The 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army. The division fought in the First World War in the trenches of the Western Front, in the fields of France and Flanders. During the Second World War, the division fought in the Norwegian Campaign and in North-western Europe. After the Second World War, it was disbanded in 1946, then reformed in 1947. It remained with Northern Command until finally disbanded in 1967.
Formation The Territorial Force (TF) was formed on 1 April 1908 following the enactment of the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 (7 Edw.7, c.9) which combined and re-organised the old Volunteer Force, the Honourable Artillery Company and the Yeomanry. Originally designated the West Riding Division, the division was composed of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd West Riding Brigades, each with four infantry battalions, along with supporting units. The division was one of fourteen divisions that made up part of the peacetime TF. In peacetime, the divisional headquarters was, from 1912, at Tower Street in York.
First World War Elements of the division had, by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, just departed for their annual summer camp and were mobilised for war service on 5 August, the day after Britain entered the war. According to the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, men of the TF were not obligated to serve overseas without their permission and so, on 31 August, the division was ordered to form a second-line reserve unit, the 2nd West Riding Division, formed mainly from those men who, for various reasons, choose not to volunteer for overseas service. The division, under the command of Major General Thomas Baldock, who had been in command since 1911, moved to the South Yorkshire/Lincolnshire area for concentration and spent the next few months engaged in training.
By late March 1915, training had progressed to the point where the division was warned for a potential move overseas. By mid-April, the division was in France, and was to remain on the Western Front as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) for the rest of the war. Soon after arrival the division, although unfamiliar with trench warfare, was assigned to Lieutenant General Sir Henry Rawlinson's IV Corps of the BEF, and played a relatively minor role in the Battle of Aubers Ridge, where Major General Baldock, the divisional commander, was wounded in action. The division was redesignated the 49th (West Riding) Division on 15 May 1915 and given the White Rose of York as its insignia. The division's three brigades were also redesignated, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd West Riding Brigades becoming the 146th (1st West Riding), 147th (2nd West Riding) and 148th (3rd West Riding) Brigades, respectively. After Aubers Ridge, the division, now commanded by Major General Edward Perceval, was not engaged in any major battles until 19 December 1915, when the division, now part of Lieutenant General John Keir's VI Corps, participated in the first Phosgene attack but suffered comparatively few losses.
The first few months of 1916 were not spent in any major actions and the division held a relatively quiet sector of the Western Front. As part of Lieutenant General Thomas Morland's X Corps, the division fought in the Battle of the Somme, fighting in the Battle of Albert, followed by the Battle of Bazentin Ridge. Transferring to Lieutenant General Charles Fergusson's II Corps, the division then took part in the Battle of Pozières. Rested throughout August, the division then fought in the Battle of Flers–Courcelette and the Battle of Thiepval Ridge.
Again moved to a quieter sector of the front, the division spent, as it had in 1916, the first few months of 1917 uneventfully in the Ypres Salient, not being employed in any major offensives until the division was to take part in Operation Hush. However, the division was not employed in the operation and instead fought in the final stages of the Passchendaele offensive, in the Battle of Poelcappelle.
In early 1918, the division, now commanded by Major General Neville Cameron, was again holding a quiet sector of the Western Front. Throughout January and February, due to a severe shortage of manpower in the BEF, many of the division's infantry battalions were either disbanded, merged with other understrength units or posted elsewhere. The manpower shortage compelled the reduction of each of the division's three infantry brigades from four to three battalions. In the latter half of 1918, the division, mostly unaffected by the German Army's Spring Offensives, fought in all the major battles of the Lys offensive, and in the Hundred Days Offensive, which saw the war turn in favour of the Allied powers, come to an end on 11 November 1918.
