, you can click on the red link in the search results.
See also naming conventions for British units.
Contents
- 1 British Army
- 2 Volunteer Training Corps
- 3 Colonial units
- 4 British West Indies Regiment
- 5 Royal Navy
- 6 Royal Marines
- 7 Royal Air Force
- 8 Women's organisations
- 9 Other organisations
British Army
The British Army consisted of land forces raised in the United Kingdom apart from the Royal Marines and the Royal Naval Division. It had these branches:
- Regular Army
- New Army
- Territorial Force
- Special Reserve
- Volunteer Training Corps (later renamed Volunteer Force)
Most regiments and corps included a mixture of units from each branch.
Every British army unit that has a page on this site should be listed in Category:All British Army units.
See also British Army Hierarchies for more information about the structure of the Army.
Higher formations
These are tactical formations above division level:
- Category:British army corps (tactical) has pages for every corps except and Tank Corps headquarters. These were the next level above divisions.
- Category:British armies has pages for all the armies on the Western Front and at Salonika and Gallipoli. These were the next level above corps.
- Category:British Empire GHQs contains expeditionary forces and other formations that had the general headquarters in a theatre of war. Some pages have been added but several theatres are still missing.
Infantry
Infantry regiments
We now have a page for every infantry regiment of the British Army. The table below shows links to the pages and the regiments' full names. It can be sorted by names or order of precedence.
(WARNING: some of these pages might crash before edits have saved.)
Page Name | Full Name | Precedence |
---|---|---|
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, UK | Princess Louise's (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) | 091 |
Bedfordshire Regiment, UK | Bedfordshire Regiment | 016 |
Black Watch, UK | Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) | 042 |
Border Regiment, UK | Border Regiment | 034 |
Cambridgeshire Regiment, UK | Cambridgeshire Regiment | 199 04 |
Cameron Highlanders, UK | Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders | 079 |
Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), UK | Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) | 026 |
Cheshire Regiment, UK | Cheshire Regiment | 022 |
Coldstream Guards, UK | Coldstream Guards | 000 02 |
Connaught Rangers, UK | Connaught Rangers | 088 |
Devonshire Regiment, UK | Devonshire Regiment | 011 |
Dorsetshire Regiment, UK | Dorsetshire Regiment | 039 |
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, UK | Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry | 032 |
Durham Light Infantry, UK | Durham Light Infantry | 068 |
East Kent Regiment, UK | Buffs (East Kent Regiment) | 003 |
East Lancashire Regiment, UK | East Lancashire Regiment | 030 |
East Surrey Regiment, UK | East Surrey Regiment | 031 |
East Yorkshire Regiment, UK | East Yorkshire Regiment | 015 |
Essex Regiment, UK | Essex Regiment | 044 |
Gloucestershire Regiment, UK | Gloucestershire Regiment | 028 |
Gordon Highlanders, UK | Gordon Highlanders | 075 |
Grenadier Guards, UK | Grenadier Guards | 000 01 |
Hampshire Regiment, UK | Hampshire Regiment | 037 |
Herefordshire Regiment, UK | Herefordshire Regiment | 199 07 |
Hertfordshire Regiment, UK | Hertfordshire Regiment | 199 06 |
Highland Cyclist Battalion, UK | Highland Cyclist Battalion | 199 09 |
Highland Light Infantry, UK | Highland Light Infantry | 071 |
Honourable Artillery Company (Infantry), UK | Honourable Artillery Company (Infantry) | 199 02 |
Household Battalion, UK | Household Battalion | 000 00 |
Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion, UK | Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion | 199 11 |
Irish Guards, UK | Irish Guards | 000 04 |
Kent Cyclist Battalion, UK | Kent Cyclist Battalion | 199 10 |
King's Liverpool Regiment, UK | King's (Liverpool Regiment) | 008 |
King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, UK | King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) | 004 |
King's Own Scottish Borderers, UK | King's Own Scottish Borderers | 025 |
King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, UK | King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry) | 051 |
King's Royal Rifle Corps, UK | King's Royal Rifle Corps | 060 |
King's Shropshire Light Infantry, UK | King's (Shropshire Light Infantry) | 053 |
Lancashire Fusiliers, UK | Lancashire Fusiliers | 020 |
Leicestershire Regiment, UK | Leicestershire Regiment | 017 |
Leinster Regiment, UK | Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) | 100 |
Lincolnshire Regiment, UK | Lincolnshire Regiment | 010 |
London Regiment, UK | London Regiment | 199 05 |
Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, UK | Loyal North Lancashire Regiment | 047 |
Manchester Regiment, UK | Manchester Regiment | 063 |
Middlesex Regiment, UK | Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment) | 057 |
Monmouthshire Regiment, UK | Monmouthshire Regiment | 199 03 |
Norfolk Regiment, UK | Norfolk Regiment | 009 |
North Staffordshire Regiment, UK | Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment) | 064 |
Northamptonshire Regiment, UK | Northamptonshire Regiment | 048 |
Northern Cyclist Battalion, UK | Northern Cyclist Battalion | 199 08 |
Northumberland Fusiliers, UK | Northumberland Fusiliers | 005 |
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, UK | Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry | 043 |
Rifle Brigade, UK | Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) | 199 01 |
Royal Berkshire Regiment, UK | Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment) | 049 |
Royal Dublin Fusiliers, UK | Royal Dublin Fusiliers | 102 |
Royal Fusiliers, UK | Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) | 007 |
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, UK | Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers | 027 |
Royal Irish Fusiliers, UK | Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) | 087 |
Royal Irish Regiment, UK | Royal Irish Regiment | 018 |
Royal Irish Rifles, UK | Royal Irish Rifles | 083 |
Royal Munster Fusiliers, UK | Royal Munster Fusiliers | 101 |
Royal Scots Fusiliers, UK | Royal Scots Fusiliers | 021 |
Royal Scots, UK | Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) | 001 |
Royal Sussex Regiment, UK | Royal Sussex Regiment | 035 |
Royal Warwickshire Regiment, UK | Royal Warwickshire Regiment | 006 |
Royal Welsh Fusiliers, UK | Royal Welsh Fusiliers | 023 |
Royal West Kent Regiment, UK | Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) | 050 |
Royal West Surrey Regiment, UK | Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) | 002 |
Scots Guards, UK | Scots Guards | 000 03 |
Seaforth Highlanders, UK | Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, The Duke of Albany's) | 072 |
Sherwood Foresters, UK | Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) | 045 |
Somerset Light Infantry, UK | Prince Albert's (Somerset Light Infantry) | 013 |
South Lancashire Regiment, UK | Prince of Wales's Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment) | 040 |
South Staffordshire Regiment, UK | South Staffordshire Regiment | 038 |
South Wales Borderers, UK | South Wales Borderers | 024 |
Suffolk Regiment, UK | Suffolk Regiment | 012 |
Welsh Guards, UK | Welsh Guards | 000 05 |
Welsh Regiment, UK | Welsh Regiment | 041 |
West Riding Regiment, UK | Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) | 033 |
West Yorkshire Regiment, UK | Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment) | 014 |
Wiltshire Regiment, UK | Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment) | 062 |
Worcestershire Regiment, UK | Worcestershire Regiment | 029 |
York and Lancaster Regiment, UK | York and Lancaster Regiment | 065 |
Yorkshire Regiment, UK | Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment) | 019 |
Also administratively part of the infantry:
Regiment pages show each regiment's parent record office. Record offices also have their own pages, listed in Category:British Army record offices.
Infantry battalions
'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]
We now have pages for nearly every British infantry battalion known to have existed. There might be some provisional battalions and Royal Defence Corps battalions missing: these will need to be added manually if any can be identified.
We don't yet have any information about Royal Defence Corps protection companies.
See also #Volunteer Training Corps below.
There are too many battalions to list on this page (already more than 1,700), but there are several ways you can find them:
The regiment pages shown in the table above should list all battalions known to have been part of a regiment.
The following categories list British infantry battalions:
- Category:British infantry battalions: all British infantry battalions that have pages, listed alphabetically by regiment, then in order of battalion numbers. Includes Army, Royal Navy and Royal Marines.
- Also has sub-categories listing certain battalions by uniform distinctions and special roles, but these are not yet complete.
- Category:British Army infantry battalions by regimental precedence: British Army infantry battalions only, listed in order of regimental precedence as shown in the above table, then in order of battalion numbers.
You can also use the search box to find battalions that already have pages. You don't always have to enter the name exactly as it appears in the page title: alternative names will often show up as redirects or part of the page text.
Infantry brigades
We now have a page for nearly every British infantry brigade that has war diaries. These pages are listed in Category:British infantry brigades.
Please feel free to add any missing brigades.
Infantry divisions
We now have pages for every British infantry division. These pages are listed in Category:British divisions.
Cavalry
We now have pages for more or less every British cavalry and yeomanry unit. You can find them in Category:British mounted units and its sub-categories.
Cavalry administrative units
These are the administrative corps and record offices of the British cavalry, including regular, yeomanry and Special Reserve regiments:
Cavalry divisions and corps
- Cavalry Corps, UK
- 1st Cavalry Division, UK
- 2nd Cavalry Division, UK
- 3rd Cavalry Division, UK
- the numbers 4th and 5th were used by Indian divisions
- 1st Mounted Division, UK
- 2nd Mounted Division, UK
- 3rd Mounted Division, UK
- 4th Mounted Division, UK
- Yeomanry Mounted Division, UK
Cavalry brigades
See Category:British cavalry and mounted brigades for regular cavalry and yeomanry mounted brigades.
