Assigned to the 52nd (Lowland) Division, the brigade saw active service in the Middle East and on the Western Front during the First World War.

During the Second World War, now the 155th Infantry Brigade, it continued to serve with the 52nd Division in Operation Dynamo, and later in North-western Europe from late 1944 until May 1945.

[1][2] The Stanhope Memorandum of 1888 proposed a comprehensive Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war.

[5] After the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908,[6][7] the South Scottish Brigade (as it was now designated) formed part of the Lowland Division of the TF with the following composition:[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the Lowland Division was mobilised for full-time war service.

The 52nd Division was itself evacuated from France on 17 June 1940, and spent many years on anti-invasion duties, training to repel an expected German invasion of Britain.

The brigade was attached to 7th Armoured Division during Operation Blackcock in 1945 and ended the war by the River Elbe.