Order of battle The 49th Division was constituted as follows during the war:
146th (1st West Riding) Brigade 1/5th Battalion, Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment) 1/6th Battalion, Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment) 1/7th (Leeds Rifles) Battalion, Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment) 1/8th (Leeds Rifles) Battalion, Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment) (until January 1918) 146th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps (from 27 January 1916, moved to 49th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps 1 March 1918) 146th Trench Mortar Battery (from 12 June 1916)
147th (2nd West Riding) Brigade 1/4th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) 1/5th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) (until January 1918) 1/6th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) 1/7th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) 147th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps (from 26 January 1916, moved to 49th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps 1 March 1918) 147th Trench Mortar Battery (from 12 June 1916)
148th (3rd West Riding) Brigade 1/4th Battalion, King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry) 1/5th Battalion, King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry) (until February 1918) 1/4th (Hallamshire) Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment 1/5th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment 148th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps (from 6 February 1916, moved to 49th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps 1 March 1918) 148th Trench Mortar Battery (from 12 June 1916)
Divisional Troops 1/3rd Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment (joined as pioneer battalion April 1915, left August 1916) 19th (Service) Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers (3rd Salford Pals) (joined as a pioneer battalion August 1916) 199th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps (joined 19 December 1916, left 29 October 1917) 254th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps (joined 26 November 1917, moved to 49th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps 1 March 1918) 49th Battalion Machine Gun Corps (formed 1 March 1918)
Divisional Mounted Troops C Squadron, 1/1st Yorkshire Hussars (left 8 May 1916) F Squadron, North Irish Horse (briefly between April and June 1916) West Riding Divisional Cyclist Company, Army Cyclist Corps (left 26 May 1916)
49th (West Riding) Divisional Artillery CCXLV (I West Riding) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery CCXLVI (II West Riding) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery CCXLVII (III West Riding) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (broken up 28 February 1917) CCXLVIII (IV West Riding) (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (broken up 18 October 1916) West Riding Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (a battery of four 4.7-inch guns, which left the division to join VIII Brigade, II Group HA on 24 April 1915; returned to division 13 May 1915, and finally left on 28 June 1915, rejoining VIII Brigade) 49th Divisional Ammunition Column, Royal Field Artillery W.49, V.49 Heavy Trench Mortar Batteries, Royal Field Artillery (formed by 17 May 1916; V absorbed W by 7 June 1917; left for X Corps on 7 February 1918) X.49, Y.49 and Z.49 Medium Mortar Batteries, Royal Field Artillery (formed by 4 April 1916 from former 34, 37 and 48 TMB's; by 9 February 1918, Z broken up and batteries reorganised to have six 6-inch weapons each)
Royal Engineers 1st West Riding Field Company, Royal Engineers (left 6 February 1915, later retitled 455th) 456th (2nd West Riding) Field Company, Royal Engineers 458th (2/1st West Riding) Field Company, Royal Engineers (joined June 1915) 57th Field Company, Royal Engineers (joined July 1915) 49th Divisional Signals Company, Royal Engineers
Royal Army Medical Corps 1st West Riding Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps 2nd West Riding Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps 3rd West Riding Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps 49th Sanitary Section, Royal Army Medical Corps (left 2 April 1917)
Other Divisional Troops 49th Divisional Train, Army Service Corps (retitled from the West Riding Divisional Transport and Supply Column, and the units also retitled as 463, 464, 465 and 466 Companies, Army Service Corps) 1st West Riding Mobile Veterinary Section, Army Veterinary Corps 49th Divisional Ambulance Workshop (absorbed into Divisional Supply Column 4 April 1916) 243rd Divisional Employment Company (joined 16 June 1917)
Between the wars The division was disbanded after the war but was reformed, now as the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division, when the old TF was itself reconstituted as the Territorial Army (TA) in 1920, with the same composition as pre-1914. The division was stationed in Northern Command. During the interwar period, particularly in the late 1930s, many of the division's units were converted into other roles, mostly into artillery, searchlight or armoured regiments so that, by the time war broke out in September 1939, the division's composition, which included units from the disbanded 46th (North Midland) Division, was much changed from what it was in 1914. Of note, Bernard Montgomery, who was later to have association with the 49th Division, served with this division in 1923, when he was a General Staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2). Upon the doubling of the size of the TA in mid-1939 the division, as it had in the First World War, raised a second-line duplicate formation, the 46th Infantry Division, when another European conflict, most likely with Nazi Germany, was becoming increasingly inevitable.
Second World War Mobilisation and early months Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, the division, under Major General Pierse Mackesy,Joslen, p. 79 was mobilised for full-time war service and, with conscription having been introduced in the United Kingdom some months earlier, and with many units understrength after having to post officers and men to the second-line units, the division absorbed many conscripts. Although war was declared, the division, serving under Northern Command,Joslen, p. 80 still with the 146th, 147th and 148th Infantry Brigades under command, was initially engaged in static defensive duties, guarding vital points and little time was allotted for training. However, training began soon afterwards with the overall intention being that the division, once fully trained, would join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France. In the event, this was not to happen as, in February 1940, the division received orders to form part of "Avonforce" and be sent to Finland, via Norway, and aid the Finnish Army during its Winter War with the Soviet Union. On 12 March, however, the Finnish, severely outnumbered by the Russians, surrendered, thus cancelling the order.Delaforce, p. 1