10th (Irish) Division

10th (Irish) Division
Active	World War I August 1914 - January 1919
Country	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Branch	New Army
Type	Infantry
Part of	K1 Army Group
Engagements	Battle of Gallipoli  –  Battle of Sari Bair    –  Battle of Chunuk Bair Third Battle of Gaza

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, Palestine and on the Western Front. 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 disastrous Landing at Cape Helles 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.

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.

Formation

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

The division comprised the following brigades:

29th Brigade

• 5th Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment (August 1914 – June 1915, then became the divisional pioneer battalion)
• 6th Battalion, The Royal Irish Rifles (August 1914 – May 1918, then disbanded)
• 5th Battalion, The Connaught Rangers (September 1914 – April 1918, transferred to 66th Division)
• 6th Battalion, The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) (August 1914 – April 1918, transferred to 14th Division)
• 10th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment (March – October 1915)
• 1st Battalion, The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (November 1916 – October 1918)
• 1/54th Sikhs (April – October 1918)
• 1/101st Grenadiers (April – October 1918)
• 2/151st 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, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers (August 1914 – May 1918, transferred to the 66th Division)
• 7th Battalion, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers (August 1914 – April 1918, reduced to cadre and transferred to the 16th Division)
• 1st Battalion, The 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, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (August 1914 – May 1918, transferred to the 66th Division)
• 6th Battalion, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (August 1914 – May 1918, transferred to the 14th Division
• 5th Battalion, The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's) (August 1914 – April 1918, transferred to the 14th Division)
• 6th Battalion, The Royal Irish Fusiliers (August 1914 – November 1916, absorbed by the 5th Battalion)
• 2nd Battalion, The Royal Irish Fusiliers (November 1916 – October 1918)
• 2nd Battalion, 42nd Deoli Regiment (July – October 1918)
• 74th Punjabis (April – October 1918)
• 2/101st Grenadiers (May – October 1918)
• 38th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (June – July 1918)

Pioneers

• 5th Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment (June 1915 – April 1918, transferred to the 52nd Division)

Battles and engagements

Gallipoli

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

Salonika

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

Palestine

• 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:

• December 1903-February 1904 Major-General Herbert Plumer
• March 1904 – 1905 Lieutenant-General Arthur Wynne

• 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 WWI

Further reading

• 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.
• Bryan Cooper (1918): The 10th (Irish) Division in Gallipoli, Irish Academic Press (1993), (2003). ISBN 0-7165-2517-8.
• 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 Publishing (2007), ISBN 978-1-84603-015-4
• David Murphy: The Irish Brigades, 1685-2006, A gazatteer 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 & Nacmillan (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

• The British Army in the Great War: The 10th (Irish) Division
• 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