The 5th Battalion, King's Regiment (Liverpool) was a volunteer unit of the King's Regiment (Liverpool) of the British Army. It traced its heritage to the raising in 1859 of a number rifle volunteer corps in Liverpool, which were soon consolidated into the 1st Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVC). It was affiliated to the King's Regiment (Liverpool), and became its 1st Volunteer Battalion of the regiment. In 1908 the battalion was transferred to the new Territorial Force as the 5th Battalion, King's Regiment (Liverpool). It saw active service on the Western Front during World War I, as did its second line second-line battalion, and even a garrison battalion. Before World War II it again formed a second line battalion. Both served in home defence, but the 5th King's landed in Normandy on D Day as part of a specialist beach group 1939. When the Territorial Army was reduced in 1967, the 5th King's became a company of the Lancastrian Volunteers.
British soldiers in a wrecked German trench at Ginchy, 1916.
British infantry at Morval, 25 September 1916.
Men of 55th (WL) Division marching through Béthune after the defence of Givenchy, April 1918.
The 55th Division was an infantry division of the British Army's Territorial Force (TF) that saw extensive combat during the First World War. It was raised initially in 1908 as the West Lancashire Division. Following the outbreak of the First World War, in 1914, the majority of the division's men volunteered for overseas service. Those who did not volunteer were used to form new reserve units, and on 31 August 1914 these were used to create the 2nd West Lancashire Division. Rather than being deployed as a whole formation, the West Lancashire Division was broken up during 1914 and 1915, as its troops were dispatched piecemeal to the Western Front. As each left, they were replaced by reserves. When the last volunteers departed for overseas service, the remnant of the division was amalgamated with the 2nd West Lancashire Division, and the West Lancashire Division ceased to exist.
4th Battalion, King's Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment troops disembarking at Trefnant for annual training at Caerwys, 1909
Men of the King's Liverpool Regiment, moving along a communication trench leading to the front line near Wailly, 16 April 1916.
A raiding party of the Liverpool Irish, on the morning after the first large trench raid by the division.
The division's positions in the Guillemont sector. British positions are shown in blue, and the German positions in red.