The 167th (1st London) Brigade was an infantry formation of the British Territorial Army that saw active service in both the First and Second World Wars. It was the first Territorial formation to go overseas in 1914, garrisoned Malta, and then served with the 56th (London) Infantry Division on the Western Front. In the Second World War, it fought in the North African and Italian campaigns in the Second World War.
Origin The Volunteer Force of part-time soldiers was created following an invasion scare in 1859, and its constituent units were progressively aligned with the Regular British Army during the later 19th Century. The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 introduced a Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war. In peacetime these brigades provided a structure for collective training.Beckett, pp. 135, 185–6.Dunlop, pp. 60–1.
The West London Brigade was one of the formations organised at this time. Brigade Headquarters was at 93 Cornwall Gardens in Kensington and the commander was retired Lt-Gen Lord Abinger (subsequent commanders were also retired, Regular officers). The assembly point for the brigade was at Caterham Barracks, the Brigade of Guards' depot conveniently situated for the London Defence Positions along the North Downs. The brigade's original composition was:Monthly Army Lists, 1889–1914.
West London Brigade 1st Volunteer Battalion, Royal Fusiliers 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Royal Fusiliers 3rd Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Middlesex Regiment 11th (Railway) Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps 17th Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps Supply Detachment, Army Service Corps Bearer Company, Medical Staff Corps
The West London Brigade was redesignated the 1st London Brigade in the reorganisations following the Second Boer War.
Territorial Force This organisation was carried over into the Territorial Force (TF) created under the Haldane Reforms in 1908, the 1st London Brigade joining the 1st London Division. All of the Volunteer Battalions in the Central London area became part of the all-Territorial London Regiment and were numbered sequentially through the London brigades and divisions:Martin.Money Barnes, Appendix IV.Westlake.
1st London Brigade 1st (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (former 1st VB, Royal Fusiliers) 2nd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (former 2nd VB, Royal Fusiliers) 3rd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (former 11th Middlesex RVC, 3rd VB, Royal Fusiliers) 4th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (former 1st Tower Hamlets RVC, 4th VB, Royal Fusiliers, from East London Brigade)
The 3rd Middlesex RVC and 2nd VB Middlesex Regiment became the 7th and 8th Battalions Middlesex Regiment respectively in the Home Counties Division, while the 17th Middlesex RVC became the 19th Battalion, London Regiment (St Pancras) in the 2nd London Division.
Brigade HQ was at Friar's House, New Broad Street (the HQ of 1st London Division). On the outbreak of war in August 1914 the brigade commander was Colonel The Earl of Lucan, a former Regular officer.
First World War The division was mobilised on the outbreak of the First World War in early August 1914 and, when asked to serve overseas (as, according to the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, Territorial soldiers were not obliged to serve overseas), most of the men of the division volunteered. Those who didn't, together with the many recruits, were formed into 2nd Line battalions, the 2/1st London Brigade, part of 2/1st London Division, which later became 58th (2/1st London) Division. The battalions adopted the prefix '1/' (1/4th Londons, for example) to distinguish them from the 2nd Line battalions, which adopted the '2/' prefix (2/4th Londons).
However, between November 1914 and April 1915, most of the battalions of the division were sent overseas either to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front or to overseas postings such as Malta (in the case of the 1/1st London Brigade) so as to relieve to Regular Army troops for service in France and Belgium and so, as a result, the 1st London Division was broken up.
In early February 1916, however, the War Office authorised the 1st London Division to be reformed, now to be known as 56th (1/1st London) Division. Consequently, the brigade was reformed in France in February 1916, now as the 167th (1/1st London) Brigade, but with mostly different units, except the 1/1st and 1/3rd Londons (both original battalions of the brigade), and both the 1/7th and 1/8th battalions of the Middlesex Regiment, both of which had previously been part of the Middlesex Brigade of the Home Counties Division and had served in Gibraltar before returning to England and fighting in France.
The brigade served for the rest of the First World War in the trenches of the Western Front in Belgium and France, fighting a diversionary attack, alongside 46th (North Midland) Division, on the Gommecourt salient, to distract German attention away from the Somme offensive a few miles south in July 1916. In March 1917, the 56th Division pursued the German Army during their retreat to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917, Arras, Langemarck, Passchendaele, Cambrai, First Arras, Albert and the Hundred Days Offensive. The First World War finally came to an end with the signing of the Armistice of 11 November 1918. By the end of the war the 56th Division had suffered nearly 35,000 casualties.
