A Short History of the 6th Division | Page 7

be made of the thirty-five-mile march to Croix Dubac to
assist in an extensive raid by the Anzac Corps, made by the 24th
Brigade, R.F.A., at the shortest notice. The brigade was away ten days.
During this period the principal change which occurred in the Order of
Battle of the Division was the arrival of the 71st Infantry Brigade
(Brig.-Gen. M. Shewen) instead of the 17th Infantry Brigade, which
took the place of the former in the 24th Division. Consequent on this
was a redistribution of battalions to brigades--the 1st Leicestershire
Regiment, from the 16th Infantry Brigade, and the 2nd Sherwood

Foresters, from the 18th Infantry Brigade, being transferred to the 71st
Infantry Brigade in exchange for the 8th Bedfordshire Regiment and
the 11th Essex Regiment respectively. These exchanges took place--the
former on the 18th November 1915, the latter on the 28th October 1915.
On 1st April the 11th Leicestershire Regiment (Pioneers) joined from
the United Kingdom.
On the 11th June the 5th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment left the
Division, and on 11th October the 2nd London Regiment; on the 26th
November the 1st East Yorkshire Regiment was transferred to the 1st
Division, and on the 28th November the Queen's Westminsters left to
join the 56th Division, the 14th D.L.I. arriving the same day to take
their place in the 18th Infantry Brigade. On the 13th October the 2/2nd
West Riding (later the 459th) Field Company joined. Machine-gun
companies took their place--the 18th M.G.C. in January, the 16th
M.G.C. in February, and the 71st M.G.C. in March 1916. Medium
T.M.s came into being in May 1916, and L.T.M.s in August 1916. The
cyclist company and the squadron of Northamptonshire Yeomanry also
left during this period on becoming Corps troops.
The changes in the Divisional Artillery were numerous. On 12th May
the 12th Brigade, R.F.A., was broken up--the 87th Battery going to the
2nd Brigade, and the 43rd Battery to the 24th Brigade; each battery
giving one section to form "D" Battery, 38th Brigade, which latter
replaced the 34th Battery transferred on 15th February to a T.F.
Division. The 86th Battery had previously been transferred from the
12th Brigade, R.F.A., to another Division. The 38th Brigade later
became an Army Brigade, R.F.A.
On the 14th November 1915 Major-Gen. C. Ross, D.S.O., assumed
command of the Division, on the appointment of Major-Gen. W. N.
Congreve, V.C., to the command of the XIII Corps. Lt.-Col. J. M. Shea
(now Major-Gen. Sir J. M. Shea, K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O.) was
succeeded as G.S.O.1 on the 5th July 1915 by Lt.-Col. G. F. Boyd,
D.S.O., D.C.M., who finished the war as Major-General commanding
the 46th Division. On the 29th February 1916 Major W. E. Ironside,
who has since reached the position of Major-General commanding the

Allied Forces at Archangel, was succeeded as G.S.O.2 by Major L. P.
Evans of the Black Watch, who subsequently, after winning the V.C. as
a Battalion Commander, finished the War in command of an Infantry
Brigade.
A history of the Division would hardly be complete without a short
reference to "The Admiral." Many of those who knew and liked him
well by that name probably never knew him by any other. Lieut. Smith
was an owner driver in charge of a convoy of 'buses with the Royal
Naval Division at Antwerp, whence he escaped to France. In October
1914 he seized the opportunity of an officer requiring to be taken up to
join his unit, to make his way with his car to the front. Arrived there he
contrived to get himself attached to the 6th Division Headquarters,
remaining with them until he was reported missing on the 10th June
1916. Consumed with a good healthy hatred of the enemy, and keen to
be of assistance in any way that he could, he devoted the greater part of
the time he was with the Division to experimenting with bullet-proof
shields on wheels to be propelled by manpower, a sort of embryonic
tank. His ambition was himself to take the first of these into action. At
last he was offered an opportunity of co-operating with a small 3-man
pattern in a minor raid near Forward Cottage. What success he might
have achieved it is impossible to say, as in his eagerness he preceded
the shield by several yards to show the crew the way and was hit in the
neck by a splinter from a bomb. The name of Admiral's Road, given to
the road past Crossroads Farm and Forward Cottage, commemorates
the incident of which it was the scene. Later "The Admiral" turned his
attention to Bangalore torpedoes, in the use of which he trained the
unauthorised party which had long existed under the name of the 6th
Division Shield Party. With them he took part in many raids and minor
enterprises, one