| 61st Brigade 'M' Brigade 61st Infantry Brigade 61st (Lorried) Infantry Brigade | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1914–1919 1944–1946 |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Type | Infantry Lorried infantry |
| Size | Brigade |
| Part of | 20th (Light) Division 6th Armoured Division |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Sir Charles Richardson |
The 61st Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Army raised for active service in both the First and the Second World Wars.
The brigade was raised in September 1914 during the First World War from men volunteering for Lord Kitchener's New Armies, originally as the 61st Brigade, as part of Kitchener's Second New Army and was composed entirely of service battalions from light infantry and rifle regiments. The brigade was assigned to the 20th (Light) Division. The brigade saw service in the trenches of the Western Front with the division throughout the war. [1]
Harry Patch, later to become the last surviving combat veteran of the trenches, served with the 61st Brigade in 1917 when he was just 19 years old with the 7th (Service) Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres) where he was wounded by shrapnel in September. He survived both world wars and lived until 2009 when he died, on 25 July, aged 111.
61st Brigade was constituted as follows during the war: [1]
The brigade number was reactivated again during the Second World War, now as the 61st (Lorried) Infantry Brigade, in Italy on 21 May 1944. The brigade comprised three battalions of the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own), the 2nd, 7th and 10th, the former being of the Regular Army and the latter two of the Territorial Army (TA). From May 1944 to August 1945 the brigade was part of the 6th Armoured Division, itself part of the British Eighth Army and fought in the Italian Campaign. It fought in the Liri Valley, Arezzo, the advance to Florence, on the Gothic Line and the Argenta Gap and the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy, Operation Grapeshot.
The 61st Infantry Brigade was constituted as follows during the war:
The following officers commanded the brigade:
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The division was disbanded by March 1919, and was not reformed in the Second World War.
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The 14th Infantry Brigade was a British Army formation during both the First World War and the Second World War.
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