By 12 April 1915, the division marshalled on Salisbury Plain and its newly appointed commander, Major-General Count Edward Gleichen headquartered at Andover.

Gleichen's experience included commanding the 15th Brigade in the regular 5th Division during the opening British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.)

By this time Count Gleichen had left the division and his replacement, Major-General Scrase-Dickens, had fallen sick.

[8] Major-General H. Bruce-Williams (a Royal Engineer officer) had taken over and successfully commanded the division for the rest of the war.

At this time the division was under the command of Third Army's IV Corps, and remained part of this formation for the rest of the war.

During its active service on the Western Front the division had suffered some 29,969 casualties, killed, wounded and missing.

[11] Immediately following the war, the division compiled a souvenir publication in the form of a trench magazine entitled The Golden Horseshoe (1919).

began in mid 1915 with the arrival of units of Kitchener's Armies and was widespread after the Somme Battles of 1916.