[1][2] 20th Brigade was formed in South Africa in 1900 under the command of Major-General Arthur Paget as part of Lieutenant-General Lord Methuen's 1st Division.

On 2 July the mounted troops left Lindley and cleared the country toward Leeuw Kop while the South Staffs made a demonstration against the ridge east of the town.

Although the trap was not complete, Christiaan de Wet leading the escape of some of the Boers, Commandant Prinsloo and some 4000 men surrendered to the British forces on 29 July.

For the rest of the war, formal divisional and brigade organisations dissolved into ad hoc columns formed and reformed for specific tasks.

[18][19] Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, a new 20th Brigade was organised, composed of the last three Regular infantry battalions left in Britain after the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) went to France.

[20][22][27] 20th Brigade assembled at Lyndhurst, Hampshire, forming part of 7th Division, which was otherwise composed of Regular battalions brought back from various overseas stations.

[20][22][21][28] The composition of 20th Bde on embarkation was as follows:[20][22] 7th Division landed at Zeebrugge on 7 October 1914, intended to assist the Belgian Army in the defence of Antwerp.

In the event all it could do was help to cover the Belgian retreat and then take up defensive positions at Ypres where they were joined by the rest of the BEF after the Race to the Sea.

[20][22][31][32] On 5 December, the badly-depleted brigade was reinforced by a Territorial Force unit, the 1/6th (Banff and Donside) Battalion Gordon Highlanders, which had been serving as GHQ troops since landing in France.

[20][22][34] 20th Brigade was in support on the first day of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle (10 March 1915), moving up to the front that night and only suffering a few casualties from stray shrapnel.

[20][22][35][36][37] On the second day it was tasked with moving out from the 'Moated Grange' position into the gap between the leading brigades of 7th and 8th Divisions and then advance to take Aubers village.

Although the orders arrived late, the brigade moved off on time at 07.00 in column of platoons, but came under heavy shellfire and flanking machine gun fire and suffered severely.

Although the attack was postponed, the runners carrying the recall orders were killed and the leading companies of both battalions advanced into No Man's Land until they were pinned down by machine gun fire from a German position known as the Quadrilateral.

[42][43][44] At the Battle of Festubert the brigade attacked at dawn on the second day,[20][22] with the Scots Guards and Border Regiment moving close up to the German line before the bombardment ended.

Accurate German artillery fire on the support and reserve lines broke the cohesion of the attack, though some of 2nd Gordons managed to get up between the two leading battalions.

The Borders had been pushed back to the British line but the rest of 7th Division dug in on the old German positions, 20th Bde assisted by 55th Field Company, Royal Engineers.

On the night of 3 June two companies from 6th Gordons, supported by bombers from the Borders, machine guns from the Scots Guards and sappers from 55th Field Co, improved the line by taking a German strongpoint after a mine had been exploded beneath it.

[20] A more fundamental reorganisation took place in September 1918: in preparation to move back to France 20th Bde was reduced to three battalions in line with the current establishment for the Western Front.