The corps was formed in France in October 1914, under General Sir Edmund Allenby.

[1] It served as part of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front throughout its existence.

They were armed with rifles, unlike their French and German counterparts, who were only armed with the shorter range carbine.

The cavalry division also had a high allocation of artillery compared to foreign cavalry divisions, with 24 13-pounder guns organised into two brigades and two machine guns for each regiment.

However, when dismounted, the cavalry division was the equivalent of two weakened infantry brigades with less artillery than the infantry division.