Prior to World War I the brigade was based at Tidworth Camp in England; and originally consisted of three cavalry regiments and a Royal Engineers signal troop.

After the declaration of war in August 1914, the brigade was deployed to the Western Front in France, where an artillery battery joined the brigade the following September and a Machine Gun Squadron in February 1916.

[2] These performed a purely administrative, rather than tactical, role;[3] the normal tactical headquarters were provided by brigades commanding two, later usually three, regiments.

[4] The cavalry brigades were named for the commanding officer, rather than numbered.

[a] For the Hundred Days Campaign, he numbered his British cavalry brigades in a single sequence, 1st to 7th.