Home > Army Organisation > Infantry > The Dorsetshire Regiment
To trace the movements and actions of any battalion, click on the Divisions with which it served
Battalions of the regular army
1st Battalion:
August
1914 : in Belfast. Part
of 15th Brigade, 5th Division. Landed at Le Havre 16 August 1914.
31
December 1915 : transferred to 95th Brigade, 32nd
Division.
7
January 1916 : transferred to 14th Brigade, 32nd
Division.
2nd Battalion:
August
1914 : in Poona, India. Part of 16th Indian Brigade, Poona
Division.
6 November 1914 : landed in Fao, Persian Gulf, for
campaign in Mesopotamia, as part of Indian Expeditionary Force
'D'.
29 April
1916 : Bn captured at Kut-el-Amara.
During the siege at Kut, a composite battalion, composed of returned
wounded and other details from the 2nd Dorsets and 2nd Norfolks, was formed at
El Orah. It was called the "Norsets" and was attached to 21st
Indian Brigade, 7th Indian Division. It was broken up on 21
July 1916 and the 2nd Dorsets re-established.
It transferred to 9th Indian Brigade, 3rd Indian Division in
January 1917 and moved to Egypt in April 1918.
3rd (Reserve) Battalion:
August 1914 : in Dorchester. A training unit, it moved on mobilisation to Weymouth and in June 1915 went on to Wyke Regis for a role with the Portland garrison and remained as such throughout the war.
Battalions of the Territorial Force
1/4th Battalion:
August
1914 : in Dorchester. Part of South Western Brigade, Wessex
Division. Moved to Salisbury Plain.
9 October 1914 : sailed for India, landing Bombay
10 November 1914.
23 February 1916 : landed at Basra with 42nd
Indian Brigade and remained in Mesopotamia for
the rest of the war.
2/4th Battalion:
Formed
at Dorchester in September 1914.
Became part of 2nd South Western
Brigade, 2nd Wessex Division. Moved to billets in Dorchester in October 1914.
12 December
1914 : sailed for India.
15 August 1917 left Southampton for Egypt,
landing at Suez on 29 August.
13 December 1917 : attached to
234th Brigade, 75th Division.
Moved to
233rd Brigade on 2 May 1918.
August 1918 : disbanded in
Egypt.
3/4th Battalion:
Formed at Bath in April 1915 and moved to Cheddar. Moved on to Bournemouth in autumn 1915 and on to Romsey in spring 1916.
April 1916 : became Reserve Bn. In October 1916
it moved to Bournemouth, went on to Sutton Veny in February 1917 and Larkill in October 1917. Finally moved to Londonderry in April 1918..
Battalions of the New Armies
5th (Service) Battalion:
Formed
at Dorchester in August 1914 as part of K1 and moved to belton Park (Grantham), initially attached as Army Troops to 11th
(Northern) Division.
8
January 1915 : transferred to 34th Brigade, 11th
(Northern) Division. sailed from Liverpool on 3 July 1915, going via Mudros to land at Suvla Bay on 6 August 1915.
Moved to France, arriving Marseilles 9 July 1916.
6th (Service)
Battalion
Formed
at Dorchester on 6 September 1914 as part of K2. Moved to Wareham and initially attached as Army Troops to 17th (Northern)
Division.
March
1915 : transferred to 50th Brigade, 17th
(Northern) Division. Moved to Romsey in May 1915. Landed at Boulogne on 14 July 1915.
7th (Reserve) Battalion
Formed
in Weymouth in November 1914 as a Service battalion, part of K4. Attached to 102nd Brigade, original 34th Division.
10 April 1915 : converted into a Reserve battalion. Moved to Wool in May 1915 and in July went on to Wareham before returining to Wool in October.
1 September 1916 : became 35th Battalion of 8th Reserve Brigade of Training
Reserve.
Other battalions raised by the regiment
1st
(Home Service) Garrison Battalion
Formed in Wyke Regis in June 1916. Moved to Weymouth in August 1916 and on to Portland in November 1916. Disbanded January 1917.
8th
(Home Service) Battalion
Formed
in Wool on 1 September 1916 as the 2nd (Home Service) Garrison
Bn.
Renamed 1 November 1916 after moving to Portland.
Attached to 219th Brigade, 73rd
Division and moved to Blackpool.
Moved to Danbury (Essex) in January 1917 and remained there disbanded in
December 1917.
9th Battalion
Formed at Aldeburgh on 1 June 1918 but aborbed into the 6th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment on 18 June.
| Did you know? For one of the smallest British regiments of the Great War, the Dorsets accumulated many official honours: Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1915 '17, Gravenstafel, St. Julien, Bellewaarde, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916 '18, Flers-Courcelette, Thiepval, Ancre 1916 '18, Arras 1917, Scarpe 1917, Messines 1917, Langemarck 1917, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, St. Quentin, Amiens, Bapaume 1918, Hindenburg Line, Épéhy, Canal du Nord, St. Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Cambrai 1918, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Suvla, Landing at Suvla, Scimitar Hill, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1916, Gaza, El Mughar, Nebi Samwil, Jerusalem, Tell 'Asur, Megiddo, Sharon, Palestine 1917-18, Basra, Shaiba, Kut al Amara 1915 '17, Ctesiphon, Defence of Kut al Amara, Baghdad, Khan Baghdadi, and Mesopotamia 1914-18. |
This page is dedicated
to the memory of Marcus Coombes, a Private in the 1st Battalion killed in action at the age of 20 on 21 June 1916; William Sands, an "Old Contemptible" of the same battalion; George Cryer, another 1st Battalion man who also served with the Machine Gun Corps; Edgar Ellis, a former ASC soldier who after being transferred to the 6th Dorsets, was captured and died in enemy hands at Valenciennes on 2 April 1918; Charles Davis of the same battalion, who was wounded at The Bluff and won the MM; and finally Arthur King, who saw service in Mesopotamia with 2nd Battalion.
All these men and more were researched for private clients by fourteeneighteen|research