ISBN10: 1843421240, ISBN13: 9781843421245, [publisher: Naval and Military Press] Softcover 2001. SB. N & M Press reprint (original 1924). two volumes (339 and 369 pp) 19 B&W mapsPublished Price £28 The Guards Division was formed in France in August 1915, the creation of Kitchener (then S of S for War), who, after first obtaining the permission of the King, proceeded to form the division withouTt consulting either the War Office or the C in C of the BEF, Field Marshal French. The first the latter knew about it was in a letter from Kitchener a month before the division came into being. It was formed by concentrating the eight Guards battalions already in France and bringing out from the UK four more, including the recently raised Welsh Guards, plus a pioneer battalion (4th Coldstream). The artillery (less the howitzer brigade), two of the three engineer companies and the signal company came from the 16th (Irish) Division, then still in Ireland; the howitzer brigade came from the 11th (Northern) Division, left behind in England when that division went to Gallipoli. The remaining divisional troops came from the UK or from divisions already in France. The first GOC was the Earl of Cavan, a Grenadier, who was later to command British troops in Italy and, in 1922, become Chief of the Imperial General Staff.A month after its formation the division was in action at Loos, suffering just over 2,100 casualties. Thereafter it was seldom out of the fighting - Somme, Pass ...
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