•
21st (Service) Battalion, Manchester Regiment (6th City) •
22nd (Service) Battalion, Manchester Regiment (7th City) •
23rd (Service) Battalion, Manchester Regiment (8th City) However the 23rd (8th City) Battalion was a '
Bantam battalion', composed of men between the heights of 5 foot (152 cm) and 5 foot 3 inches (160 cm), and in May 1915 it was transferred to the
35th Division composed of Bantams and replaced in 91st Bde by 24th (Service) Battalion, Manchester Regiment (Oldham), raised by the Mayor and Town of
Oldham on 24 October 1914. The Manchester and Liverpool Pals had largely been raised by the initiative of
Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby and the 30th Division was sometimes known as 'Lord Derby's Own', or more disparagingly as the 'Derby Family
Retainers'. The divisional sign was based on the Stanley family crest. After initial training at
Morecambe the brigade joined the rest of 30th Division at
Belton Park outside
Grantham soon after it was renumbered. Training was hampered by the same lack of equipment as the other Kitchener units, but on 14 September 1915 30th Division moved to
Larkhill on
Salisbury Plain for final battle training. On 31 October it was ordered to France to join the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fighting on the
Western Front. Before leaving it was inspected by the Earl of Derby. It began entraining for the embarkation ports on 6 November (91st Bde sailing from
Folkestone to
Boulogne) and on 12 November it completed its concentration at
Ailly-le-Haut-Clocher in the
Somme sector.
Order of Battle • 2nd Battalion,
Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) • 1st Battalion,
South Staffordshire Regiment • 21st (Service) Battalion, Manchester Regiment (5th City) –
transferred to 25th Division 13 September 1918 • 22nd (Service) Battalion, Manchester Regiment (6th City) • 4th Battalion,
Cameron Highlanders –
transferred to 51st (Highland) Division 7 January 1916 • 91st Brigade Machine Gun (MG) Company –
joined from England 14 March 1916; transferred to No 7 Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, 1 April 1918'' • 91st Brigade Trench Mortar (TM) Battery –
formed May 1916 Service 91st Brigade spent the remainder of the war as part of 7th Division, seeing action at the following battles and engagements: •
Battle of Bazentin Ridge (14–17 July): Coming up from reserve, 91st Bde advanced into
High Wood, but the gains could not be held. • 91st Brigade fought off a German counter-attack in front of
Delville Wood on 31 August. •
Battle of Guillemont (3–7 September): 91st Brigade was in reserve, but elements supported the attack on
Ginchy.
1917 •
Operations on the Ancre, January–March 1917: On 10 January 91st Bde captured Munich Trench on the
Beaumont-Hamel spur. • German retreat to the
Hindenburg Line (
Operation Alberich): On 24 February patrols of 91st Bde found the enemy trenches opposite to be empty, and the brigade led the initial pursuit through
Serre. It failed to capture
Bucquoy on 14 March, but by 2 April the division had closed up to and captured the Hindenburg Line outposts. •
Second Battle of Bullecourt: 91st Brigade attacked on 12 and 13 May with little success, during which Brig-Gen Cumming was relieved of command of the brigade. •
Third Battle of Ypres: •
Battle of Broodseinde: A deliberate attack on 4 October saw 91st Bde advance behind an effective
creeping barrage to the edge of the
Gheluvelt Plateau, where they observed the Germans streaming away down the slope in front of them, and took hundreds of demoralised prisoners. •
Second Battle of Passchendaele (26–29 October): By now the weather had broken. 7th Division attempted to attack down the Menin Road towards the village of
Gheluvelt; it made little progress and casualties were heavy. Even the Commander-in-Chief,
Sir Douglas Haig, acknowledged that the division was 'really engulfed in mud in some places when they attacked Gheluvelt. Rifles could not be used'. On 10 November the division was warned that it was to move to the
Italian Front. Entrainment began on 17 November and by 28 November the divisional concentration at
Legnano was almost complete The division then advanced to the
Piave Sector. It moved to the
Asiago Sector in March 1918.
1918 • Raids on the Asiago Plateau: 91st Brigade was engaged in
raids on the
Austrian lines, particularly on 17/18 April and 8/9 August. •
Battle of Vittorio Veneto: • Passage of the Piave: 91st Brigade crossed by pontoon bridges on the night of 26/27 October and attacked across the island of Grave di Papadopoli the following morning, crossing the defended
bund and pushing forward through ruined villages and fortified farms despite the lack of success of flanking formations, taking hundreds of prisoners until it reached the extreme range of its covering artillery. Next day, organised as a brigade group with mounted
Yeomanry,
cyclists, field artillery and an Italian mountain artillery battery, it advanced rapidly. On forced a passage across the River Monticano and advanced rapidly to capture Cimetta. • Crossing of the
Tagliamento: 7th Division waded across the river unopposed on 4 November before the
Armistice of Villa Giusti came into effect later that day, The day after the Armistice, 7th Division was withdrawn to the
Trissino area, where
demobilisation got under way. 22nd Manchesters were chosen as one of four British battalions to remain in Italy, and it was kept up to strength with men enlisted after 1916, volunteers, and recruits from the UK. The battalion was later stationed at
Innsbruck in Austria.
Commanders The following commanded the brigade during the war: • Brig-Gen F.J. Kempster,
DSO, from 1 January 1915 • Brig-Gen
John Minshull-Ford, from 3 February 1916 • Brig-Gen
Hanway Cumming, from 20 November 1916 •
Colonel W.W. Norman, acting from 12 May 1917 • Brig-Gen R.T. Pelly, from 16 May 1917 ==1950s==