10th (Irish) Division

10th (Irish) Division 10th Division
10th (Irish) Division insignia
Active	August 1914 – January 1919
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Division
Part of	K1 Army Group
Engagements	World War I Gallipoli Campaign Battle of Sari Bair Battle of Chunuk Bair Salonika Front Battle of Kosturino Palestine 1917–18 Third Battle of Gaza Battle of Nablus
Commanders
Notable commanders	Bryan Mahon

The 10th (Irish) Division, was one of the first of Kitchener's New Army K1 Army Group divisions (formed from Kitchener's 'first hundred thousand' new volunteers), authorized on 21 August 1914, after the outbreak of the Great War. It included battalions from the various provinces of Ireland. It was led by Irish General Bryan Mahon and fought at Gallipoli, Salonika and Palestine. It was the first of the Irish Divisions to take to the field and was the most travelled of the Irish formations. The division served as a formation of the United Kingdom's British Army during World War I.

Main article: Ireland in World War I

History

Formed in Ireland on 21 August 1914, the 10th Division was sent to Gallipoli where, as part of General Sir Frederick Stopford's IX Corps, at Suvla Bay on 7 August it participated in the Landing at Suvla Bay and the August offensive. Some battalions of the division were landed at Anzac and fought at Chunuk Bair.

In September 1915, when the Suvla front became a stalemate, the division was moved to Salonika where it remained for two years and fought the Battle of Kosturino.

The division moved to Egypt in September 1917 where it joined General Chetwode's XX Corps. It fought in the Third Battle of Gaza which succeeded in breaking the resistance of the Turkish defenders in southern Palestine.

Heavy losses on the Western Front following Operation Michael, the great German Spring Offensive in 1918, resulted in the transfer of ten of the division's battalions from Palestine to France, their place being taken by Indian Army units. This left only one British battalion per brigade. The remainder of the division remained in Palestine until the end of the war with Turkey on 31 October 1918.

On 12 November 1918 the Division concentrated at Sarafand, ready for moving back to Egypt. By 1 December it had returned to Cairo.

Order of battle

A church service at the 10th (Irish) Division's Basingstoke camp, 1915

The division comprised the following brigades:

29th Brigade

• 5th Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment (August 1914 – June 1915, then became the divisional pioneer battalion)
• 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles (August 1914 – May 1918, then disbanded)
• 5th Battalion, Connaught Rangers (September 1914 – April 1918, transferred to 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division)
• 6th Battalion, Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) (August 1914 – April 1918, transferred to 14th (Light) Division)
• 10th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment (March–October 1915)
• 1st Battalion, Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) (November 1916 – October 1918)
• 1st Battalion, 54th Sikhs (April–October 1918)
• 1st Battalion, 101st Grenadiers (April–October 1918)
• 2nd Battalion, 151st Sikh Infantry (June–October 1918)

30th Brigade 

• 6th Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers (August 1914 – April 1918, reduced to cadre and transferred to the 39th Division)
• 7th Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers (August 1914 – November 1916, absorbed by the 6th Battalion)
• 6th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers (August 1914 – May 1918, transferred to the 66th Division)
• 7th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers (August 1914 – April 1918, reduced to cadre and transferred to the 16th Division)
• 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment (November 1916 – October 1918)
• 38th Dogras (April–October 1918)
• 46th Punjabis (May–October 1918)
• 1st Battalion, Kashmir Rifles (April–October 1918)

31st Brigade 

• 5th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (August 1914 – May 1918, transferred to the 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division)
• 6th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (August 1914 – May 1918, transferred to the 14th Division)
• 5th Battalion, Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) (August 1914 – April 1918, transferred to the 14th (Light) Division)
• 6th Battalion, Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) (August 1914 – November 1916, absorbed by the 5th Battalion)
• 2nd Battalion, Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) (November 1916 – October 1918)
• 2nd Battalion, 42nd Deoli Regiment (July–October 1918)
• 74th Punjabis (April – October 1918)
• 2nd Battalion, 101st Grenadiers (May–October 1918)
• 38th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (attached 11 June – 17 July 1918, then transferred to the 60th (2/2nd London) Division)

Pioneers 

• 5th Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment (June 1915 – April 1918, transferred to the 52nd Division)
• 2nd Battalion, 155th Pioneers (from July 1918)

Battles and engagements

Gallipoli Campaign

• The landing at Suvla.
• Battle of Sari Bair.
• Capture of Chocolate Hill.
• Hill 60.

