A permanent headquarters was built at Wigan, the £6000 cost being raised by the formation of a limited liability company with £1 shares bought by the members through small instalments.

[8][9] When the Volunteers were consolidated into larger units in 1880, the 4th Admin Bn became the 21st Lancashire RVC on 6 March, taking the number of its senior subunit, but renumbered as the 4th Lancashire RVC on 3 September the same year, with the following organisation:[6][8] By now Lt-Col Chambers had become the battalion's honorary colonel, and with so many companies the unit was entitled to two lieutenant-colonels, of whom James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford, a former Ensign in the Grenadier Guards and MP for Wigan, was the senior, and his brother-in-law Arthur Bootle-Wilbraham (grandson of the 1st Lord Skelmersdale and father of the 5th Lord), a former Ensign in the Coldstream Guards, was the junior.

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

[23][24][25][26] On 20 August the East Lancashire Division moved into camps, with the Manchester Bde near Rochdale, and on 5 September it received orders to go to Egypt to complete its training and relieve Regular units from the garrison for service on the Western Front.

On 3 May 1/5th and 1/6th Manchesters embarked at Alexandria on the SS Derfflinger, a captured German Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping line vessel that had just arrived with a cargo of wounded from the initial landings at Gallipoli.

The 1/5th Bn bivouacked above 'W' Beach ('Lancashire Landing') and during the night of 7/8 May was moved, with ammunition, rations and entrenching equipment, but no blankets or baggage, to the Krithia sector, where the men went into the firing line for a 10-day period.

The battalion's second attack also failed, and a reconnaissance by 1/7th Bn revealed that H13 was fully held by the Turks, and that the remnants of the Worcesters were slipping back across No man's land.

[19][20][23][33][38][39] After a short rest and receiving a few drafts and returning casualties, the division was put back into the line on 19 August, still badly under strength and suffering from sickness.

[21][22][23][33][42] The Gallipoli Campaign was shut down at the beginning of January, but 42nd (EL) Division remained on Mudros for some time before returning to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) and the Suez Canal defences.

In July, 42nd (EL) Division became part of a Mobile Column (under Maj-Gen Hon Herbert Lawrence, former brigadier of 127th Bde) formed to counter a threatened Turkish thrust across the Sinai desert before it reached the canal.

During 5 and 6 August the brigade pursued the defeated Turkish force, suffering badly from extreme heat and lack of water, with many men falling out through exhaustion, until it reached Qatiya.

The troops were concentrated at Pont-Remy, near Abbeville, and re-equipped; the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle was issued in place of the obsolescent long model with which the battalions had gone to war.

During 26 March the enemy began working round the division's flanks, and it was ordered to pull back to the Bucquoy–Ablainzevelle line; 127th Brigade slipped away unnoticed and the German advance was held in front of Bucquoy, despite heavy shellfire.

On 2 September 127th Bde put in a setpiece attack on Villers-au-Flos with support from tanks, aircraft, mortars and a creeping barrage that began moving forward at 05.18.

5th Manchesters on the right made good progress and the village was entered at 05.50 and cleared by 06.00, though the right-hand company was held up by pockets of enemy until the field guns and aircraft accompanying the advance were turned onto them.

The division then exploited this success, and a period of open warfare ensued, with cavalry passing through 127th Bde and going into action as the Germans withdrew to the Hindenburg Line once more.

Zero hour was 05.30 on 27 September; the bombardment on 42nd (EL) Division's opened at 08.20 and A Company of 5th Manchesters left their trenches three minutes later, leading 127th Bde's advance over the Trescault Ridge 'in fine stye'.

He was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross, the citation stating that 'He succeeded in delivering the message although the journey involved exposure to extremely heavy machine-gun and shell fire for 600 yards (550 m).

The rest of the battalion successfully sailed from Folkestone to Le Havre on the SS Princess Henrietta on 6 March under the command of Lt-Col Alfred Hewlett (who had only joined 5th Manchesters as a 2nd Lieutenant after the outbreak of war and had been rapidly promoted[70][71]).

2/5th Manchesters carried out the battalion's first offensive operation when C and D Companies raided the trenches opposite on the evening of 8 June behind an artillery barrage and smoke screen, taking prisoners while accompanying Royal Engineers blew in tunnel entrances.

From August it moved round to face the German trenches across the River Yser, with the men accommodated in tunnels and dugouts beneath Nieuport when they were in the line.

When the German spring offensive opened on 21 March the divisional front was held by three battalions in the Forward Zone (or Outpost Line), including 2/5th Manchesters.

The defences in the Hargicourt sector were close to the enemy's jumping-off trenches, and aided by early morning fog, the German attackers quickly penetrated the outposts at Villaret.

2/7th Manchesters marching up to occupy their positions in the Battle Zone met a few survivors of 2/5th Bn, who joined them, a story repeated all along the line as 66th (EL) Division fought to hold the enemy advance.

[51][69][57][75][76][77][78] 2/6th Manchesters with the remnants of 2/5th Bn held on doggedly next day until 14.00 before falling back under cover of fog to the 'Green Line' at Hébécourt, where 50th (Northumbrian) Division was hurriedly digging in.

On 23 March Lt-Col Maxwell and the remnant of 2/5th Manchesters helped 2/6th Bn to hold Bristol Bridge at Péronne, while British forces retreated over it.

[6][21][22][90][91] When the TF was reconstituted on 7 February 1920 (becoming the Terrotorial Ary (TA) in 1921) the 5th Bn Manchester Regiment reformed at the Drill Hall, Wigan, under the command of Lt-Col A.W.W.

5th Manchesters mobilised in 127 Bde and trained first in Central Park, Wigan, then at Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, in October, moving to Marlborough, Wiltshire, in January 1940.

[6][94][98][108][109][110] 42nd Armoured Division was disbanded at the end of 1943, and several of its units reverted to their original designation and role, including 5th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, on 1 December 1943 when it was at Greatham, County Durham.

In December the battalion moved to Nutley, East Sussex, but D Company remained on royal protection duties at Sandringham House in Norfolk.