52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division
The 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army that was originally formed as the Lowland Division, in 1908 as part of the Territorial Force. It later became the 52nd (Lowland) Division in 1915. The 52nd (Lowland) Division fought in the First World War before being disbanded, with the rest of the Territorial Force, in 1920.
Stretcher bearers of the 1st Battalion, Glasgow Highlanders in France, 13 June 1940.
Men of the 5th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry training in the mountains near Inverness, Scotland, 22 October 1942.
A 3.7-inch mountain howitzer of the 1st Mountain Artillery Regiment, Royal Artillery, attached to 52nd Division, on exercise at Trawsfynydd in Wales, sometime in 1942. The gun crew are wearing weatherproof anoraks, mountaineering breeches and woollen stockings.
Men of 'C' Company of the 4th Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, move up to attack a pillbox, the Netherlands, 11 December 1944.
The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry into a unified auxiliary, commanded by the War Office and administered by local county territorial associations. The Territorial Force was designed to reinforce the regular army in expeditionary operations abroad, but because of political opposition it was assigned to home defence. Members were liable for service anywhere in the UK and could not be compelled to serve overseas. In the first two months of the First World War, territorials volunteered for foreign service in significant numbers, allowing territorial units to be deployed abroad. They saw their first action on the Western Front during the initial German offensive of 1914, and the force filled the gap between the near destruction of the regular army that year and the arrival of the New Army in 1915. Territorial units were deployed to Gallipoli in 1915 and, following the failure of that campaign, provided the bulk of the British contribution to allied forces in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. By the war's end, the Territorial Force had fielded twenty-three infantry divisions and two mounted divisions on foreign soil. It was demobilised after the war and reconstituted in 1921 as the Territorial Army.
Presentation of colours and guidons to 108 units of the Territorial Force by King Edward VII at Windsor Palace, 19 June 1909
Late 19th-century volunteers of the 22nd Middlesex Rifle Volunteers (Central London Rangers)
Richard Haldane, architect of the Territorial Force
Lord Roberts, fierce critic of the Territorial Force and strong proponent of conscription as a better alternative