The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the six-divisions the British Army sent to the Western Front during the First World War. Planning for a British Expeditionary Force began with the 1906–1912 Haldane Reforms of the British Army carried out by the Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War (1899–1902).
Field Marshal Julian Hedworth George Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, was a British Army officer who served as Governor General of Canada, the 12th since the Canadian Confederation.
Field Marshal Frederick Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan,, known as Viscount Kilcoursie from 1887 until 1900, was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, in the 1920s. After being commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1885, he served in the Second Boer War as a company commander, then served during the First World War as a brigade, divisional, corps, and army commander, and later advised the British Government on the implementation of the Geddes report, which advocated a large reduction in defence expenditure; he presided over a major reduction in the size of the British Army.
Lieutenant General Sir Richard Ernest William Turner, was a senior Canadian Army officer who served during the Second Boer War and the First World War, and was a recipient of the Victoria Cross. While Turner always displayed great personal courage while under fire, he lacked the acumen for brigade- and division-sized tactics, and the men under his command during the First World War suffered grievous losses in several battles before he was moved into administrative roles.
Sergeant Harold Jackson VC was a British Army soldier and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A soldier with the East Yorkshire Regiment, he was awarded the VC for his actions in March 1918, during the German spring offensive of the First World War. He was killed in action five months later.
Field Marshal Philip Walhouse Chetwode, 1st Baron Chetwode, 7th Baronet of Oakley,, was a senior British Army officer. He saw action during the Second Boer War, during which he was present at the Siege of Ladysmith in December 1899. He saw action again during World War I on the Western Front, taking part in the First Battle of Ypres, and then in the Sinai and Palestine campaign during which he led his corps at the First Battle of Gaza in March 1917, at the Battle of Beersheba in October 1917 and the Battle of Jerusalem in November 1917.
The 1st Cavalry Division was a regular Division of the British Army during the First World War where it fought on the Western Front. During the Second World War it was a first line formation, formed from Yeomanry Regiments. It fought in the Middle East before being converted to the 10th Armoured Division.
Field Marshal Sir Claud William Jacob, was a British Indian Army officer. He served in the First World War as commander of the Dehra Dun Brigade, as General Officer Commanding 21st Division and as General Officer Commanding II Corps in the Fifth Army. During the Battle of the Somme, his corps undertook the British attack during the Battle of Thiepval Ridge in September 1916 and the subsequent assault on St Pierre Divion during the Battle of the Ancre in November 1916. He remained in command of II Corps for the Battle of Passchendaele in Autumn 1917. After the War he commanded a corps of the British Army of the Rhine during the occupation there and then served as Chief of the General Staff in India. He went on to be General Officer Commanding Northern Command in India before temporarily becoming Commander-in-Chief, India and then taking over as Military Secretary to the India Office.
The Indian Army, also called the British Indian Army, was involved in World War I as part of the British Empire. Over one million Indian troops served overseas, of whom 62,000 died and another 67,000 were wounded. In total at least 74,187 Indian soldiers died during the war.
General Sir William Eliot Peyton, was a British Army officer who served as Military Secretary to the British Expeditionary Force from 1916 to 1918. He was Delhi Herald of Arms Extraordinary at the time of the Delhi Durbar of 1911.
The 5th (Mhow) Cavalry Brigade was a cavalry brigade of the British Indian Army that saw active service in the Indian Army during the First World War. Formed in November 1914, it served on the Western Front as part of the 2nd and 1st Indian Cavalry Divisions until it was broken up in March 1918.
The British cavalry were the first British Army units to see action during the First World War. Captain Hornby of the 4th Dragoon Guards is reputed to have been the first British soldier to kill a German soldier, using his sword, and Corporal Edward Thomas of the same regiment is reputed to have fired the first British shot shortly after 06:30 on 22 August 1914, near the Belgian village of Casteau. The following Battle of Mons was the first engagement fought by British soldiers in Western Europe since the Battle of Waterloo, ninety-nine years earlier. In the first year of the war in France, nine cavalry brigades were formed for three British cavalry divisions. Other regiments served in six brigades of the two British Indian Army cavalry divisions that were formed for service on the Western Front. Three regiments also fought in the campaign in Mesopotamia, the only other theatre of the First World War where British cavalry served.
The British yeomanry during the First World War were part of the British Army reserve Territorial Force. Initially, in 1914, there were fifty-seven regiments and fourteen mounted brigades. Soon after the declaration of war, second and third line regiments were formed. However, the third line regiments were soon absorbed into the Cavalry Reserve Regiments, to supply replacements for the cavalry and yeomanry. Other horsed regiments in the British Army, during the war, were the regular cavalry regiments and the three regiments belonging to the special reserve: the North Irish Horse, the South Irish Horse and the King Edward's Horse. The senior yeomanry regiments could trace their origins back over 100 years; the oldest regiment, the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, had been formed in 1794. The most junior regiment, the Welsh Horse, had only been formed on 18 August 1914, after the start of the war.
Brigadier-General Wilfrith Gerald Key Green was a Welsh officer in the British Army and later a brigadier-general in the British Indian Army. In the First World War he served on the Western Front and in the Sinai and Palestine campaign, where he commanded the 10th Cavalry Brigade. He also commanded the 1st Indian Cavalry Brigade in India after the war.
Major-General John Vaughan, (1871–1956) was a cavalry officer in the 7th Hussars and the 10th Royal Hussars of the British Army.
Major-General Sir Reginald Walter Ralph Barnes was a cavalry officer in the British Army. He served in several regiments, and commanded a battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry, the 10th Royal Hussars, the 111th Brigade, and three divisions.
Brigadier-General Sir Charles Loftus Bates was a British Army officer who served in the Second Boer War and the First World War. He was a cavalry officer in the 1st (King's) Dragoon Guards and the commanding officer (CO) of the Northumberland Hussars, part of the Yeomanry reserve.
Major General Thomas Tait Pitman, was a British cavalry officer, who was a general officer during the First World War.
The Army Printing and Stationery Service was a British Army unit of the First World War and the early interwar period. It had its origins in the Base Stationery Depot, a small unit sent with the British Expeditionary Force to distribute stationery. During the course of the war it grew to a battalion-sized unit and produced and printed its own publications. The unit ran three printing presses in France and at one point had 13 stations across Europe and the Middle East. The unit was responsible for printing and distributing documents ranging from the simple field service postcard issued regularly to every man in the British Army to highly specialised manuals. By the war's end it was distributing up to 400,000 packages of documents per week.
Major-General Thomas Stanton Lambert was a British Army officer of the First World War era. He joined the East Lancashire Regiment in 1891 and held a succession of regimental and staff positions in the pre-war period. Lambert took part in the Retreat from Mons and afterwards commanded his regiment's 1st battalion at the First Battle of the Marne and the First Battle of the Aisne. He later commanded the regiment's 2nd battalion and, temporarily, the 24th Infantry Brigade. He was placed in command of the 69th Infantry Brigade in March 1916 and from May 1918 commanded the 32nd Division. Lambert was mentioned in despatches five times for his work during the war and was appointed a companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and of the Order of the Bath.
