I Corps (United Kingdom)


I Corps was an army corps in existence as an active formation in the British Army for most of the 80 years from its creation in the First World War until the end of the Cold War, longer than any other corps. It had a short-lived precursor during the Waterloo Campaign. It served as the operational component of the British Army of the Rhine during the Cold War, and was tasked with defending West Germany.

Napoleonic precursor

Assembling an army in Belgium to fight Napoleon's resurgent forces in the spring of 1815, the 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington] formed it into army corps, deliberately mixing units from the Anglo-Hanoverian, Dutch-Belgian and German contingents so that the weaker elements would be stiffened by more experienced or reliable troops. As he put it: 'It was necessary to organize these troops in brigades, divisions, and corps d’armee with those better disciplined and more accustomed to war'. He placed I Corps under the command of the Prince of Orange and it was this corps that was first contacted by the advancing French at Quatre Bras on 16 June 1815. However, Wellington did not employ the corps as tactical entities, and continued his accustomed practice of issuing orders directly to divisional and lower commanders. When he drew up his army on the ridge at Waterloo, elements of the various corps were mixed up, and although he gave the Prince of Orange nominal command of the centre, that officer had different forces under him. Subsequent to the battle, the corps structure was re-established for the advance into France, I Corps being commanded by Maj-Gen Sir John Byng, the Prince of Orange having been wounded at Waterloo.

Composition of I Corps in the Waterloo Campaign

: General The Prince of Orange
After Waterloo the army corps structure largely disappeared from the British Army, except for ad hoc formations assembled during annual manoeuvres. In 1876 a Mobilisation Scheme for eight army corps was published, with 'First Corps' based on Colchester. In 1880 First Corps' organization was:
This scheme had been dropped by 1881. The Stanhope Memorandum of 1891 laid down the policy that after providing for garrisons and India, the army should be able to mobilise three army corps for home defence, two of regular troops and one partly of militia, each of three divisions. Only after those commitments, it was hoped, might two army corps be organised for the unlikely eventuality of deployment abroad.
When the Second Anglo-Boer War was imminent in September 1899, a field army, referred to as the Army Corps was mobilised and sent to Cape Town. It was, in fact, 'about the equivalent of the First Army Corps of the existing mobilization scheme', and was placed under the command of Gen Sir Redvers Buller, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Aldershot Command. However, once in South Africa the corps never operated as such, and the three divisions |2nd] and St John Brodrick allowed for six army corps based on the six regional commands of which only I Corps and II Corps would be entirely formed of regular troops. However, these arrangements remained theoretical, the title 'I Corps' being added to Aldershot Command. In early October 1902 a memorandum was issued showing the organization and allocation of the 1st Army Corps, to which Sir John French had recently been appointed in command: