On formation, the TF contained 14 infantry divisions and 14 mounted yeomanry brigades.

[3][5] The North Midland Division was sent to France in February 1915 and served on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War.

[6] It was later involved in the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, where in the opening phase as part of VII Corps, the southernmost corps of the British Third Army, the Division took part in the diversionary attack at Gommecourt on the first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, which was a catastrophic failure resulting in heavy losses.

[7] The event dogged the division afterwards with a poor reputation until 29 September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive, when it re-established its name at the Battle of St. Quentin Canal where, utilising life-belts and collapsible boats, it crossed the formidable obstacle of the canal and used scaling ladders to surmount the steep gradient of the opposite bank and captured multiple fortified machine-gun posts.

[9] During the war, it served in the First, Second, Third and Fifth Armies, and in the I, II, III, V, VII, XI, XIII, XIV, XVII and XVIII Corps.