46th (North Midland) Division

The British 46th (North Midland) Division was a 1st Line Territorial Force division in World War I. At the outbreak of the war, the 46th Division was commanded by Major General Hon. E.J. Montagu-Stuart-Wortley. Originally called the 'North Midland Division', it was redesignated as the 46th Division in 1915.

The division was sent to France in February 1915 and served on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War. During the Battle of Loos the Division was decimated in an attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 13 October 1915.

It was later involved in the Battle of the Somme (1916), where in the opening phase as part of VII Corps, the southern-most corps of the Third Army, the Division took part in the diversionary attack at Gommecourt on the first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, which was a catastrophic failure resulting in heavy losses to its numbers, and the event of which dogged the Division afterwards with a poor reputation until 29 September 1918, when it re-established its name at the St. Quentin Canal where, utilising life-belts and collapsible boats, it crossed the formidale obstacle of the canal and used scaling ladders to surmount the steep gradient of the opposite bank and captured multiple fortified hostile machine gun posts covering that point.

The division was disbanded in 1936, but the 46th Infantry Division was formed in 1939.

Order of battle

 * 137th Brigade (Staffordshire) :


 * 1/5th Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment
 * 1/6th Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment
 * 1/5th Battalion, The Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment) (until January 1918)
 * 1/6th Battalion, The Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment)


 * 138th Brigade (Lincoln and Leicester) :


 * 1/4th Battalion, The Lincolnshire Regiment (until January 1918)
 * 1/5th Battalion, The Lincolnshire Regiment
 * 1/4th Battalion, The Leicestershire Regiment
 * 1/5th Battalion, The Leicestershire Regiment


 * 139th Brigade (Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire) :


 * 1/5th Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters
 * 1/6th Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters
 * 1/7th (Robin Hood) Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters (until January 1918)
 * 1/8th Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters


 * R.F.A Bdes. :


 * I N. Midlands (1, 2,3 Lincs. Btys.)
 * II N. Midlands (1, 2,3 Staffs. Btys.)
 * III N. Midlands (4, 5, 6 Staffs. Btys.)
 * IV N. Midlands (How.) 1 & 2 Derbyshire Btys.


 * Pioneers :


 * 1/1st Battalion, The Monmouthshire Regiment