1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom)

[4] On 3 June 1810, Payne returned home and his second-in-command, Major-General Stapleton Cotton, took command.

It participated in most of the major actions where cavalry were used as a mounted mobile force, they would also be used as dismounted troops and effectively serve as infantry.

[9] On 11 November 1918, the day of the armistice with Germany, orders were received that the division would lead the advance of the Second Army of the BEF into Germany, by 6 December, having passed through Namur, the division secured the Rhine bridgehead at Cologne.

[14] In May 1941, the Divisional Headquarters and elements of the division (notably the 4th Cavalry Brigade), together with a battalion of infantry from the Essex Regiment (the 1st Battalion), a mechanised regiment from the Arab Legion and supporting artillery was reorganised as Habforce for operations in Iraq including the relief of the base at RAF Habbaniya and the occupation of Baghdad.

Following this, in July 1941, Habforce was placed under the command of Australian I Corps and was involved in operations against the Vichy French in Syria, advancing from eastern Iraq near the Trans-Jordan border to capture Palmyra and secure the Haditha - Tripoli oil pipeline.