Salonika Front

• Battle of Kosturino.
• Retreat from Serbia.
• Capture of the Karajokois.
• Capture of Yenikoi.

Sinai and Palestine Campaign

• Third Battle of Gaza.
• Capture of the Sheria Position.
• Capture of Jersusalem.
• Defence of Jerusalem.
• Tell ‘Asure.
• Battle of Nablus.

General Officers Commanding

Commanders included:

• August 1914 – November 1915 Lieutenant-General Sir Bryan Mahon
• December 1915 – June 1919 Major-General Sir John Longley
• June 1919 – 1921 Major-General Sir George Gorringe

Great War Memorials

Guildhall Derry stained-glass window which commemorates
the Three Irish Divisions, left the 36th, right the 10th and 16th

• Irish National War Memorial Gardens Dublin.
• Island of Ireland Peace Park Messines, Belgium.
• Menin Gate Memorial Ypres, Belgium.
• Ulster Tower Memorial Thiepval, France.

See also

• 16th (Irish) Division
• 36th (Ulster) Division
• Irish regiments
• List of British divisions in World War I

Further reading

• Peter Hart: Gallipoli Oxford University Press (2011), ISBN 978-1-8466-8159-2
• Nigel Steel and Peter Hart: Defeat at Gallipoli, PAN Books (1994) ISBN 0-330-49058-3, pp 91–96 slaughter of the Dubliners and Munsters.
• Thomas P. Dooley: Irishmen or English Soldiers? : the Times of a Southern Catholic Irish Man (1876–1916), Liverpool Press (1995), ISBN 0-85323-600-3.
• Myles Dungan: They Shall not Grow Old: Irish Soldiers in the Great War, Four Courts Press (1997), ISBN 1-85182-347-6.
• Keith Jeffery: Ireland and the Great War, Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge (2000), ISBN 0-521-77323-7.
• Terence Denman: Ireland's unknown Soldiers: The 16th (Irish) Division in the Great War, Irish Academic Press (1992), (2003) ISBN 0-7165-2495-3.
• Desmond & Jean Bowen: Heroic Option: The Irish in the British Army, Pen & Sword Books (2005), ISBN 1-84415-152-2.
• Steven Moore: The Irish on the Somme (2005), ISBN 0-9549715-1-5.
• Thomas Bartlett & Keith Jeffery: A Military History of Ireland, Cambridge University Press (1996) (2006), ISBN 0-521-62989-6
• David Murphy: Irish Regiments in the World Wars, Osprey (2007), ISBN 978-1-84603-015-4
• David Murphy: The Irish Brigades, 1685-2006, A gazetteer of Irish Military Service past and present, Four Courts Press (2007)
  The Military Heritage of Ireland Trust. ISBN 978-1-84682-080-9
• Stephen Walker: Forgotten Soldiers; The Irishmen shot at dawn Gill & Macmillan (2007), ISBN 978-0-7171-4182-1
• John Horne ed.: Our War 'Ireland and the Great War': The Thomas Davis Lectures, The Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (2008) ISBN 978-1-904890-50-8

External links

• A website with information relating to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who had battalions which were a part of the 10th (Irish) Division.
• The Battle for Messines Ridge - Homepage of the Island of Ireland Peace Park Memorial
• The Irish War Memorials Project - listing of monuments throughout Ireland
• The Military Heritage of Ireland Trust
• Department of the Taoiseach: Irish Soldiers in the First World War