17th (Northern) Division


The 17th Division was an infantry division of the British Army, a Kitchener's Army formation raised during the Great War.

Formation history

The 17th Division was created under Northern Command in September 1914, just a month after the British entry into the Great War, from men volunteering for Lord Kitchener's New Armies. Most of the volunteers had had little prior military experience. Worsening the situation was an acute lack of experienced officers and NCO's to train the new men as, due to the huge expansion of the British Army, experienced soldiers were needed everywhere. Furthermore, weapons and equipment, along with billets, were scarce.
The division, commanded by Major General Walter Kenyon-Slaney, part of Kitchener's Second New Army, concentrated throughout Dorset for training, moving to Hampshire in late May 1915. In early July the division sent advance parties to France in preparation for a move overseas, the rest of the division following a week later, moving to Saint-Omer for concentration. The division was to remain on the Western Front for the rest of the war, with most of the rest of 1915 being spent in the southern sector of the Ypres Salient, being instructed in trench warfare.
The division's first major engagement was in July 1916, where the division, as part of V Corps, fought in the battles of Albert |Albert] and Delville Wood, both part of the larger Battle of the Somme. On the first day on the Somme, on 1 July 1916, the 50th Brigade, in particular the 10th Battalion, West Yorkshires, suffered very heavy casualties, the highest sustained by any British unit on that day. On 13 July Major General Thomas Pilcher, who had been in command since January 1915, was sacked by his superiors, who were not impressed with him. He was replaced by Major General Philip Robertson, who was to remain in command for the rest of the war.
In April 1917 the division, now part of VI Corps, fought in the first and second battles of the Scarpe, both part of the Battle of Arras, where heavy casualties were sustained. The division later fought in the First and Second Battles of Passchendaele, part of the much longer Third Battle of Ypres.
Early 1918 saw the division resting after the battles of the previous year, again as part of V Corps. The division fought in the German Army's Spring Offensives, followed by the Battle of Epehy and the Battle of Cambrai, both part of the attempt to smash the German Hindenburg Line during the Hundred Days Offensive which saw the end of the trench warfare and brought the war to an end on 11 November 1918.
During the Great War the 17th Division had, from 1915, when it departed for the Western Front, until 1918, when the war ended, sustained 40,258 casualties.

Order of battle

The 17th Division was constituted as follows during the war:
; 50th Brigade :
; 51st Brigade :
; 52nd Brigade :
; Divisional Troops :
; Divisional Mounted Troops :
; Divisional Artillery :
; Royal Engineers :
  • 77th Field Company, Royal Engineers
  • 78th Field Company, Royal Engineers
  • 93rd Field Company, Royal Engineers
  • 17th Divisional Signals Company, Royal Engineers
; Royal Army Medical Corps :
; Other Divisional Troops :