The 46th and 59th (North Midland) Territorial Force Divisions.

On the outbreak of war in August 1914, the 46^th (North Midland) Division Territorial Force, comprised of three Infantry Brigades, the 137^th, 138^th and 139^th.

Their regimental battalion formation was as follows:

137^th (Staffordshire) Brigade – 1/5^th South Staffs, 1/6^th South Staffs, 1/5^th North Staffs and 1/6^th North Staffs.

138^th (Lincs and Leics) Brigade – 1/4^th Lincs, 1/5^th Lincs, 1/4^th Leics and 1/5^th Leics.

139^th (Sherwood Foresters) Brigade – 1/5^th, 1/6^th, 1/7^th (Robin Hood Rifles) and 1/8^th Notts and Derby (Sherwood Foresters)

The 46^th Division was the first complete Territorial Division to arrive on the Western Front in February 1915.

All three infantry brigades plus the divisional pioneer battalion, 1/1^st Monmouths, were joined by all of the divisional support units of Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery, Trench Mortar Batteries, Field Ambulances, Divisional Signallers, Ammunition Column, Workshops, Veterinary Unit, Headquarters Staff etc. and eventually in 1916, by the Divisional Machine Gun Companies.

As the British Army expanded, predominantly through the recruitment of Kitchener New Army volunteers, so new divisions were added to the army’s strength. However, it wasn’t just the formation of New Army divisions that increased the manpower of the army, many men, often because of familial and geographical ties, opted to enlist in their local Territorial Force Associations.

The north midland counties of Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were no exception and by January 1915, 10,000 men were under training in the county Territorial Force Associations.

From these men, a Second Line Territorial Force Division, the 59^th (2^nd North Midland) Division was formed and commenced training in and around the Luton area. Despite initially having a complete shortage of equipment, the 59^th Division was eventually deemed ready for war in the late autumn of 1915, they were the first of the Second Line Divisions to be ready for service and were made the Mobile Division for the Defence of the East Coast in the event of a German invasion.

The formation of the 59^th Division was a mirror image of their senior sister division, the 46^th. The Brigades were formed along identical lines with so called second line battalions.

176^th (Staffordshire) Brigade – 2/5^th South Staffs, 2/6^th South Staffs, 2/5^th North Staffs and 2/6^th North Staffs.

177^th (Lincs and Leics) Brigade – 2/4^th Lincs, 2/5^th Lincs, 2/4^th Leics and 2/5^th Leics.

178^th (Sherwood Foresters) Brigade – 2/5^th, 2/6^th, 2/7^th (Robin Hood Rifles) and 2/8^th Notts and Derby (Sherwood Foresters).

At Easter 1916, the 178^th Brigade were the first additional troops sent to Dublin to help quell the nationalist uprising. Eventually, the whole division garrisoned in Ireland before returning to England in readiness for service on the Western Front commencing in February/March of 1917, where they played a full part in the war.

The 46^th Division served in the Ypres Salient in the spring and summer of 1915, most noticeably on the Bluff, before their major assault on the Hohenzollern Redoubt at the end of the Battle of Loos in October 1915. They were then destined for the Middle East until their orders were cancelled and they returned to France. The 1^st of July 1916, saw the division take part in the ill fated ‘diversionary’ assault at Gommecourt on the Somme. This bloody failure saw the division accused of lacking offensive spirit and face a Court of Enquiry, which saw the divisional commander, Major-General E J Montagu–Stuart–Wortley dismissed from his command.

With the 46^th Division’s reputation unjustly now at its nadir, 1917 saw the division engaged in holding the line in various sectors and often alongside the Canadians in the Lens area. As a result, they missed out on the blood baths at Arras and Passchendaele as higher authorities deemed them unfairly as not up to a major assault.

Following the German Spring Offensives in early 1918, the 46^th Division’s reputation was raised to a new zenith, when on 29^th September 1918, they were the first British division to break through the much vaunted Hindenburg Line at Riqueval, after men of the Staffordshire brigade captured the Riqueval Bridge intact in a daring attack that was described as the ‘greatest feat of the war’!

For the 59^th Division, after service in Ireland, the division with no time to acclimatise to life on the Western Front, was involved in substantial actions following up the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. They too fought in the Lens area and then took part on the left flank at Kansas Cross as the Australians captured Polygon Wood in the 3^rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).

The division was next in action in early December 1917 and played a full role in stopping the German counterattacks at the end of the Battle of Cambrai.

On 21^st March 1918, the 59^th Division was overrun and the 176^th and 178^th brigades were virtually wiped out in the opening days of the German Spring Offensive in and around Noreuil – Ecoust. With new drafts of men to reform the battalions, the 59^th Division re-entered the war in August 1918 and played their part in the final Advance to Victory from August to November 1918. Men of the 178^th Brigade were the first men to cross the river Scheldt and at the war’s conclusion, the division was north east of Tournai in Belgium.

Today, I find that many devotees of the Great War are somehow drawn more to the men of the Territorial Force rather than the regular soldiers and the Kitchener New Army troops. Is it because they were originally deemed as Saturday Night Soldiers, part timers? Certainly, the memory of the Territorial soldiers of the Sherwood Foresters feature highly in my ongoing research and in many of the talks that I give.

Whatever your reason for following the many strands of Great War interest and the war’s historiography, the Territorial Force lads of the North Midland’s two divisions will always occupy a large part of my interest and ongoing work.