The 16th (Irish) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised for service during World War I. The division was a voluntary 'Service' formation of Lord Kitchener's New Armies, created in Ireland from the 'National Volunteers', initially in September 1914, after the outbreak of the Great War. In December 1915, the division moved to France, joining the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under the command of Irish Major General William Hickie, and spent the duration of the war in action on the Western Front. Following enormous losses at the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres, the 16th (Irish) Division required a substantial refit in England between June and August 1918, which involved the introduction of many non-Irish battalions.
Crowd gathered in College Green for the unveiling of a Celtic Cross in memory of the 16th (Irish) Division, Armistice Day, 1924.
Men of the 16th (Irish) Division (possibly of the 47th Brigade) in a lorry going back for a rest after taking Guillemont, 3 September 1916. They are passing by the "Minden Post" on the Fricourt-Maricourt road, west-south-west of Carnoy. Note some soldiers wearing captured German pickelhaubes and feldmutzes. Two soldiers clearly display cap badges of the Royal Irish Regiment.
Cardinal Francis Bourne, the Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and Major-General William Hickie, General Officer Commanding (GOC) 16th (Irish) Division, inspecting troops of the 8/9th (Service) Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers at Ervillers, 27 October 1917.
Headquarters of the 49th Infantry Brigade: the Brigade Major, the Education Officer and the Interpreter. January 1919.
The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, as Kitchener's Mob,
was an (initially) all-volunteer portion of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom from 1914 onwards following the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War in late July 1914. It originated on the recommendation of Herbert Kitchener, then the Secretary of State for War to obtain 500,000 volunteers for the Army. Kitchener's original intention was that these men would be formed into units that would be ready to be put into action in mid-1916, but circumstances dictated the use of these troops before then. The first use in a major action of Kitchener's Army units came at the Battle of Loos.
Alfred Leete's recruitment poster for Kitchener's Army.
1914 poster describing terms of enlistment
A Church of England service at the 10th (Irish) Division's camp at Basingstoke in 1915