4th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)


The 4th Infantry Division was a regular infantry division of the British Army with a very long history, seeing active service in the Peninsular War and Waterloo Campaign, the Crimean and Boer Wars and both World Wars. It was disbanded after the Second World War and reformed in the 1950s as an armoured formation before being disbanded and reformed again and finally disbanded on 1 January 2012.

Napoleonic Wars

The 4th Division was originally formed in 1809 by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, as part of the Anglo-Portuguese Army, for service in the Peninsular War. It fought in the Battles of Talavera, Salamanca, Roncesvalles, Vitoria, the Pyrenees, Orthez, and Toulouse, and the siege of Badajoz.

Peninsular War order of battle

The order of battle from January 1812 was as follows:
Major General Sir Charles Colville
Major General Lowry Cole
  • 1st Brigade: Major General James Kemmis
  • * 3/27th Regiment of Foot
  • * 1/40th Regiment of Foot
  • * 1/48th Regiment of Foot
  • * 2nd Provisional Battalion
  • * 1 Coy., 5/60th Regiment of Foot
  • 2nd Brigade: Major General Sir Edward Pakenham
  • * 1/7th Regiment of Foot
  • * 2/7th Regiment of Foot
  • * 20th Regiment of Foot
  • * 1/23rd Regiment of Foot
  • * 1/48th Regiment of Foot
  • * 1/82nd Regiment of Foot
  • * 1 Coy., Brunswick-Oels Jaegers
  • 3rd Brigade: Major General Skerrett
  • * 3/1st Foot Guards
  • * 2/47th Regiment of Foot
  • * 2/87th Regiment of Foot
  • * 2 Cos., 2/95th Regiment of Foot
  • Portuguese Brigade: Major General Collins
  • * 1/11th Line Infantry of the Portuguese Army
  • * 2/11th Line Infantry of the Portuguese Army
  • * 1/23rd Line Infantry of the Portuguese Army
  • * 2/23rd Line Infantry of the Portuguese Army
  • * 7th Caçadores of the Portuguese Army

    Waterloo

At the Battle of Waterloo it was tasked with holding Wellington's right flank and, with the exception of its 4th brigade, took no active part in the fighting, but did capture the town of Cambrai afterwards. The commanding general at this time was Charles Colville. In his novel Les Misérables Victor Hugo credits Colville with asking for the surrender of the Imperial Guard at Waterloo and receiving General Cambronne's reply of "Merde".

Waterloo order of battle

The Division was also called for service during the Crimean War fought between the allied forces of the United Kingdom, French Empire and the Ottoman Empire on one side and Russia on the other. It saw action in the Battle of Alma the Battle of Inkerman and the Battle of Balaclava, fought on 25 October 1854.

Crimean War order of battle

Commanding General: Major General Sir George Cathcart
The Army Corps sent from Britain on the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899 comprised three divisions while the troops already in South Africa were intended to constitute a 4th Division of three brigades. However, the troops intended to form the 7th and 8th Brigades became caught up in the Siege of Ladysmith. It was only after the Relief of Ladysmith in March 1900 that the 4th Division under the command of Lieutenant-General the Hon Neville Lyttelton was formed from the garrison and joined the Natal Field Force. It was sometimes known as the 'Ladysmith Division'.
File:Neville Gerald Lyttelton, Vanity Fair, 1901-09-05.jpg|thumb|upright|'4th Division'. Caricature of Lt-Gen Neville Lyttelton by 'Spy', published in Vanity Fair in 1901.

Order of Battle

The division was constituted as follows:
7th Brigade
8th Brigade
Divisional troops
The troops of 4th Division were still sickly after the Siege of Ladysmith, and it played little part in Sir Redvers Buller's operations to clear the Boers out of Natal in May and June. It was then left to defend Natal when Buller advanced into Transvaal in July. The division was not complete until 5 August when Walter Kitchener's 7th Brigade caught up. It marched out next day with Buller towards Balmoral to link up with Lord Roberts's Army. The division fought an engagement with the Boers on the way to Amersfoort on 7 August, then carried out a 10-day march via Ermelo, skirmishing every day, with the opposition increasing as the column advanced. On 22 August Walter Kitchener was detached with part of his brigade to clear some troublesome Kopjes on the flank, and next day section of 21st Battery, RFA, was heavily engaged with Boer guns. The division joined up with Roberts on 27 August, when 7th Brigade assaulted an entrenched position on the Berg-en-dal kopje.
The Battle of Bergendal was the last set-piece action of the war, but was followed by a long period of Guerrilla warfare. British forces were increasingly dispersed into ad hoc columns pursuing small Boer forces. Lyttelton's division was reduced to five-and-a-half battalions and a Mounted infantry detachment for Buller's advance to Lydenburg in September. On 5 September 7 Brigade's camp came under long range artillery fire, but Howard and the artillery cleared the Boers away. The column entered Lydenburg on 7 September, then attacked Paardeplaats next day, when Lyttelton with his four remaining battalions attacked the Boer right. Buller's column then marched into the rugged country of North East Transvaal through the 'Devil's Knuckles' and 'Hell's Gate' before returning to Lydenburg on 2 October, capturing a large Boer supply column on the way.
Roberts and Buller returned to the UK In early October and Lyttelton took over command of Buller's forces scattered in small garrisons guarding the Natal–Delagoa Bay Railway. The brigade and divisional organisation was abandoned for the rest of the war.

First World War

As a permanently established Regular Army division it was amongst the first to be sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force at the outbreak of the First World War. It served on the Western Front for the duration of the war and was present during all the major offensives including the Battle of the Marne, Battle of Ypres, Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Passchendaele.

Order of battle

The order of battle of 4th Division during the First World War was as follows:
; 10th Brigade :
; 11th Brigade :
; 12th Brigade :
From early November 1915 until February 1916 the 12th Brigade was swapped with the 107th Brigade of the 36th Division.
Artillery
Engineers
Pioneers'''

France and Belgium

Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 the 4th Division, under Major General Dudley Johnson, who had won the Victoria Cross in the Great War, was sent to the border between France and Belgium as part of Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke's II Corps of the British Expeditionary Force. All three of the division's brigades were commanded by distinguished soldiers, the 10th by Brigadier Evelyn Barker, the 11th by Brigadier Kenneth Anderson and the 12th by Brigadier John Hawkesworth. After the disastrous Battle of France in May–June 1940, where the division sustained heavy losses, and the evacuation at Dunkirk, it spent the next two years in the United Kingdom on anti-invasion duties and training for its next deployment.
File:The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H17909.jpg|thumb|left|The Duke of Kent inspects Universal Carriers of the 1st Battalion, Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, at Camberley, Surrey, 16 March 1942.
In June 1942 the division, now under Major General John Hawkesworth, was selected to be converted into a 'mixed' division, consisting of two infantry brigades and one tank brigade. As a result of this change, the divisions' 11th Infantry Brigade left the division and was replaced by the 21st Army Tank Brigade.