The First World War 1914-1918

The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment

Corporal of The Queen's in Service Dress, 1916, 7th Division.

The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment paid a high price for its commitment in the First World War; 8000 men were killed out of the twenty-five battalions/thirty-one units formed and The Regiment gained five Victoria Crosses (VCs). In the 1^st Battalion alone, five commanding officers, two majors, sixty-one company officers and 1,133 NCOs and men were killed in action. (Each battalion was about one thousand strong and was organised into an Headquarters Company and four rifle companies).

The Regular Battalions
The first battalions to see action in the First World War were the Regulars. The 1^st Battalion arrived in France in 1914, as part of the 3^rd Brigade, 1^st Division. The 2^nd Battalion joined the British Expeditionary Force in September 1914 and joined the 22^nd Brigade of the 7^th Division. The scale of casualties in both battalions was horrific; by the end of the first week of November 1914 there were only thirty-two survivors out of a total of 998 men from the 1^st Battalion. The 2^nd Battalion had suffered 676 casualties. Their ranks were to be filled by Territorials, men from Kitchener’s “New Army” and then Conscripts.

The 1^st Battalion fought at Mons, on the Marne and the Aisne, Ypres, the Aubers Ridge, Loos on the Somme, Festubert, The Hindenburg Line, Bellecourt, Broodseinde, Passchendaele and Arras. When it came out of the line in November 1918, only seventeen men were left out of the all ranks, who had gone to France in 1914.

The 2^nd Battalion fought at Ypres, Aubers Ridge, Festubert, Loos and the Somme. In 1917, it was sent to Italy with the 7^th Division, where it added to its honours at Piave and Vittoria Veneto.

Bandolier equipment, 1903.

The Territorial Force Battalions
The Territorial Force Battalions also contributed greatly to the war effort. Among the several battalions of the Queen’s were the 1/4^th and 1/5^th of the Home Counties Division, which was sent to India and the 2/4^th, which as part of the 53^rd Division, fought at Gallipoli and Gaza and reached Jerusalem in 1917. This battalion then moved to France to fight on the Marne and join in the final offensive. The 3/4^th went to France in 1917 and in its first engagement lost nearly half its strength. The 1/5^th went from India to Mesopotamia and the 6^th went to France in 1915 and fought at Loos, the Somme, Arras and Cambrai.

The Service Battalions
The 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 10^th and 11^th Service Battalions were made up of mainly Kitchener Volunteers. All of them served on the Western Front with distinction. The 7^th went to France in 1915 and suffered appalling casualties on the Somme, at Ypres and at Amiens. The 8^th lost heavily on the Western Front, particularly at the Somme and in the Third Battle of Ypres. The 10^th and 11^th were both with the 41^st Division in 1916 and were decimated at Fleurs, but later contributed to the campaign in Italy.

 

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