Cavalry and yeomanry regiments
Cavalry and yeomanry (ie Territorial cavalry) regiments and independent squadrons are listed in these categories:
- Category:British cavalry units lists all cavalry regiments and squadrons that have pages alphabetically by regiment name, including regular cavalry, yeomanry, Special Reserve and corps cavalry regiments.
- Category:British cavalry by regimental precedence lists regular cavalry and yeomanry regiments by order of precedence.
- Category:British yeomanry by county lists yeomanry regiments alphabetically by county, which is not always the same as regiment name.
Sources
- Template:RefTLLT lists British regular and special reserve cavalry regiments, with further reading.
- Template:RefTLLT lists British yeomanry regiments (these were the Territorial branch of the cavalry).
- Template:RefTLLT lists which administrative corps each regiment belonged to.
Imperial Camel Corps
Machine Gun Units
We now have pages for all British machine gun units that have war diaries. Any that don't have war diaries will need to be added manually.
Most units belonged to Machine Gun Corps, UK:
- Machine Gun Corps (Infantry): not represented yet but might need its own page later. Infantry machine gun units are currently direct administrative children of Machine Gun Corps, UK
- independent machine gun companies attached to infantry brigades and divisions (1916-18): see Category:British machine gun companies
- machine gun battalions attached to divisions (1918): see Category:British machine gun battalions
- Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry), UK
- machine gun squadrons attached to cavalry brigades: see Category:British machine gun squadrons
- Machine Gun Corps (Motors), UK, formerly part of Royal Field Artillery, UK and known as the Motor Machine Gun Service.
- Machine Gun Training Centre, UK
The Guards had their own machine gun units which were administratively separate from the Machine Gun Corps:
- machine gun companies:
- Guards Machine Gun Regiment, UK (formerly Machine Gun Guards):
Artillery
Royal Artillery, UK was an arm of the British Army, divided into two corps:
- Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery, UK; divided into two distinct identities:
- Royal Garrison Artillery, UK
The basic unit of the Royal Field Artillery was the brigade, which was roughly equivalent to an infantry battalion.
We now have pages for every Royal Horse Artillery unit that has war diaries. These are listed in Category:British horse artillery units.
Cyclists
See Category:British cyclist battalions and Category:British cyclist companies for cyclist units.
Most of these were administratively under Army Cyclist Corps, UK but there are some exceptions. The following independent units were also classed as infantry regiments:
- Highland Cyclist Battalion, UK
- Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion, UK
- Kent Cyclist Battalion, UK
- Northern Cyclist Battalion, UK
The Territorial battalions of some county infantry regiments were equipped as cyclists. All of these battalions have pages but they are not all categorised as cyclist battalions yet.
Some yeomanry cavalry regiments were converted into cyclists. We haven't yet catalogued these changes but all yeomanry regiments have pages.
Other regiments, corps and departments
This is a list of other regiments, corps and departments of the British Army.
- Army Chaplains Department, UK
- Army Ordnance Corps, UK
- Army Pay Corps, UK
- Army Pay Department, UK
- Army Service Corps, UK
- Army Veterinary Corps, UK
- Labour Corps, UK
- Military Police, UK divided into:
- Non-Combatant Corps, UK
- Royal Army Medical Corps, UK
- Royal Engineers, UK
- Tank Corps, UK
Officer Cadet Battalions
These battalions were set up to train new officers. They all have pages, listed in Category:British officer cadet battalions.
Volunteer Training Corps
Renamed Volunteer Force later in the war, but not to be confused with the old Volunteer Force that became the Territorial Force in 1908. Similar to Home Guard in WW2. Its legal status changed during the war and was sometimes ambiguous. Volunteer battalions raised early in the war were probably unofficial and may have been technically illegal. In 1915 or 1916, they were made legal under the 1863 Volunteer Act and once accepted by the Crown had the same status as the old Volunteer Force between 1863 and 1881. Later in the war, probably in 1918, Volunteer battalions were integrated into British Army regiments. We're not yet sure how far they were administratively integrated, but at the very least they took the name and badge of the parent regiment. For the purposes of data on this site, Volunteer units will be treated as a branch of the British Army called "Volunteer Training Corps".
We don't have a definitive list of units, but have started building a list of redlinks below. Please add any regiments or battalions that you know of. Page names will be based on pre-1918 Volunteer regiment names to disambiguate the units from pre-1908 Volunteer battalions.
