A Machine Gun Company of the Machine Gun Corps was attached to each Infantry Brigade and their subsequent Division.
| Brigade attached to: | 125th Brigade |
| Division attached to: | 42nd (East Lancashire) Division |
| Formed from the Machine Gun Sections of the: | 5th Bn. The Lancashire Fusiliers 6th Bn. The Lancashire Fusiliers 7th Bn. The Lancashire Fusiliers 8th Bn. The Lancashire Fusiliers |
The 125th Bde. M.G. Coy. was formed in the Egypt, on 04 March 1916. It was formed to replace the Machine Gun Sections of the listed infantry battalions.
As a unit of the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division, it will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.
1916
The Division embarked for Egypt between 12-16 January and concentrated at Mena on 22nd January, its effective strength on this day was 6,669 all tanks. On 29th January the division began to take over part of the IX. Corps front, Canal Defences.
| 4 and 5 August | Battle of Romani [No. 3 Section, Canal Defences]. |
1917
On the 28th January, after reaching El Arish, orders were received that the division would leave Egypt. By the 12th February the division had been withdrawn to Moascar (near Ismalia), and on the 22nd it began embarking at Alexandria for Marseille. On the 15th March the last train reached Port Remy, thus completing the move of the division from Egypt. For the remainder of the Great War the 42nd Division served on the Western Front in France and Belgium, and was engaged in the following operations:-
| 24 September to 18 November | Operations on the Flanders Coast [XV. Corps, Fourth Army]. |
On 23 February 1918, it was amalgamated with the 126th, 127th and 268th Machine Gun Companies to form No. 42 Battalion, Machine Gun Corps.
