By the end of the war all its Cheshire units had left and it was composed of one Welsh battalion with the remainder drawn from the British Indian Army.

For its first three decades, the Volunteer Force of Victorian Britain, created in 1859, consisted of a large number of independent units raised on a local basis and without any higher formations.

Edward Stanhope, Secretary of State for War, then integrated the individual Volunteer units into the Army's Mobilisation Scheme in 1888.

[3][clarification needed] When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force under the Haldane Reforms in 1908, a divisional structure was introduced and the Cheshire Brigade was incorporated into the TF's new Welsh Division.

[8][9] The 5th and 6th Cheshires were among the earliest TF battalions to volunteer and left the brigade to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front.

Initially they were replaced in the 1st Cheshire Brigade by their second line battalions, the 2/5th and 2/6th, but although uniformed and partially equipped, these units were totally unarmed.

The Welsh Division had concentrated in the Northampton area by the end of August 1914, where training was frequently interrupted by trench digging operations along the East Coast.

[6][11] 159th Brigade completed its landing at C Beach in the morning and its four battalions were immediately placed under the command of Brig-Gen W.H.

The staff of 159th Brigade had neither maps nor any information on the situation, but were ordered to send two battalions to reinforce Sitwell, who was 'somewhere over there in the bush'.

Fire from skirmishers and unconfirmed rumours of a Turkish counter-attack 'threw back the leading troops in disorder, despite acts of individual gallantry'.

Afterwards the corps commander, Lt-Gen Sir Frederick Stopford, complained that 53rd (W) Division was a 'sucked orange', with its best-trained battalions having gone to the Western Front.

After the failed attack on Scimitar Hill, Stopford said, the division was 'merely losing heart from ignorance of the situation and lack of intelligent orders', as a result it was 'only a danger' and might 'bolt at any minute'.

[15][16] After the failure of the Suvla Bay operations, the troops dug in and endured months of trench warfare and sickness.

The number of sick grew worse after a three-day blizzard began on 27 November, and 53rd (W) Division was greatly reduced.

[6][11][18] In late 1916 the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) initiated the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, during which 159th Brigade participated in the following actions:[6][11] The German spring offensive on the Western Front led to urgent calls for reinforcements for the BEF, and the EEF was forced to relinquish many of its veteran battalions.

[6][11] The following officers commanded the brigade during World War I:[11] The TF was reformed in 1920 and then reorganised as the Territorial Army (TA) in 1921.

[29] During the Second World War, the 159th (Welsh Border) Infantry Brigade served with 11th Armoured Division in the campaign in North West Europe.