Order of battle The brigade was composed as follows during the war: 1/1st (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) (left May 1915, rejoined February 1916) 1/2nd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) (left February 1915) 1/3rd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) (left May 1915, rejoined February 1916, left January 1918) 1/4th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) (left January 1915) 1/7th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (from February 1916) 1/8th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (from February 1916) 167th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps (formed 22 March 1916, moved to 56th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps 1 March 1918) 167th Trench Mortar Battery (formed 14 June 1916) 4th Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment (from 7 October until 15 November 1917)
Due to a shortage of manpower in the BEF, British infantry brigades serving on the Western Front were reduced from four to three battalions throughout early 1918. Therefore, the 1/3rd Londons were, in early January, transferred to 173rd (3/1st London) Brigade of 58th (2/1st London) Division where they absorbed the 2/3rd Battalion and were renamed the 3rd Battalion once again. In February the 1/1st Londons absorbed the 2/1st Battalion and were renamed the 1st Battalion.
Commanders The following officers commanded 167th Brigade during the war: Brigadier-General F. H. Nugent (5 February 1916) Lieutenant-Colonel E. J. King (acting, 22 July 1916) Brigadier-General G. H. B. Freeth (27 July 1916) Lieutenant-Colonel P. L. Ingpen (acting, 20 July 1917) Brigadier-General G. H. B. Freeth (23 July 1917) Lieutenant-Colonel R. H. Husey (acting, 26 April 1918) Brigadier-General G. H. B. Freeth (6 May 1918)
Between the wars Disbanded after the war, the brigade, along with the rest of the division, was reformed in the Territorial Army (formed on a similar basis to the Territorial Force) as the 167th (1st London) Infantry Brigade, again with the same composition as it had before the First World War, of four battalions of the Royal Fusiliers. The brigade had its headquarters in Birdcage Walk, London, at the Regimental Headquarters of the Scots Guards. In 1922 they dropped the 'battalion' from their title becoming, for example, 1st City of London Regiment (The Royal Fusiliers).
Throughout the second half of the 1930s there was a need to increase the anti-aircraft defences of the United Kingdom, particularly so for London and Southern England. As a result, in 1935, the 4th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (The Royal Fusiliers) was converted into an artillery role, transferring to the Royal Artillery and converted into 60th (City of London) Anti-Aircraft Brigade, Royal Artillery and becoming part of 27th (Home Counties) Anti-Aircraft Group, 1st Anti-Aircraft Division (formed by conversion of the Headquarters of 47th (2nd London) Infantry Division). They were replaced in the brigade by the 10th London Regiment (Hackney) from the 169th (3rd London) Infantry Brigade. The battalion was previously known as the 10th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Hackney). After the 47th Division was disbanded the 56th Division was redesignated as the London Division and the brigade became 1st London Infantry Brigade.
In 1938, after most of its battalions were posted away or converted to other units, the London Regiment ceased to exist and was disbanded. As a result, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions became the 8th, 9th and 10th battalions, respectively, of the Royal Fusiliers and the 10th London Regiment (Hackney) became the 5th (Hackney) Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment. In the same year the 10th (3rd City of London) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was transferred to the Royal Artillery, becoming 10th (3rd City of London) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (69th Searchlight Regiment) but remained part of the Royal Fusiliers until 1940. In 1938 when all British infantry brigades were reduced to three battalions, in August, the 5th (Hackney) Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment was transferred to 161st (Essex) Infantry Brigade of the 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division and were replaced in the brigade by the London Irish Rifles (Royal Ulster Rifles) from 3rd London Infantry Brigade, previously the 18th London Regiment (London Irish Rifles) and, in 1908, the 18th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (London Irish Rifles). Again in 1938 the division was converted and reorganised as a motorised infantry division.
Second World War The Territorial Army, and therefore the brigade and the rest of the division, was mobilised between late August and early September 1939, and the German invasion of Poland began on 1 September, and the Second World War officially began two days later, after Britain and France declared war on Germany. Mobilised for full-time war service, the brigade was brought up to War Establishment strength in late October 1939 with large drafts of militiamen, men had been called up earlier in the year with the introduction of conscription in the United Kingdom and had just completed their basic training.
The division was destined not to be sent to France to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) but instead remained in the United Kingdom under Home Forces in a home defence role and was sent to Kent in April 1940 to come under command of XII Corps. Like most of the rest of the British Army after the events of Dunkirk, the division spent most of its time in an anti-invasion role training to repel an expected German invasion.