Irish Guards

The Irish Guards were an Infantry Battalion that would have had an MG Section as part of its Battalion Headquarters.

The Great War

These weapons would have been brigaded when the Machine Gun Corps was formed in 1915. The guns, and crews, would have been formed into a Machine Gun Company.

During the Great War, the dispositions of Battalions were as follows:

1st

At the outbreak of War, the 1st Battalion was part of the 4th (Guards) Brigade, attached 2nd Division.

As part of the 2nd Division, it will have taken part in the following operations:-

On the outbreak of War the 2nd Division (less the 4th (Guards) Brigade) in the London District) was quartered at Aldershot, and mobilized there (4th (Guards) Brigade mobilizing at Windsor and in London).The division crossed to France between the 11th and 16th August, concentrated around Wassigny, Etreux, etc., and began to moved forward on the 21st August.
1914
23 and 24 August	Battle of Mons [I. Corps].
24 August to 05 September	RETREAT FROM MONS [I. Corps].
01 September	Villers Cotterets.
06 to 09 September	Battle of the Marnes [I. Corps].
13 to 26 September	BATTLE OF THE AISNES [I. Corps].
13 September	Passage of the Aisne.
20 September	Actions on the Aisne Heights.
19 October to 20 November	BATTLES OF YPRES [I. Corps].
21 to 24 October	Battle of Langemarck [I. Corps].
29 to 21 October	Battle of Gheluvet [I. Corps].
11 November	Battle of Nonne Bosschen [I. Corps].
1915
01 February	Cuinchy
06 February	Cuinchy
15 to 20 May	Battle of Festubert [I. Corps, First Army].
25 September to 04 October	Battle of Loos [I. Corps, First Army].
13 to 19 October	Hohenzollern Redoubt [I. Corps, First Army].

On 19 August, 1915, the 4th (Guards) Brigade was transferred to the Guards Division and renumbered 1st Guards Brigade on 20 August, 1915. It’s MG Section was transferred between 01 September and 19 September, 1915, to form the 1st Guards Bde. MG Coy..

In July, 1915, His Majesty approved the formation of a Guards Division, and in August, 1915, the Guards Division was formed in France, the units, on arrival, being concentrated around Lumbres (near St. Omer).

2nd

The 2nd Battalion joined, from England on 19 August, 1915, the 2nd Guards Brigade, Guards Division. It’s MG Section was transferred between 01 September and 19 September, 1915, to form the 2nd Guards Bde. MG Coy.

Inter-war Period

In 1922, the Machine Gun Corps and Guards MG Regiment were disbanded and the guns returned to the Infantry Battalion as a Machine Gun Platoon and then formed as a Machine Gun Company in the early 1930s.