In 1880, its order of battle was as follows: V Corps was mobilised in July 1876 under the command of General the Hon Sir Augustus Spencer for summer training around the Wylye Valley in Wiltshire.

[7] Under Army Order No 38 of 1907, the corps titles disappeared, but Northern Command continued to be a major administrative organisation.

As a result, Second Army was reduced to a single corps and its commander, Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, resigned.

[20][21] Meanwhile, on 28 February, Fanshawe ordered 3rd Division to begin preparations for a surprise attack at St Eloi, preceded by mines but without the normal long preparatory bombardment.

The attack was made on 27 March and was initially successful, but the weather and ground conditions were awful and 3rd Division was exhausted and unable to consolidate the position in the craters.

He was replaced by his elder brother, Lt-Gen Edward Arthur Fanshawe, promoted from command of 11th (Northern) Division.

V Corps finally took some of the 1 July objectives, such as Beaumont Hamel (by the 51st (Highland) Division), but ended with a failure at Redan Ridge during the action known as the Battle of the Ancre.

[28][29] Winter Operations on the Ancre included the capture of Ten Tree Alley by 32nd Division of V Corps on 10–13 February 1917.

[31] When the Germans began their retreat to the Hindenburg Line (14 March – 5 April 1917) V Corps followed up slowly against rearguards.

[35] On 20 September, V Corps was assigned stiff objectives for the Battle of the Menin Road, and the 55th Division took heavy casualties.

The very next day, the Germans made a heavy counter-attack, and V Corps was forced to withdraw to the Flesquières Line.

[39][40] Although offering strong defences, the Flesquières position formed a dangerous salient in front of the British line.

In the following days, as the situation on the flanks deteriorated, Byng had to issue hasty orders to extricate V Corps from the trap.

The Official Historian, Sir James Edmonds, wrote in 1932 that 'Byng the bungler was mainly responsible for clinging to the salient.

[45] The withdrawal entailed a retreat across the devastated zone in front of the Hindenburg Line and the old Somme battlefields, and by the end of 26 March V Corps was back on the Ancre Heights, where the troops held off fresh Germans attacks on 27–28 March (First Battle of Arras (1918)) and 5 April (Battle of the Ancre (1918)).

[52] For the follow-up on 9 October there were no trenches or wire in front, so Shute's orders were for open warfare, and no barrages were fired, the artillery moving up behind the infantry in support.

[54] When the Armistice ended hostilities on 11 November 1918, V Corps was within a mile or two of the Franco-Belgian border, with cavalry out in front.

In the early part of the Second World War, V Corps was based at Bhurtpore Barracks in Tidworth Camp within Southern Command.

[57] He was succeeded by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery from 22 July 1940 until 27 April 1941, when he was transferred to command XII Corps.