During World War II, again as part of the 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division, the brigade remained in the United Kingdom.

The Volunteer Force of part-time soldiers was created following an invasion scare in 1859, and its constituent units were progressively aligned with the Regular British Army during the later 19th Century.

The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 introduced a Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war.

Brigade Headquarters was at 2 Islington Square in Liverpool and the commander was Major-General William De Wilton Roche Thackwell, a retired veteran of the Crimean and Anglo-Egyptian Wars.

When the King's raised an additional volunteer battalion – the 8th (Scottish) – during the Second Boer War, it replaced the 1st Cheshire in the brigade.

[6][10][11] However, between November 1914 and March 1915, all the infantry battalions of the West Lancashire Division were sent overseas to France and Belgium to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front which had suffered heavy casualties and was struggling to hold the line.

In December 1943, with the division, the brigade was sent to Northern Ireland and was raised to a Higher Establishment in May 1944, before returning to the United Kingdom in July.