The brigade was a part of the Natal Field Force under the command of Major General Sir Geoffrey Barton.

[1] It was composed as follows; Following the end of the Boer war in 1902 the army was restructured, and a 3rd Infantry division was established permanently at Bordon as part of the 1st Army Corps, comprising the 5th and 6th Infantry Brigades.

In October, the brigade, under the command of Brigadier Noel Irwin, moved with the rest of the division to France to become part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

The brigade was involved in the short Battle of France fighting at the Battles of The Dyle, St Omer-La Bassée and the retreat to and evacuation from Dunkirk in May–June 1940.

With the invasion of Burma by the Imperial Japanese Army in early 1942 the brigade was shipped out to India with the 2nd Division where it would remain for the rest of the war, fighting in the Burma Campaign.