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10th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)

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10th Brigade
10th Infantry Brigade
Active1899–1900
1902–1947
1956–1958
Country United Kingdom
Branch British Army
TypeInfantry
SizeBrigade
Part of4th Infantry Division
Garrison/HQShorncliffe Army Camp
Essex Barracks, Hildesheim (1956–58)
EngagementsSecond Boer War
First World War
Second World War
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Samuel Lomax
Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley
Aylmer Haldane
Sir Evelyn Barker

The 10th Infantry Brigade was a Regular Army infantry brigade of the British Army formed during the Second Boer War in 5th Division, and during both World Wars the brigade was part of the 4th Infantry Division.

Second Boer War

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British Army brigades had traditionally been ad hoc formations known by the name of their commander or numbered as part of a division. However, units involved in the Second Boer War in 1899 were organised into sequentially numbered brigades that were frequently reassigned between divisions. The Army Corps sent from Britain in 1899 comprised six brigades in three divisions while the troops already in South Africa were intended to constitute a fourth division. The rapid deterioration of the situation led the War Office to announce on 11 November 1899 that a 5th Division was to be formed and sent out. This consisted of the new 10th and 11th (Lancashire) Brigades and concentrated at Estcourt on 8 January 1900 for the campaign for the Relief of Ladysmith.[1][2][3]

Order of Battle

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The 10th Brigade under the command of Major-General John Talbot Coke was constituted as follows:[4][5]

However, The Royal Warwicks and Yorkshires were left at Cape Town to join Lord Roberts's army while the rest of the brigade continued on to join Sir Redvers Buller's Natal Field Force, where it was separated from 5th Division and used as Corps Troops. However, it returned to 5th Division for the Spion Kop, when Coke temporarily commanded the division and Lieutenant-Colonel A.W. Hill of the Middlesex commanded the brigade, which included the Imperial Light Infantry.[5][6][7]

After Spion Kop the brigade served at the Tugela Heights, Trichard's Drift, Tabanyama, Vaal Krantz, Hlangwane, Helpmakaar, Botha's Pass, Alleman's Nek, Charlestown and Paardekop. However, after the defeat of the main Boer field armies and the development of guerrilla warfare, all the divisions and brigades were broken up to form ad hoc 'columns' and garrisons.[8]

After the Boer War, 10th Brigade became a permanent formation in 1902, originally based at Shorncliffe Army Camp and serving with the 5th Division in the 2nd Army Corps until 1907.[9] In the Expeditionary Force established by the Haldane reforms, 10th Brigade still at Shorncliffe became part of 4th Division, and remained so until the outbreak of World War I.[10]

First World War

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With the 4th Division, the 10th brigade served with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front and was one of the first British units to be sent overseas upon the declaration of war.[11][12]

Order of battle

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The 10th Brigade was constituted as follows during the war:[11][12]

Service

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During the war the brigade participated in the following actions:[11][12]

1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

Second World War

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The 10th Infantry Brigade, commanded since August 1938 by Brigadier Evelyn Barker, again saw active service as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that was sent to France after the outbreak of war in 1939, arriving there on 1 October, less than a month since the outbreak of the Second World War. The brigade and division were evacuated at Dunkirk after fierce fighting in the battles of France and Belgium.

After being based in the United Kingdom, the brigade spent many years on home defence and training duties, anticipating a German invasion which never arrived. The brigade was later sent to Algeria and Tunisia in 1943.

After this the brigade fought in Italy where it saw extremely hard fighting at Monte Cassino through most of 1944, before being shipped off to Greece to help calm the Civil War as part of Lieutenant General Ronald Scobie's III Corps, where it ended the war.

Order of battle

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The 10th Infantry Brigade was constituted as follows during the war:[13]

Postwar

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The brigade was disbanded in Greece in 1947. However, following the reactivation of the 4th Infantry Division on 1 April 1956, from the 11th Armoured Division of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), the 10th Brigade, formerly the 91st Lorried Infantry Brigade, again became part of the division (again, along with the 11th and 12th Infantry Brigades).[15] The brigade headquarters was at Essex Barracks in Hildesheim until it was finally disbanded in April 1958.[16]

Commanders

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The following officers commanded the 10th Infantry Brigade throughout its existence:

Notes

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  1. ^ Dunlop, p. 74.
  2. ^ Amery, Vol II, pp. 283–4.
  3. ^ Amery, Vol III, pp. 206–15.
  4. ^ Amery, Vol IV, Appendix to Chapters I-XIV, pp. 503–14.
  5. ^ a b Dorsetshire Regiment at Anglo-Boer War.
  6. ^ Amery, Vol III, Chapter IX.
  7. ^ Amery Vol III, pp. 497.
  8. ^ Amery, Index, p. 76.
  9. ^ Hart's Annual Army List ... for 1903, London: John Murray, 1903.
  10. ^ Monthly Army List, August 1914.
  11. ^ a b c Becke, Pt 1, pp. 57–63.
  12. ^ a b c "The 4th Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  13. ^ Joslen, p. 248
  14. ^ 4th Recce Regiment at the Reconnaissance Corps website.
  15. ^ "British Army of the Rhine". BAOR Locations. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  16. ^ "History of BAOR and BFG". Archived from the original on 3 July 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  17. ^ "Army Corps appointments". The Times. No. 36871. London. 12 September 1902. p. 6.

References

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  • L.S. Amery (ed), The Times History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902, London: Sampson Low, Marston, 7 Vols 1900–09.
  • Maj A.F. Becke,History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 1: The Regular British Divisions, London: HM Stationery Office, 1934/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, ISBN 1-847347-38-X.
  • Col John K. Dunlop, The Development of the British Army 1899–1914, London: Methuen, 1938.
  • Lt-Col H.F. Joslen, Orders of Battle, United Kingdom and Colonial Formations and Units in the Second World War, 1939–1945, London: HM Stationery Office, 1960/London: London Stamp Exchange, 1990, ISBN 0-948130-03-2/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2003, ISBN 1-843424-74-6.

External sources

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