- Carnarvonshire Volunteer Regiment, UK
- Cheshire Volunteer Regiment, UK
- Dorsetshire Volunteer Regiment, UK
- Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 1st Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 2nd Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 3rd Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 4th Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 5th Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 6th Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 7th Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 8th Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 9th Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 10th Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 11th Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- 12th Battalion Durham Volunteer Regiment, UK
- Forfarshire Volunteer Regiment, UK
- Hampshire Volunteer Regiment, UK
- Surrey Volunteer Regiment, UK
For more information see:
- Great War Forum thread on Volunteer Battalions
- London Gazette 2910/815 list commissions in a few Volunteer regiments in 1917
- Wikipedia: Volunteer Training Corps (World War I)
Colonial units
These were either colonial forces raised by the governments of individual colonies of the British Empire, or imperial forces raised directly by the British Crown outside the United Kingdom.
Colonial infantry
Please add any missing battalions or regiments by creating red links.
- Arab Rifles
- Assyrian Infantry
- Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps
- Ceylon Light Infantry
- Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps
- Composite Battalion (Gold Coast And Sierra Leone Field Force)
- Gambia Regiment
- Gold Coast Regiment
- King's African Rifles
- 1st Battalion King's African Rifles
- 1/1st Battalion King's African Rifles
- 3/1st Battalion King's African Rifles
- 1/2nd Battalion King's African Rifles
- 2/2nd Battalion King's African Rifles
- 3/2nd Battalion King's African Rifles
- 3rd Battalion King's African Rifles
- 1/3rd Battalion King's African Rifles
- 2/3rd Battalion King's African Rifles
- 3/3rd Battalion King's African Rifles
- 1/4th Battalion King's African Rifles
- 2/4th Battalion King's African Rifles
- 3/4th Battalion King's African Rifles
- 4/4th Battalion King's African Rifles
- 5/4th Battalion King's African Rifles
- 2/6th Battalion King's African Rifles
- 1/7th Battalion King's African Rifles
- Nigeria Regiment
- Northern Rhodesia Rifles
- Rhodesia Native Regiment
- Rhodesian Regiment
- Royal Jersey Militia
- Royal Guernsey Light Infantry
- Royal Malta Regiment
- Royal Newfoundland Regiment
- Sierra Leone Battalion
- South Persia Rifles
- West African Regiment, Sierra Leone
- West India Regiment
Colonial mounted units
- East African Mounted Rifles
- Mounted Infantry Company, Gold Coast Regiment
- Mounted Infantry Company, 3rd King's African Rifles war diary in WO 95/5336
Colonial labour corps
- Aden Labour Corps
- Cape Coloured Labour Corps, South African
- Chinese Labour Corps
- East African Military Labour Corps
- Egyptian Labour Corps
- Fijian Labour Corps
- Jewish Labour Corps
- Maltese Labour Corps
- Seychelles Labour Corps
- South African Native Labour Corps
Other colonial units
British West Indies Regiment
Raised in the United Kingdom but many of the recruits came from British colonies in the West Indies. We need more information about whether this regiment was legally classed as a British or imperial force.
- British West Indies Regiment
- 1st Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 2nd Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 3rd Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 4th Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 5th Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 6th Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 7th Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 8th Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 9th Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 10th Battalion British West Indies Regiment
- 11th Battalion British West Indies Regiment
Branches:
- Regular Navy
- Royal Naval Reserve
- Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Also included the Royal Naval Air Service, which operated aircraft and armoured cars.
These infantry units and formations were raised by the Royal Navy but fought on land under Army command.
- 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, UK
- 1st Royal Naval Brigade, UK
- 188th Infantry Brigade, UK
- 189th Infantry Brigade, UK
- Anson Battalion, UK
- Benbow Battalion, UK
- Collingwood Battalion, UK
- Drake Battalion, UK
- Hawke Battalion, UK
- Hood Battalion, UK
- Howe Battalion, UK
- Nelson Battalion, UK
Royal Marines
RMLI units that were not part of the Royal Naval Division will need to be added manually if any can be identified.
Royal Air Force
Formed in April 1918 from the Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army) and Royal Naval Air Service (part of the Royal Navy).
Women's organisations
More information is needed about the legal and administrative status of these organisations in relation to the British Army.
- Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS)
- Territorial Force Nursing Service
- Women's Hospital Corps
- Scottish Women's Hospitals
- The Women's Volunteer Reserve
- The Women's Legion
- Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (originally the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps)
- Almeric Paget Military Massage Corps
- First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY, now the Princess Royal’s Volunteer Corps)
- The Voluntary Aid Detachments
- Women's Auxiliary Force
- Women's Auxiliary Agricultural Corps
- Women's Forage Corps
- Women's Forestry Corps
- Women's Land Army
Other organisations
- British Red Cross
- Friends Ambulance Unit: set up by Quakers and operated with the British Red Cross and Order of St John. More information.