Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ THE TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS THE TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS 1914-1918 BY J. STIRLING LATE MAJOR 8TH BATT. ROYAL SCOTS [Illustration: Decoration] 1922 LONDON & TORONTO J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. _All rights reserved_ INTRODUCTION These Notes are composed very largely of extracts, relating to the work of Territorial Infantry Divisions, taken from the published despatches. These divisions saw a great deal of heavy fighting throughout the years 1916 and 1917, but the numbers, or Territorial designations, of formations operating on the Western Front were not given in despatches, as published in the _Gazette_, until the Commander-in-Chief reported on 20th February, 1918, as to the battle of Cambrai, November 1917. However, in the edition of _Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatches_, published by Messrs. Dent, the divisions, which are referred to as being engaged in the more important battles, are identified by number; and, in compiling these Notes, advantage (with permission) has been taken of this additional information. The facts recited by the Field-Marshals and Generals, who commanded the British Armies in the field, and the judgments expressed by them in their despatches seem to be the best, if not the only reliable, material from which to form an opinion on the value of the services of the Territorial Force in the great struggle. It will generally be admitted that the opinion of units on their own doings would not be quite impartial and could not be used to form a basis for assessing the value of the Force as a whole. Under the Territorial Act of 1907 fourteen infantry divisions were formed. Some of these sailed for the East in September and October, 1914, and all the fourteen had embarked for abroad before July 1915. If it had not been necessary to keep in view the question of armament and the possibility of invasion, several divisions might have been in France before the close of the first battle of Ypres. If that had been found practicable Lord French might have had fewer anxieties in November 1914. His Lordship, in his despatches and elsewhere, has borne testimony to the valuable services of the Territorial battalions which were under his command in 1914. It is doubtful if Britain ever quite realised what it owed to the Territorials who went abroad before the New Armies were ready. Apart from the four divisions which went to the East in the autumn of 1914, thus allowing the Indian Corps to be brought to France, the Territorial strength, in France alone, in April 1915, before the second great struggle at Ypres broke out, probably exceeded that of the British Army at Mons, and it is by no means certain that the ten Regular divisions plus two Indian divisions and one Canadian could have held the great “gas attack.”